Fix HTTP Error 401.3 IIS 6.0

March 2, 2012

Details

This particular error is indicating that some file in your site’s directory structure does not have permissions to be viewed by your web site. You need to ensure all files for your site are readable/executable

One easy way to debug this is to run the command line tool calcs on a different (working) web site you are hosting, then apply those permissions to your site. This can be dangerous though as it is a “blanket fix”.

Investigation

If you can identify the file that has the wrong permissions you can modify them with calcs.

File that works


C:\usr\netsite-docs\site\i>cacls bg-h1-mobile.png
C:\usr\netsite-docs\site\i\bg-h1-mobile.png
BUILTIN\Administrators:F
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:F
NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users:C
BUILTIN\Users:R

File causing errors


C:\usr\netsite-docs\site\i>cacls shop-logo.png
C:\usr\netsite-docs\site\i\shop-logo.png servername\someuser:F
NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:F
BUILTIN\Administrators:F

To fix the file with the incorrect permissions


cacls shop-logo.png /G "NT AUTHORITY\Authenticated Users":C /E
cacls shop-logo.png /G BUILTIN\Users:R /E