Getting a lot of 403s lately

Looking at the error logs of the server, it doesn’t seem like it’s a development issue. Also, 19 out of 20 times, I can access my login page just fine.

However, looking at the Traffic Inspector of WP Cerber, I noticed I have a lot of “Attempt to log in with non-existing username”.

Website has been online for 1+ year now, and this only started on March 9th.

Disabling WP Cerber seems to prevent these 403s.

Anyone know why this is happening? How can I fix this?

Since the inception of rogue AI, attack patterns have started evolving faster than at any point in the past, with their variability increasing at a rate that challenges both cybersecurity systems and human comprehension. It’s time to accept this as the new normal. That’s exactly why you’re seeing that spike in your WP Cerber logs.

HTTP 403 is a status code that means access is forbidden. WP Cerber returns this status when someone tries to log in using invalid credentials. This is normal behavior, no fix is needed.

Fair enough. Sometimes though, I get the 403 as soon as I hit the website (not at the login screen). If there is no way to disable this check, I’ll have to disable WP Cerber entirely because I’m loosing legit visitors (it’s blocking random users, for no apparent reasons).

To determine whether WP Cerber was involved in this behavior, open the Activity log and check it for any blocked requests. If you’re experiencing issues in your browser, click My IP on the Activity tab to filter events and request associated with your IP address.

WP Cerber does not limit or restrict ordinary requests to website pages. It only takes action when it detects that someone or something is trying to interact with the website or get access to protected areas.