403 Forbidden after update - pi-hole v6

Help
1

Dear Pi-hole

I run pihole on a raspberry Pi 3b and yesterday I updated the system via pihole -up. Before the update the system (pihole and linux) was up to date.
Description: Raspbian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye); 6.6.74-v7+
Core version is v6.0.1 (Latest: v6.0.1)
Web version is v6.0 (Latest: v6.0)
FTL version is v6.0 (Latest: v6.0)

Expected Behaviour:

Smooth access to the admin page and working VPN.

Actual Behaviour:

When I try to access the admin page of pihole, this is denied with the error “403”. And it may also be that VPN is not possible because of the update.
No access to the admin front end https://pihole.ip/admin/
and
no VPN connection possible:
"The VPN connection failed due to unsuccessful domain name resolution."

In addition, I probably don't have access to Apple Music and the Sonos update server...

Btw. I had to use sudo to use pihole -up

Debug Token:

https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/7hIVBaWa/

Do you have any ideas? Many thank and thank you much very to all for this great project!!!

Cheers,
mat

2

You installed Pi-hole v6, but you still have the old web server (lighttpd) using port 80.

If you don't use lighttpd for any other web interfaces, you can safely disable it with:

sudo systemctl stop lighttpd.service
sudo systemctl disable lighttpd.service
2 Likes
3

Many thanks rdwebdesign for your swift respond!

Unfortunately, I still can't access the admin page. I tried unsuccessfully with:

mypiip:8080/admin
mypiip:8080/admin/index.php
mypiip:8080

and

mypiip/admin
mypiip/admin/index.php
mypiip

. Do you have any ideas what I can do? Many thanks!

Cheers,
mat

4

3 comments:

  1. You need to restart Pi-hole after disabling lighttpd.
    I forgot to add this command.
    Run sudo systemctl restart pihole-FTL.service and try again

  2. There is no PHP any more. Do not add index.php.

  3. You don't need port 8080.
    Your debug log shows Pi-hole web server is using port 80.
    Use this http://your_IP/admin or https://your_IP/admin

4 Likes
5

Many thanks rdwebdesign!

After reboot and some reload etc. it worked. juhu! :tada: You are my hero and made my day! :rainbow:

Cheers,
mat

6

This was my issue too. lighttpd was still running. Had to do a reboot after disabling the service and now I'm back in business.

7

Thank you very much! Your solution worked perfectly, and I really appreciate your help. Pi-hole is an amazing project, and the community support makes it even better. Cheers!

8

I also needed all this to fix my 403 error here. Once web interface was back my password no longer worked, also had to change that back (web interface showed me how).

Just trying to see if everything is working now so tried again "pihole - up" and it tells me I need sudo.
However if I try "sudo pihole -up" it tells me "command not found" has updating changed from here on? sudo -h does still mention -up for update

9

Which command resulted in command not found?
Apparently sudo wasn't found, but this is strange.

Please try again and post the complete error message.

10

It was this: sudo pihole -up
it tells me "command not found"

Turned out after I got web access back using the above, that I no longer had upstream DNSes.

Somewhere in this process these failed, I think because there was no upstream DNS - sudo still worked then:
-sudo apt update
-sudo apt upgrade

After I got web interface working again (thanks to posts above), then upstream DNS again by adding them back I could do these two again after which I got sudo back :slight_smile:
Tried sudo "pihole -up" and it confirmed there we no updates

So everything working again after some fiddling. Posting her in case others have the same

11

I also have the same problem after update yesterday night, now after disable Lighttpd it works as expected, but only for internal network, I configured my pihole with a PiVPN (WireGuard) to block ads outside of my home, now even though the WireGuard can handshake, it can’t seemed to reach PiHole DNS

12

I'm so sorry pi-hole-team!

After the update to

Core version is v6.0.4 (Latest: v6.0.4)
Web version is v6.0.1 (Latest: v6.0.1)
FTL version is v6.0.2 (Latest: v6.0.2)

I just now have no access to the pi-hole admin page anymore after the "new" update.
https://mypi_ip/admin/
My browser gives me the feedback
"Can't connect to the server" but I can reach the server (from that computer) via SSH.

I already unsuccessfuly tried
sudo pihole -r

Debug Token
https://tricorder.pi-hole.net/hSBvbybJ/

Do you have any idea what I am doing wrong?

Many thanks!

Cheers,
mat

13

Your Debug Log shows Pi-hole web interface is working an it can be accessed using http://your_IP:8080/admin and https://your_IP:8443/admin:

[2025-02-24 21:11:02.699 CET 10305] Initializing HTTP server on ports "8080o,8443os,[::]:8080o,[::]:84"

2025-02-24 21:11:02.701 CET [10305M] INFO: Web server ports:
2025-02-24 21:11:02.701 CET [10305M] INFO:   - 8080 (HTTP, IPv4, optional)
2025-02-24 21:11:02.701 CET [10305M] INFO:   - 8443 (HTTPS, IPv4, optional)
2025-02-24 21:11:02.701 CET [10305M] INFO:   - 8080 (HTTP, IPv6, optional)
2025-02-24 21:11:02.701 CET [10305M] INFO:   - 84 (HTTP, IPv6)

Are you adding the ports?

Which IP are you using? 192.168.178.5 or 192.168.178.6 or another one?

(Note: these IPs are in your private range and you don't need to hide them. They are accessible only from your local network.)

1 Like
14

Many thanks @rdwebdesign for your swift respond!
It worked! You are my hero, again! :tada: Many thanks!

Did pi-hole chage the port by it self?

I use the

192.168.178.5

The

192.168.178.6

is my WLAN ip. I do not use WLAN. Should I deactivate it?

Many thanks again!

Mat

15

Not sure how the ports were changed...
your current values (8080o,8443os,[::]:8080o,[::]:84) are never used by the installer (the installer never sets "8443" or "84").

If you want to return to use the default port (80) and access without adding the port, you can change Pi-hole config with:

pihole-FTL --config webserver.port '80o,443os,[::]:80o,[::]:443os'
2 Likes
16

Thanks for the hint with the Pi-hole port config! :hugs:

I also had an error while updating from v5 to 6 on my second Pi-Hole - the first ran with the lighttpd disabling-context, the second one never showed that disabling-context, it deleted the upstream servers and couldn't connect to the net. I had to remove lighttpd manually, Pi-Hole switched the webserver-port to 8080/8443 but now I am back on the old (default) ports. Thanks.

17

Many thanks @rdwebdesign! I changed the ports back to default and it works fine. :partying_face:

And thank you for the command - It would certainly have taken me a long time to assemble this command.

mat

18

Just a heads up.

I'm running PiHole on a Pi Zero 2W. It runs great! Today I upgraded to PiHole 6 which failed due to Raspbian 10. I continued with the -r recovery option as advised. It all worked fine.

Afterwards, I got the 403 Forbidden problem which went away when I removed litehttpd and restarted FTL as per this thread.

This then caused a ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED problem. Running a debug session showed the port was 8080 for http and not port 80. Changing the port to 80, again as per this thread, solved the problem.

I am, much obliged to you for the help. However, you state above that the installation doesn't change the ports. I'm afraid it does. My port for as long as I've used PiHole has been the default, 80, but it definitely changed to 8080 after version 6 was installed with PiHole -up.

Hope this helps someone.

Cheers,
Norm.

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