4 ms·

How does 403 help? Isn’t that for when authentication worked but authorization didn’t?

• derefr 6y ago
  Correct. You’re supposed to send 403 only when 1. you’ve successfully “logged in” with a set of credentials, but 2. the user that those credentials map to, doesn’t have rights on the resource. If you haven’t authed at all, and there’s a resource there requiring auth, you’re supposed to send 401.
  • eyelidlessness 6y ago
    This usage of 403 should be used carefully. It's often (probably usually) the case that you still don't want to expose existence of a resource even to an authenticated user who is not authorized to that resource. It's generally better to return 404 in that case.
    • mmerickel 6y ago
      The distinction is whether the resource is owned by another tenant or not. Often a user can view a resource but aren't allowed to edit it, at which point 403 is correct. However if it's something owned by another tenant entirely, and is not public, then a 404 is correct.