Understanding how to bypass 403 errors is an indispensable skill for penetration testers, enabling them to identify and report critical vulnerabilities within web applications responsibly. The successful circumvention of a 403 restriction can have severe consequences, including unauthorized access to sensitive data, widespread data breaches, and exposure of confidential customer information.
In this article, we will explore several techniques for bypassing the 403 restriction.
Web servers frequently implement access restrictions based on the HTTP method used in a request. Due to misconfigurations, a resource that is explicitly forbidden when accessed via common methods like GET might become unexpectedly accessible through methods such as POST, HEAD, OPTIONS, PUT, or DELETE.