Aws Cli S3 a Client Error (403) Occurred When Calling the Headobject Operation: Forbidden

Elena Rostova
Elena Rostova
• • 15 min read

I'm Trying to Setup a Amazon Linux Ami(Ami-F0091D91) and Have a Script That Runs a Copy Command to Copy from a S3 Bucket. Aws --Debug S3 Cp S3...

Aws Cli S3 a Client Error (403) Occurred When Calling the Headobject Operation: Forbidden

I'm trying to setup a Amazon Linux AMI(ami-f0091d91) and have a script that runs a copy command to copy from a S3 bucket.

 aws --debug s3 cp s3://aws-codedeploy-us-west-2/latest/codedeploy-agent.noarch.rpm .

This script works perfectly on my local machine but fails with the following error on the Amazon Image:

2016-03-22 01:07:47,110 - MainThread - botocore.auth - DEBUG - StringToSign:
HEAD


Tue, 22 Mar 2016 01:07:47 GMT
x-amz-security-token:AQoDYXdzEPr//////////wEa4ANtcDKVDItVq8Z5OKms8wpQ3MS4dxLtxVq6Om1aWDhLmZhL2zdqiasNBV4nQtVqwyPsRVyxl1Urq1BBCnZzDdl4blSklm6dvu+3efjwjhudk7AKaCEHWlTd/VR3cksSNMFTcI9aIUUwzGW8lD9y8MVpKzDkpxzNB7ZJbr9HQNu8uF/st0f45+ABLm8X4FsBPCl2I3wKqvwV/s2VioP/tJf7RGQK3FC079oxw3mOid5sEi28o0Qp4h/Vy9xEHQ28YQNHXOBafHi0vt7vZpOtOfCJBzXvKbk4zRXbLMamnWVe3V0dArncbNEgL1aAi1ooSQ8+Xps8ufFnqDp7HsquAj50p459XnPedv90uFFd6YnwiVkng9nNTAF+2Jo73+eKTt955Us25Chxvk72nAQsAZlt6NpfR+fF/Qs7jjMGSF6ucjkKbm0x5aCqCw6YknsoE1Rtn8Qz9tFxTmUzyCTNd7uRaxbswm7oHOdsM/Q69otjzqSIztlwgUh2M53LzgChQYx5RjYlrjcyAolRguJjpSq3LwZ5NEacm/W17bDOdaZL3y1977rSJrCxb7lmnHCOER5W0tsF9+XUGW1LMX69EWgFYdn5QNqFk6mcJsZWrR9dkehaQwjLPcv/29QcM+b5u/0goazCtwU=
/aws-codedeploy-us-west-2/latest/codedeploy-agent.noarch.rpm
2016-03-22 01:07:47,111 - MainThread - botocore.endpoint - DEBUG - Sending http request: <PreparedRequest [HEAD]>
2016-03-22 01:07:47,111 - MainThread - botocore.vendored.requests.packages.urllib3.connectionpool - INFO - Starting new HTTPS connection (1): aws-codedeploy-us-west-2.s3.amazonaws.com
2016-03-22 01:07:47,151 - MainThread - botocore.vendored.requests.packages.urllib3.connectionpool - DEBUG - "HEAD /latest/codedeploy-agent.noarch.rpm HTTP/1.1" 403 0
2016-03-22 01:07:47,151 - MainThread - botocore.parsers - DEBUG - Response headers: {'x-amz-id-2': '0mRvGge9ugu+KKyDmROm4jcTa1hAnA5Ax8vUlkKZXoJ//HVJAKxbpFHvOGaqiECa4sgon2F1kXw=', 'server': 'AmazonS3', 'transfer-encoding': 'chunked', 'x-amz-request-id': '6204CD88E880E5DD', 'date': 'Tue, 22 Mar 2016 01:07:46 GMT', 'content-type': 'application/xml'}
2016-03-22 01:07:47,152 - MainThread - botocore.parsers - DEBUG - Response body:

2016-03-22 01:07:47,152 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event needs-retry.s3.HeadObject: calling handler <botocore.retryhandler.RetryHandler object at 0x7f421075bcd0>
2016-03-22 01:07:47,152 - MainThread - botocore.retryhandler - DEBUG - No retry needed.
2016-03-22 01:07:47,152 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event after-call.s3.HeadObject: calling handler <function enhance_error_msg at 0x7f4211085758>
2016-03-22 01:07:47,152 - MainThread - botocore.hooks - DEBUG - Event after-call.s3.HeadObject: calling handler <awscli.errorhandler.ErrorHandler object at 0x7f421100cc90>
2016-03-22 01:07:47,152 - MainThread - awscli.errorhandler - DEBUG - HTTP Response Code: 403
2016-03-22 01:07:47,152 - MainThread - awscli.customizations.s3.s3handler - DEBUG - Exception caught during task execution: A client error (403) occurred when calling the HeadObject operation: Forbidden
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/awscli/customizations/s3/s3handler.py", line 100, in call
    total_files, total_parts = self._enqueue_tasks(files)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/awscli/customizations/s3/s3handler.py", line 178, in _enqueue_tasks
    for filename in files:
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/awscli/customizations/s3/fileinfobuilder.py", line 31, in call
    for file_base in files:
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/awscli/customizations/s3/filegenerator.py", line 142, in call
    for src_path, extra_information in file_iterator:
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/awscli/customizations/s3/filegenerator.py", line 314, in list_objects
    yield self._list_single_object(s3_path)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/awscli/customizations/s3/filegenerator.py", line 343, in _list_single_object
    response = self._client.head_object(**params)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/client.py", line 228, in _api_call
    return self._make_api_call(operation_name, kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/client.py", line 488, in _make_api_call
    model=operation_model, context=request_context
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/hooks.py", line 226, in emit
    return self._emit(event_name, kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/botocore/hooks.py", line 209, in _emit
    response = handler(**kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/awscli/errorhandler.py", line 70, in __call__
    http_status_code=http_response.status_code)
ClientError: A client error (403) occurred when calling the HeadObject operation: Forbidden
2016-03-22 01:07:47,153 - Thread-1 - awscli.customizations.s3.executor - DEBUG - Received print task: PrintTask(message='A client error (403) occurred when calling the HeadObject operation: Forbidden', error=True, total_parts=None, warning=None)
A client error (403) occurred when calling the HeadObject operation: Forbidden

