Plesk domain shows 403 Forbidden: Symbolic link not allowed or link target not a

[Suhitha]

Question: Plesk domain shows 403 Forbidden: Symbolic link not allowed or link target not accessible


Applicable to:

• Plesk for Linux

Symptoms

• Website is not accessible with the 403 Forbidden error in a browser.
• The website may work incorrectly, e.g. some images may not load.

In the /var/www/vhosts/system/example.com/logs/error_log one of the following errors appear:

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AH00037: Symbolic link not allowed or link target not accessible: /var/www/vhosts/example.com/httpdocs/index.php


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AH00670: Options FollowSymLinks and SymLinksIfOwnerMatch are both off, so the RewriteRule directive is also forbidden due to its similar ability to circumvent directory restrictions : /var/www/vhosts/example.com/httpdocs/, referer: https://servername.com/

Cause

Symbolic links are not allowed in the Apache configuration.


Resolution

1.Log in to Plesk.

2.Go to Domains > example.com > Hosting & DNS tab > Apache & nginx.

3.Disable the option Restrict the ability to follow symbolic links and apply changes.

If the 'FollowSymlinks' option is defined in the domain's .htaccess file:

1.Go to Domains > example.com > File Manager and add the following directive to the .htaccess file of the website:

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Options +FollowSymlinks
2.Make sure that the symbolic link has correct ownership and permissions or add the following directive into .htaccess file of the website to disable symbolic link owner check:

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Options -SymLinksIfOwnerMatch