403 on product link

[wizardofaus]

While going through my site I found some links either go to a 403 forbidden error or the page load is broken. I have checked the error logs but did not come across anything for the issue. Here is one of the links https://www.anchortex.com/military-clothing-equipment/night-vision-equipment/tpl-t15-thermal-imager-detail. I am using PHP 5.6 (updating soon) , Joomla 3.9, and currently using VM 3.2. I have a test site that has updated PHP 7.2 and VM 3.4.2 but still have the same problem

[GJC Web Design]

can't get a single proper page from the site

http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=104795.0

http://forum.virtuemart.net/index.php?topic=79799.0

[wizardofaus]

added versions into original post

[GJC Web Design]

even https://www.anchortex.com/faqs is a 403 -- so not VM related

can't get a single page to render properly

try with htaccess disabled -- other than that ask the host what is .. do any sites work on this account?

[wizardofaus]

I will try with htaccess disabled but once you click through the site with from that link nothing works, but if you start at the home page it works fine except for certain ones https://www.anchortex.com/

[GJC Web Design]

https://www.anchortex.com/military-clothing-equipment/night-vision-equipment/tpl-t15-thermal-imager-detail --

look at the network tab for this .. nearly everything is a 403

I can't see this is a VM issue

[wizardofaus]

Apologies, my coworker posed the initial question under my account. I shall attempt to explain the problem more thoroughly, having had a chance to study it and figuring out parts of the actual problem.

For the record, anchortex.com is running on VirtueMart 3.2.14, under Joomla! 3.9.0 Stable [ Amani ] 30-October-2018 14:00 GMT, on MySQL 5.7.24, PHP version 5.6.38, using the Vermilion template from RocketTheme with significant modifications.

If you go to https://www.anchortex.com/, most of the links work normally. For example, going to https://www.anchortex.com/work-wear-protective-apparel/flame-resistant-outerwear you can then click on the first result (https://www.anchortex.com/work-wear-protective-apparel/flame-resistant-outerwear/berne-frhj01-fr-hooded-jacket-detail), and it too loads normally, and all links from that page work normally.

However, items with 'thermal' or 'armasight' in the URL, specifically, create pages where any link from that page generates a 403 error. This includes items with those terms in the slug, categories with those terms in the slug, search results with those terms in the URL... and I am at a complete loss for why this is occurring.

The problem appears to be version-agnostic and does not seem to be connected to anything but the data itself; I was able to replicate the problem by copying the mainmenu portion of the Joomla menu table (for the list of categories), plus all of the Virtuemart product tables, media tables, category tables, and manufacturer tables to a fresh install of Joomla -- http://dev.anchortex.com, running off of the protostar template with no adjustments and no initial Joomla plugins beyond Virtuemart itself. It is running on Joomla! 3.9.1 Stable [ Amani ] 27-November-2018 15:00 GMT, MySQL 5.7.24, PHP version 7.0.32, and Virtuemart 3.4.2. I did a quick replace to repair the file_urls that broke because the old version was looking for images/stories/virtuemart/* and the new version didn't require that inclusion to work properly, but made no other major changes to the data before beginning my testing. I added Akeeba Backup and Admin Tools in order to make a backup of the resulting site before tinkering, and to use Admin Tools to test basic problems that might ensue.

The category in which I was testing was http://dev.anchortex.com/index.php/military-clothing-equipment/night-vision-equipment -- and the item which I was testing was the Armasight TAT163CN5APMR01 ARMASIGHT by FLIR Apollo Pro MR 640 50mm (30 Hz) Thermal Imaging Clip-on System, which I was struggling to figure out why it was breaking. I carefully recreated the item piece by piece, and eventually worked out that if the slug was changed to something not containing the word 'armasight' or 'thermal', the problem vanished -- hence, the current URL of the Armasight product in question is http://dev.anchortex.com/index.php/military-clothing-equipment/night-vision-equipment/tat163cn5apmr01-detail . Likewise, clicking any of the non-thermal night optic items (such as http://dev.anchortex.com/index.php/military-clothing-equipment/night-vision-equipment/browe-combat-optic-bto-detail) works normally. However, clicking on one of the thermal imagers that has 'thermal' in the URL (such as the
Torrey Pines Logic T12 Weapon Mounted Thermal Imager at http://dev.anchortex.com/index.php/military-clothing-equipment/night-vision-equipment/tpl-t12-thermal-imager-detail ), generates the same problem where any link outwards from that page results in a 403 Forbidden error (and likewise, even the attempt to load the image results in the same problem.)

So in short, any page on either site that has 'thermal' or 'armasight' in the URL seems to break, and I have no idea why it is (or what other fragments might exist that need to be avoided). I can instruct them to work around the problem, but would prefer to understand what caused it in the first place or at least get some idea of where to look for it.

-- Austin Cushing

[GJC Web Design]

So in short, any page on either site that has 'thermal' or 'armasight' in the URL seems to break,

first thought is do these clash with either a category SEF url or a menu SEF item?

disable SEF and try to navigate with the non SEF urls -- do they work to those pages?

[Studio 42]

modification/catalog/view/theme/default/template/product/product.tpl is not a Virtuemart file, so you certinaly dont use VIrtuemart at all

[diri]

Hi,

I did have a short look at links mentioned and my very first assumption is htaccess and some filtering there related to content of current link.