However, when I run it with the --no-sign-request option, it works perfectly:

 aws --debug --no-sign-request s3 cp s3://aws-codedeploy-us-west-2/latest/codedeploy-agent.noarch.rpm .

Can someone please explain what is going on?

4

31 Answers

1
2

in my case the problem was the Resource statement in the user access policy.

First we had "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::BUCKET_NAME", but in order to have access to objects within a bucket you need a /* at the end: "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::BUCKET_NAME/*"

From the AWS documentation:

Bucket access permissions specify which users are allowed access to the objects in a bucket and which types of access they have. Object access permissions specify which users are allowed access to the object and which types of access they have. For example, one user might have only read permission, while another might have read and write permissions.

0

I figured it out. I had an error in my cloud formation template that was creating the EC2 instances. As a result, the EC2 instances that were trying to access the above code deploy buckets, were in different regions (not us-west-2). It seems like the access policies on the buckets (owned by Amazon) only allow access from the region they belong in. When I fixed the error in my template (it was wrong parameter map), the error disappeared

7

Trying to solve this problem myself, I discovered that there is no HeadBucket permission. It looks like there is, because that's what the error message tells you, but actually the HEAD operation requires the ListBucket permission. I also discovered that my IAM policy and my bucket policy were conflicting. Make sure you check both.

2

Check your object owner if you copy the file from another aws account.

In my case, I copy the file from another aws account without acl, so file's owner is the other aws account, it's mean the file belongs to origin account.

To fix it, copy or sync s3 files with acl, example:

aws s3 cp --acl bucket-owner-full-control s3://bucket1/key s3://bucket2/key
1

There could be a number of reason, (The most stupid one being) AWS S3 throws 403 error when the specified object or file doesn't exist at the location.

2

In my case, i got this error trying to get an object on an S3 bucket folder. But in that folder my object was not here (i put the wrong folder), so S3 send this message. Hope it could help you too.

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "AllowAllS3ActionsInUserFolder",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "s3:*"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:s3:::your_bucket_name",
                "arn:aws:s3:::your_bucket_name/*"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Adding both "arn:aws:s3:::your_bucket_name" and "arn:aws:s3:::your_bucket_name/*" to policy congiguration fixed the issue for me.

2

I was getting the error A client error (403) occurred when calling the HeadObject operation: Forbidden for my aws cli copy command aws s3 cp s3://bucket/file file. I was using a IAM role which had full S3 access using an Inline Policy. 

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "s3:*",
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

If I give it the full S3 access from the Managed Policies instead, then the command works. I think this must be a bug from Amazon, because the policies in both cases were exactly the same.

6

One of the reasons for this could be if you try accessing buckets of a region which requires V4-Signing. Try explicitly providing the region, as --region cn-north-1

I've had this issue, adding --recursive to the command will help.

At this point it doesn't quite make sense as you (like me) are only trying to copy a single file down, but it does the trick!

2

The minimal permissions that worked for me when running HeadObject on any object in mybucket:

        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "s3:GetObject",
                "s3:ListBucket"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:s3:::mybucket/*",
                "arn:aws:s3:::mybucket"
            ]
        }

403 - means I know who you are but you are not authorized to do what you asking.

In my case, the problem was in a Policy - I didn't choose an object when specified the Policy in Visual Editor

It's a terrible practice to give away access to the entire s3 (all actions, all buckets), just to unblock yourself.

The 403 error above is usually due to the lack of "Read" permission of files. The Read action for reading a file in S3 is s3:GetObject.

        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "s3:GetObject",
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:s3:::mybucketname/path/*",
                "arn:aws:s3:::mybucketname"
            ]
        }

Must Read

Solution 1: A new Policy in IAM (Tell Role/User to know S3)

You can create a Policy (e.g. MY_S3_READER) with the following, and attach it to the user or role that's doing the job. (e.g. EC2 Instance's IAM role)

Here is the exact JSON for your Policy: (just replace mybucketname and path)

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "VisualEditor0",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": "s3:GetObject",
            "Resource": [
                "arn:aws:s3:::mybucketname/path/*",
                "arn:aws:s3:::mybucketname"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Create this Policy. Then, go to IAM > Roles > Attach Policy and attach it.

Elena Rostova

Elena Rostova

Lead Health, Wellness & Medical Journalist
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Elena Rostova holds a Master's degree in Public Health Journalism. She covers groundbreaking medical research, holistic wellness trends, mental health awareness, and nutritional science.