Weblogic Error 403--Forbidden

Question

I am trying to run a Java EE application on weblogic. The application works fine on Tomcat. I have customized the war file to include weblogic.xml. This file includes the following code:-

<container-descriptor>
    <show-archived-real-path-enabled>true</show-archived-real-path-enabled>
</container-descriptor>

I have also changed the configuration in properties file of the application to reflect the port on which container is listening. server.port=7001 server.modjk.enabled=false

My web.xml file includes the following code:-

<servlet>
    <servlet-name>olatservlet</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.olat.core.servlets.OLATServlet</servlet-class>

    <!-- Set the load order -->
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>olatservlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

<servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>olatservlet</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

When I was initially running the war file on weblogic 11g, I was getting a nullpointer exception. However, I could deploy the file when I removed XerceImpl.jar from the lib folder. Now I am able to deploy the application successfully. I name the context root in the weblogic as the name of the war file. When I try to open the link generated by weblogic in its testing tab, I get the following error:-

Error 403--Forbidden

From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1:

10.4.4 403 Forbidden

The server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfill it. Authorization will not help and the request SHOULD NOT be repeated. If the request method was not HEAD and the server wishes to make public why the request has not been fulfilled, it SHOULD describe the reason for the refusal in the entity. This status code is commonly used when the server does not wish to reveal exactly why the request has been refused, or when no other response is applicable.

I was wondering if someone could tell me how to resolve this issue.

Answer 1

Can you please check your web.xml file, doesn't follows the xml syntax, means valid xml file, even a small error like extra < or > cause this kind of issue( I have encountered the same)

Answer 2

You can add this code at the end of your web.xml file

<welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>faces/my_page.jspx</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>

or if you are using JDeveloper you can go to Overview tab, Pages and in welcome files adding the route to the page you want to be open by defalut. Also you should add "faces/" before your page name giving the fact this is the default route to the page you create.

Answer 3

If you miss adding corresponding security configuration in weblogic.xml you will get "403 Forbidden. The server understood the request, but is refusing to fulfill it." error.

Thus make sure that besides having configured your web.xml with "security-constraint", "login-config" and "security-role" settings, you have also "security-role-assignment" configuration in weblogic.xml, like the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<wls:weblogic-web-app xmlns:wls="http://xmlns.oracle.com/weblogic/weblogic-web-app" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_0.xsd http://xmlns.oracle.com/weblogic/weblogic-web-app http://xmlns.oracle.com/weblogic/weblogic-web-app/1.8/weblogic-web-app.xsd">
     <wls:weblogic-version>12.2.1</wls:weblogic-version>
     <wls:context-root>SomeApp</wls:context-root>
     ***************
     ***************
     <wls:security-role-assignment>
         <wls:role-name>someGroupeDefinedInWebLogicServer</wls:role-name>
         <wls:principal-name>someUserDefinedInWebLogicServer</wls:principal-name>
     </wls:security-role-assignment>
     ***************
     ***************
</wls:weblogic-web-app>

Hope, this hepls.

Answer 4

I know this is very late but I also run across the same issue and after googling around, I found that the reason why and I decided to post it just for anyone else who might encounter that same issue. This webpage gave me the hint:

Error 403 explained

By default, WebLogic disables directory browsing hence if you have a website(say example.com) with an index.html as your homepage and you type

http://localhost:7001/example.com, 

by default weblogic would not automatically retrieve the the homepage for you. You need to type in the full path i.e.

http://localhost:7001/example.com/index.html.

Either that, you you need to enable directory browsing in weblogic. Anyway, this is what happened to me.

Answer 5

This might be unrelated to the question, but for those coming from Google when trying to open a website: Adding HTTPS:// in the header of the link helped in my case. I got this error when accessing a flight website. Maybe help others that are coming from Google for the same issue.

Answer 6

I know it is very late to answer this question. But I am answering with my little knowledge in the hope it will help someone out there.

You should define the starting page in welcome-file-list in web.xml file.For eg, if client.jsp is the page to be displayed when you run your project, the first line in welcome-file-list in web.xml file should be

<welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>client.jsp</welcome-file>
    <welcome-file>index.html</welcome-file>
 </welcome-file-list>