2nd assumption is a flickery server because it denied access to vm-ltr-common.css when being called from not working page.

Even links to further products (product links on critical page) produce a 403.

Code Select Expand

You don't have permission to access /index.php/military-clothing-equipment/night-vision-equipment/tat163cn5apmr01-detail on this server.

Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

edit:
htaccess would be of interest (deny / allow, rewriterules). Maybe there are some other security setting at server side as well.

[wizardofaus]

Hi,

I did have a short look at links mentioned and my very first assumption is htaccess and some filtering there related to content of current link.

2nd assumption is a flickery server because it denied access to vm-ltr-common.css when being called from not working page.

Even links to further products (product links on critical page) produce a 403.

Code Select Expand

You don't have permission to access /index.php/military-clothing-equipment/night-vision-equipment/tat163cn5apmr01-detail on this server.

Additionally, a 403 Forbidden error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

edit:
htaccess would be of interest (deny / allow, rewriterules). Maybe there are some other security setting at server side as well.

Unfortunately, the .htaccess file on dev.anchortex.com is the default version that comes with a standard Joomla install, where the problem is replicated; replacing the live site's .htaccess file with the default (or with none at all) does not solve the problem.

It's not outside the realm of possibility that the server is merely being cantankerous, but the below problems occur on every refresh of the affected pages, as opposed to 'sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't' -- which would imply something is rotten that isn't just 'the server doesn't feel like loading a vital component this time around'.

Furthermore, as a prior component of testing, I took an Akeeba Backup to back up the site, then kickstart it onto a separate server (on a separate host and hosting platform) in order to test whether it's part of a faulty server configuration; upon doing so, the problems below are replicated precisely. That doesn't rule out a bad server configuration, of course, but it does provide supporting evidence for the thought that this problem is either within the #_menu table or the #_virtuemart_ tables. Combine that with the fact that the dev.anchortex.com site is currently running a fresh install of Joomla and Virtuemart with only the aforementioned tables brought over, with only Akeeba Backup and Admin Tools as extensions (and the problem was tested and proven replicated before those extensions were added), and I'm left puzzled and trying to figure out what would cause this.

So in short, any page on either site that has 'thermal' or 'armasight' in the URL seems to break,

first thought is do these clash with either a category SEF url or a menu SEF item?

disable SEF and try to navigate with the non SEF urls -- do they work to those pages?

Turning SEO off on dev.anchortex.com within Virtuemart config, and visiting the most problematic section (http://dev.anchortex.com/index.php/military-clothing-equipment/night-vision-equipment), this link to item does work (it loads, and links from this page also load):

http://dev.anchortex.com/index.php/military-clothing-equipment/night-vision-equipment/view/productdetails/virtuemart_product_id/11036/virtuemart_category_id/20

whereas with SEO turned back on in Virtuemart, this item does not work (it loads, but any link from this page generates a 403):

http://dev.anchortex.com/index.php/military-clothing-equipment/night-vision-equipment/tpl-t12-thermal-imager-detail

Likewise, on the Products By Brand page (http://dev.anchortex.com/index.php/shop-by-brand), with SEO turned off, this link works (it loads, and links from this page also load):

http://dev.anchortex.com/index.php/shop-by-brand/view/category/virtuemart_category_id/726

And with SEO turned back on, this link does not (it loads, but any link from this page generates a 403):

http://dev.anchortex.com/index.php/shop-by-brand/armasight

[GJC Web Design]

first thought is do these clash with either a category SEF url or a menu SEF item?

by this I mean do you have categories and products that with full SEF could cause some conflict via same names etc? (unlikely but I have seen before)

Try installing this module with SEF on then u get an indication of where they are trying to be routed to .. 

https://github.com/OSTraining/OSURL

other wise something drastic like test on another server or localhost

[diri]

@wizardofaus:

Your host is located at cloudfare ... is it a virtual machine or kind of normal hosting paket?

Do you have all features needed to change behaviour of webserver at hand?

[jenkinhill]

@diri, Cloudflare is a  content delivery network service. See https://www.cloudflare.com 

[wizardofaus]

first thought is do these clash with either a category SEF url or a menu SEF item?

by this I mean do you have categories and products that with full SEF could cause some conflict via same names etc? (unlikely but I have seen before)

Try installing this module with SEF on then u get an indication of where they are trying to be routed to .. 

https://github.com/OSTraining/OSURL

other wise something drastic like test on another server or localhost

Unfortunately, no, there are no duplicated products -- irrational as it sounds, it just literally seems to fail if 'armasight' or 'thermal' is in the URL anywhere at all, regardless of where and why.

I'll test out the module and see if it can provide further insights.

The fact that it only creates Forbidden errors (as far as I can tell) from pages with 'armasight' or 'thermal' in their URL, and does so even on a fresh install on a completely different server, tells me it (probably) has to be something wrong with the Virtuemart or menu data (the only content duplicated between servers), but I'm still not sure entirely why it's doing this yet.

I do have the ability to change aspects of the webserver to some extent (WHM access), but not necessarily the knowledge to know what needs to be changed, unfortunately. I have confirmed that the problem exists if an Akeeba backup is kickstarted onto a different server on a different hosting platform (anchortex.com and dev.anchortex.com are hosted through Bluehost; my private test area is hosted through InMotionHosting).

-- Austin Cushing