403 Forbidden Error for Joomla administrator

3
votes

Let me preface this with, only one user is having this issue. Everyone else can log-in to the Joomla administration just fine.

Originally when I found that the single user was receiving a 403 when landing on the administrator page, I checked to make sure all directories were writable as per the directories listed under Site Information. I've also confirmed that the administrator directory has 755 permissions, and that the user has cleared her cache.

Also, the site was recently moved from one server to another. Changed the A record on the old server to the IP of the new server.

Thoughts as to why a single user would receive a 403 error only in the Joomla administration page?

2
phpjoomla
can you check access logs and see what is written there when it happens? also, do you have something like mod_security enabled? – Marko D
There is nothing in the logs that isn't from my IP. – Josh
all users access with the same ip? – Marko D
Nope, they do not. How do I check if mod_security is enabled? – Josh
if they do not, then how come in access log you have only your ip listed? access logs should list all access informations for your website, whether successful or unnsuccessful. for checking mod_security, try this for example: stackoverflow.com/questions/3182500/… – Marko D

2 Answers

3
votes

After chat discussion, it turns out that the server has been moved recently and since then the problem started.

The problem seems to be cached dns on the user's side, so the user has to clear dns cache, or wait for the provider to clear dns cache

1
votes

If you look inside your administrator folder, see if there is a .htaccess file in there. If there is, download it and open it up. Look to you can see the following rule:

Deny from ALL Allow from xxx.xxx.xx.xx

This will block everybody from accessing the Administrator page on the web except the IP addresses that follows the ALLOW.

Add the users IP address (he can find what it is by going to www.ipchicken.com).

So if there were two existing Allow from (ip address here), you would copy the whole line and paste it underneath the last one, then change the IP address.

Save and upload back to the administrator folder and try that.