Why am I suddenly recieving Access Forbidden Error 403 when trying to access localhost/phpmyadmin?

Question

I use xampp to develope my Wordpress sites, 3 months ago I set up a project and accessed localhost/phpmyadmin with no issues and have been working on the project since. However yesterday I tried to set up a new project and access localhost/phpmyadmin and I recieved:

403 Error page: "Access forbidden! You don't have permission to access the requested object. It is either read-protected or not readable by the server. If you think this is a server error, please contact the webmaster."

I haven't updated xampp or changed anything since 3 months ago and my other wordpress project is working perfectly, no database issues.

I just can't access localhost/phpmyadmin.

I'm using Apache/2.4.37 (Win32), PHP/7.3.0, OpenSSL/1.1.1a, XAMPP Control Panel v3.2.2

I've tried editing C:/xampp/apache/conf/extra/httpd-xampp.conf and replacing "require local" with both "request all garunteed" and "require all granted" inside but neither worked.

I've read lots of other threads but everyone's httpd-xampp.conf file contains a LocationMatch tag, which mine does not.

Here is my httpd-xampp.conf file:

#
# XAMPP settings
#

<IfModule env_module>
    SetEnv MIBDIRS "C:/xampp/php/extras/mibs"
    SetEnv MYSQL_HOME "\\xampp\\mysql\\bin"
    SetEnv OPENSSL_CONF "C:/xampp/apache/bin/openssl.cnf"
    SetEnv PHP_PEAR_SYSCONF_DIR "\\xampp\\php"
    SetEnv PHPRC "\\xampp\\php"
    SetEnv TMP "\\xampp\\tmp"
</IfModule>

#
# PHP-Module setup
#
LoadFile "C:/xampp/php/php7ts.dll"
LoadFile "C:/xampp/php/libpq.dll"
LoadModule php7_module "C:/xampp/php/php7apache2_4.dll"

<FilesMatch "\.php$">
    SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
</FilesMatch>
<FilesMatch "\.phps$">
    SetHandler application/x-httpd-php-source
</FilesMatch>

#
# PHP-CGI setup
#
#<FilesMatch "\.php$">
#    SetHandler application/x-httpd-php-cgi
#</FilesMatch>
#<IfModule actions_module>
#    Action application/x-httpd-php-cgi "/php-cgi/php-cgi.exe"
#</IfModule>


<IfModule php7_module>
    PHPINIDir "C:/xampp/php"
</IfModule>

<IfModule mime_module>
    AddType text/html .php .phps
</IfModule>

ScriptAlias /php-cgi/ "C:/xampp/php/"
<Directory "C:/xampp/php">
    AllowOverride None
    Options None
    Require all denied
    <Files "php-cgi.exe">
          Require all granted
    </Files>
</Directory>

<Directory "C:/xampp/cgi-bin">
    <FilesMatch "\.php$">
        SetHandler cgi-script
    </FilesMatch>
    <FilesMatch "\.phps$">
        SetHandler None
    </FilesMatch>
</Directory>

<Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs/xampp">
    <IfModule php7_module>
        <Files "status.php">
            php_admin_flag safe_mode off
        </Files>
    </IfModule>
    AllowOverride AuthConfig
</Directory>

<IfModule alias_module>
    Alias /licenses "C:/xampp/licenses/"
    <Directory "C:/xampp/licenses">
        Options +Indexes
        <IfModule autoindex_color_module>
            DirectoryIndexTextColor  "#000000"
            DirectoryIndexBGColor "#f8e8a0"
            DirectoryIndexLinkColor "#bb3902"
            DirectoryIndexVLinkColor "#bb3902"
            DirectoryIndexALinkColor "#bb3902"
        </IfModule>
        Require local
        ErrorDocument 403 /error/XAMPP_FORBIDDEN.html.var
   </Directory>

    Alias /phpmyadmin "C:/xampp/phpMyAdmin/"
    <Directory "C:/xampp/phpMyAdmin">
        AllowOverride AuthConfig
        Require local
        ErrorDocument 403 /error/XAMPP_FORBIDDEN.html.var
    </Directory>

    Alias /webalizer "C:/xampp/webalizer/"
    <Directory "C:/xampp/webalizer">
        <IfModule php7_module>
            <Files "webalizer.php">
                php_admin_flag safe_mode off
            </Files>
        </IfModule>
        AllowOverride AuthConfig
        Require local
        ErrorDocument 403 /error/XAMPP_FORBIDDEN.html.var
    </Directory>
</IfModule>

Possible duplicate of New xampp security concept: Access Forbidden Error 403 - Windows 7 - phpMyAdmin — Ankit Mehta
Hi! Have you checked this thread? stackoverflow.com/questions/21161908/… — Ankit Mehta
Yes I have read that thread. But their httpd-xampp.conf file is different to mine, my httpd-xampp.conf file does not contain a LocationMatch tag. I tried adding the # New XAMPP security concept and LocationMatch tag to the bottom of my file but when I go to localhost/phpmyadmin I just get "Object not found" — Izsi Salmon
Update Require local to Require all granted in phpMyAdmin section — Ankit Mehta

Strahinja Tasic Strahinja Tasic · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-15T13:14:06

You might try checking permissions on "C:/xampp/phpMyAdmin/". Maybe you accidentally changed them / owner.

Good luck.

Why am I suddenly recieving Access Forbidden Error 403 when trying to access localhost/phpmyadmin?

2 Answers