Resolved: Amazon S3 Status Code 403 Access Denied

Amazon S3 status code 403 can give us a hint that the access to resource was denied, this can cause the operation disruptive, so you need to fix this error urgently. This article provides you resolutions to this error and also some possible causes of Amazon S3 status code 403.

By @Amelia Last Updated October 12, 2024
 

How do I fix my 403 forbidden error for my AWS S3 bucket

I am running a django site and my files that stores in a S3 bucket are failing to load in the site because of a 403 error. I have my S3 bucket set up and IAM thing also set up to access it. I’m not really sure how I am supposed to make sure it is able to access it, but I have set up environment variable for these things think that it would work. I am all new to this so does anyone have any trouble shooting tips?

- Question from Reddit

So what is error code 403 on S3? The code 403 appears on the page when the server accepts the request but denies authorization, which in Amazon S3 means that the resource access control policy cannot be enforced. The occurrence of such a situation affects the operations, and this next article will discuss the reasons why Amazon S3 status code 403 occurs and how to resolve it.

Possible Causes of Amazon S3 Status Code 403

Due to insufficient permissions or misconfiguration, Amazon S3 throws a 403 Forbidden error, which causes access denied. There are several reasons for this error, and the following are the reasons that may lead to this error.

1. Insufficient Permissions (IAM Policies or ACLs)

The most common reason for access denied service s3 status code 403 is lack of permissions. Permissions in S3 are controlled via:

▶IAM Policies: A user, group, or role requires specific permissions such as s3:GetObject or s3:PutObject to access S3 resources.

▶Bucket or Object ACLs: The code 403 will occur if the object’s ACL does not allow user access.

2. Bucket Policy Denies Access

A Code 403 error occurs if there is a policy that denies access to a specific operation or access. In this case, the bucket policy's denial overrides it even if it has IAM permissions.

3. Incorrect or Expires Pre-Signed URL

S3 items can be accessed temporarily with pre-signed URLs. The request will fail with a 403 error if the URL is either expired or produced improperly (e.g., with the wrong credentials or permissions).

How to Resolve a 403 Forbidden Error in Amazon S3

A 403 Forbidden error on Amazon S3 is generally caused by permissions issues, misconfigured policies, or authentication failures. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to resolve this error, you can also use these steps to 403 forbidden error aws ec2.

1. Check Bucket and Object Permissions

If there are any statements that might prevent access, check the data bucket policy or related IAM user policy. Check that any requirements in the IAM or bucket policies are met by the requests made to the bucket. Incorrect deny statements, missing operations, or improper spacing should all be checked for in the policy.

IAM Policies: Ensure that IAM users and roles have the correct permissions with the following code.

aws iam list-policies --query "Policies[?PolicyName=='S3FullAccess']"

Bucket Policies: Check whether the bucket policy allows access by using the following code.

{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Allow", "Principal": "*", "Action": "s3:GetObject", "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket-name/*" } ] }

ACLs: Check the ACLs on the objects that you want to access to ensure you have the needed permissions.

2. Verify the Bucket Policy Doesn’t Explicitly Deny Access

Even if the user has the appropriate permissions, bucket policies may explicitly deny access, resulting in a 403 error. The below code is an example of a bucket policy with a rejection statement.

{ "Version": "2012-10-17", "Statement": [ { "Effect": "Deny", "Principal": "*", "Action": "s3:GetObject", "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::your-bucket-name/*", "Condition": { "Bool": { "aws:SecureTransport": "false" } } } ] }

3. Check AWS Region Mismatch

Using the following steps to make sure the request matches the region that the bucket is stored.

▶Confirm the region where the S3 bucket is located.

▶When utilizing the AWS CLI, SDK, or API to submit a request, ensure that the appropriate region is specified.

aws s3 cp s3://your-bucket-name/your-file.txt --region us-east-1

AOMEI Cyber Backup: An Updated Measure to Secure Data

Amazon S3 status code 403 plays a critical role in access control and security enforcement, and resolve the access issue is important to restore data access and avoid operational disruption. For a further security, AOMEI Cyber Backupcan provides you a professional data backup and recovery solution.

It’s a professional solution that designed to protect your data from loss and corruption, it provides robust solutions to safeguard your critical data. Using this tool you can enjoy more features:

✨Flexible Backup: It supports full, incremental, and differential backups. 🎯Automated Scheduling: It can be scheduled to run backups automatically at specific time intervals 🔰Centralized Management: It supports managing and monitoring all backup tasks from a single console. 📧Instant Report: It can send you an email to notify you the successful backups as well as errors or abnormalities.

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Follow the Below Steps to Backup Data to Amazon S3

Step 1. Go to the Target Storage tab and select Amazon S3 to Add Target. When the add target page opens, enter Username, Password, and Bucket, then click Confirm.

Step 2. Navigate to Backup Task to Create New Task, and start archive data to Amazon S3. You can choose File Backup and choose files or folders for backup.

Step 3. Select Archiving backup versions to Amazon S3 to choose the added Amazon S3. It will first create a backup locally or on the NAS and then upload the backup to Amazon S3. According to the 3-2-1 backup rule, this ensures the security of critical data and business continuity.

Step 4. Schedule backup tasks to run daily, weekly, or monthly, and choose backup retention policies to automatically delete old backups.

Step 5. Select Start Backup to begin the process. Open the Email Notification to get the backup process.

Conclusion

Resolving the Amazon S3 status can help the operation go smoothly, and solving this error usually requires diagnosing permissions or authentication issues. When this error occurs, you need to fix this urgently by checking bucket and object permissions to make sure the IAM policies are correct.