Nginx gives a 403 error for CSS/JS files

Question

I have setup nginx 0.7.67 on Ubuntu10.10 along with php-cli . I'm trying to get my front-controller based PHP framework to run, but all pages except index.php give a 403 error.

Ex :

http://mysite.com/styles/style.css - 403 Forbidden
http://mysite.com/scripts/script.css - 403 Forbidden
http://mysite.com/index.php - Works

My /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default is as follows

server {
    listen          80;
    server_name     mysite.com;

    access_log      /var/log/nginx/access.log;
    error_log       /var/log/nginx/error.log warn;

    index           index.php index.html;
    root        /full/path/to/public_html;

    location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|html)$ {
            expires max;
    }


    location ~ index.php {
            include     /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
            keepalive_timeout 0;
            fastcgi_param   SCRIPT_FILENAME  $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
            fastcgi_pass    127.0.0.1:9000;
    }

}

Any suggestions on how to fix the above?

PS: This is the entry from the error log

2010/10/14 19:56:15 [error] 3284#0: *1 open() "/full/path/to/public_html/styles/style.css" 
failed (13: Permission denied), client: 127.0.0.2, server: quickstart.local, 
request: "GET /styles/style.css HTTP/1.1", host: "mysite"

Dammit. It was Linux permission issue. One of the top-level directories did not have a "r" permission for others. Issue is resolved. — Adil
– Adil, Commented Oct 17, 2010 at 11:03
Agreed. I simply changed the permissions to 755 for all the files and made www-data the owner of the folder and everything started working. — Jeff C
– Jeff C, Commented Aug 10, 2020 at 17:35

Michael Butler · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-28 03:29:01Z

29

Had the same problem. Fixed it by simply setting the right permissions on my CSS and JS files and folders. Be careful about setting permissions! But for a file to be readable on the web, it has to be readable by the user running the server process.

chmod -R +rx css
chmod -R +rx js

Gives read and execute permissions. The -R is for recursive. Only do this for files you want readable by the world!

edited Jul 28, 2014 at 3:29

answered Dec 13, 2013 at 4:27

Michael Butler

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3 Comments

Vin Lim Over a year ago

Shouldn't it be chmod -R +rx css instead?

Vin Lim Over a year ago

@MichaelButler Thanks. It's not accepted in Mac OS X though.

Michael Butler Over a year ago

Note that this answer has some issues (I'm the original author). Ideally, only directories should have the +x applied, and not standard css or js text files. As it stands this is kind of a simple brute force approach to fix the problem.

Avindra Goolcharan · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-05 02:31:38Z

7

Alt solution: change the run user by editing the nginx.conf (e.g., /usr/local/nginx/conf/nginx.conf) to the owner of those files:

user myuser mygroup;

answered Aug 5, 2014 at 2:31

Avindra Goolcharan

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1 Comment

edrichhans Over a year ago

This fixed it for me. Thanks!

Vantomex · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-14 14:07:56Z

5

Try this in your location line:

location ~* ^.+\.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|html)$ {

or

location ~* ^.+.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|html)$ {

answered Oct 14, 2010 at 14:07

Vantomex

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2 Comments

Adil Over a year ago

error log says 2010/10/14 19:56:15 [error] 3284#0: *1 open() "/home/adil/NetBeansProjects-old/CrowdSourcedWeb/applications/csw/web/styles/style.css" failed (13: Permission denied), client: 127.0.0.2, server: quickstart.local, request: "GET /styles/style.css HTTP/1.1", host: "quickstart.local"

OffTheBricks Over a year ago

I had this problem whenever a js or css file had a extra dot in the filename, ie: bootstrap.min.css as opposed to bootstrap.css. Added the top option to my nginx configuration and problem solved

linmowang · Accepted Answer · 2023-12-31 09:48:37Z

0

I also encountered this problem

The reason I encountered was that I placed the project in /root

The permissions of root are

drwx------ 14 root root

So I just moved the project to /home.

answered Dec 31, 2023 at 9:48

linmowang

211 bronze badge

Comments

Teo · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-19 22:32:38Z

-1

Make sure that every top level directory has permission levels AND the index.html. Most of the times you will just copy the file you want to see in /www and rename it index.html make sure the new index.html has the right permissions (to be sure 777 just for testing ofcourse).

answered Aug 19, 2012 at 22:32

Teo

1

1 Comment

Dan Over a year ago

777 "just to be sure" is a terrible idea. "I have my keys, but I should leave my front door unlocked just to make sure I can get back in."

vik · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-04 00:58:44Z

-1

i need to write alterative solution to this problem. I migrate wordpress into plesk server and I get this error with css and js scripts. Nginx configuration produce a bug getting js and css files. If a wordpress error loading CSS and JS scripts (forbidden), it may be due to the configuration of nginx and apache.

UNLOCK the box of configuration nginx and apache:

Intelligent processing of static files -> DONT CHECKED

This solves my problem. I hope others too pymessoft.com

answered Jan 4, 2018 at 0:58

vik

1

Comments

Maarten · Accepted Answer · 2010-10-15 16:32:15Z

-2

    server {
        listen          80;
        server_name     mysite.com;

        access_log      /var/log/nginx/access.log;
        error_log       /var/log/nginx/error.log warn;

        index           index.php index.html;
        root        /full/path/to/public_html;

} <--- you forgot this one

        location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|html)$ {
                expires max;
        }


        location ~ index.php {
                include     /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
                keepalive_timeout 0;
                fastcgi_param   SCRIPT_FILENAME  $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
                fastcgi_pass    127.0.0.1:9000;
        }

    }

you have to close server{} before defining the location.

or change the owner of the files to www-data or apache if you don't have access to the files.

edited Oct 15, 2010 at 16:32

answered Oct 15, 2010 at 16:25

Maarten

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4 Comments

Adil Over a year ago

The location tag must be inside the server tag.

Maarten Over a year ago

that's strange, in my situation it works with closing server{} before defining a location. But i'm glad you found the solution!

Adil Over a year ago

Maarten. Just to explain my comment above, the reason i said that is because nginx complains. Its "illegal" to keep the location tag outside the server tag. Maybe you should look into your conf again, to see precisely why it does that. Good to know. And, thanks for helping.

Shankar Kamble Over a year ago

location tag should be in server tag

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