When the site suddenly appears 403 Forbidden error, many webmasters are confused. Obviously the page and the server are fine, why the access will be blocked? As a matter of fact, 403 errors are mostly related to security settings. CDN with a security protection platform that provides a range of security tools that can help websites better manage access requests and reduce problems caused by false blocking, anomalous requests, and malicious access.

Let's take a look at how you can reduce the frequency of 403 errors and make your website more stable with some of Cloudflare's core security features.

What is a 403 error?

In an HTTP status code, 403 means that the server understood the request but denied access. Common reasons include IP blocked, request triggered WAF(Web Application Firewall)rules and regulations,Abnormal user agent, wrong privilege settingsetc. Cloudflare may misjudge some normal traffic when intercepting anomalous requests, resulting in a 403 page.

Enabling and optimizing WAF (Web Application Firewall)

Cloudflare s WAF is the first line of defense in blocking malicious requests. By default, it automatically blocks common attack requests (e.g., SQL injection, cross-site scripting, etc.), but sometimes it can misidentify specific requests as dangerous.

To reduce the number of false stops resulting in 403 ErrorYou can enable WAF in the Cloudflare backend and then go to the Security Event Log View recently blocked requests. If you find that certain IPs or parameters are frequently blocked by mistake, you can add a separate rule to release them.

Recommended Operation:

• Open Cloudflare Dashboard > Security > Events
• Viewing intercepted paths or parameters in the Event Log
• Create "bypass rules" or customized allowances to release legitimate requests

Flexible release using IP access rules

Cloudflare provides an IP access rules feature to manage the source of access. If your site is geared towards a specific region or has frequent and familiar visitors, you can manually add some IPs to the allowed range to prevent them from being automatically blocked by the system.

Recommended Operation:

• Security > Firewall > Tools > IP Access Rules
• Adding an "Allow" type of IP or IP segment

• Flexible access control by country, ASN, and IP ranges

This is very useful when dealing with certain "false positives", such as blocked access for internal company testing.

Monitor and optimize Bot management policies

Cloudflare's Bot management system identifies and restricts automated programs, but some crawlers and interface requests may also be identified as bots and return a 403 status.

You can view the trigger logs in Security > Bot Management and set up rules in the firewall tool to let go of "benign crawlers" or third-party services.

You can also customize Bot management rules, for example:

• Setting up skip authentication for your own API requests

• Set challenge mode or auto-release for requests with a specified User-Agent value.

Enable challenge page instead of direct blocking

When setting up firewall rules or WAFs, Cloudflare offers the option of a "Challenge Page" (e.g. JavaScript Challenge or Managed Challenge). Instead of returning a 403 status code, a challenge page allows visitors to authenticate themselves and enter the site.

Fits the scene:

• Highly requested visitors
• traffic anomalyBut not explicitly malicious IP
• API interfaces are frequently tested but from known areas

This allows you to increase the security level of your website without sacrificing normal access.

Properly configure firewall rules to avoid false blocking

Cloudflare's custom firewall rules can filter and set behaviors (e.g., block, challenge, skip) for conditions such as request path, request method, and country region.

Care needs to be taken when creating rules:

• Don't set overly broad blocking conditions (e.g. block all POST requests)
• Avoid blocking with rules that include common paths (e.g. /wp-admin)
• Refine rules as much as possible and set priorities to avoid rule conflicts

Turn on and view security analytics

Cloudflare's Security Analytics provides a clear view of which requests were blocked, why, and whether there were any false positives. Based on the results, you can make adjustments to your firewall or IP access policy to avoid similar errors in the future.

Analyze Location: Cloudflare Dashboard > Security > Analyze

It can be seen here:

• Trigger rule number for each request
• Source IP, device, path
• Which function is blocked (Bot management, firewall rules, WAF, etc.)

This information is very helpful in pinpointing problems and adjusting strategies.

summarize

403 error issafety protectionIt is part of the mechanism, but it can also affect normal access if not set up properly. With the security tools provided by Cloudflare, you can reduce the risk of false positives and ensure the stable operation of your website from various aspects, such as WAF, firewall rules, IP management, Bot management, and challenge pages.

Keeping a regular check on security event logs and configuring access rules wisely are key tools to avoid frequent 403 errors. If your website is experiencing frequent false-blocking issues, it is recommended to review the above settings one by one to find out the appropriate way to optimize them.

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