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HTTP response status code
indicating that the server is unable to complete the request because the client lacks proper authentication credentials for a proxy server
that is intercepting the request between the client and server. The 407
error code is similar to the 401 Unauthorized
error we looked at a few months ago, which indicates that the client could not be authenticated with the server. However, in the case of a 407 Proxy Authentication Required
error, the server isn’t reporting a direct authentication issue, but is instead reporting that the client needs to authenticate with a proxy server, which must send a special Proxy-Authenticate
header as part of the response.407 Proxy Authentication Required
error code can be challenging to find and fix. With a possible pool of over 50 status codes used to represent the complex relationship between the client, a web application, a web server, and (possibly) multiple third-party web services, determining the cause of a particular status code can be difficult under the best of circumstances.407 Proxy Authentication Required
in more detail by looking at what might cause this message to appear, and we’ll go over a handful of tips you can use to diagnose and debug the appearance of this error within your own application. We’ll even examine a number of the most popular content management systems (CMSs
) for potential problem areas that could cause your own website to be generating a 407 Proxy Authentication Required
unexpectedly. Let’s get to it!4xx
category are considered client error responses
. Errors in the 4xx
category contrast with those from the 5xx
category, such as the 503 Service Unavailable Error
we wrote about a couple months ago, which are considered server error responses
. That said, the appearance of a 4xx
error doesn’t necessarily mean the issue is on the client side (the “client”, in this case, is typically the web browser or device being used to access the application). Oftentimes, if you’re trying to diagnose an issue within your own application, you can immediately ignore most client-side code and components, such as HTML, cascading style sheets (CSS), client-side JavaScript, and so forth. This doesn’t apply solely to web sites, either. Many smart phone apps, which implement a modern looking user interface, are often powered behind the scenes by a normal web application.407 Proxy Authentication Required
error. In some cases, the server may be misconfigured and handling requests improperly, which can result in 407
code responses and other problematic traffic routing issues. We’ll explore some of these scenarios (and potential solutions) down below, but be aware that, even though the 407 Proxy Authentication Required
is considered a client error response
, it doesn’t inherently mean we can rule out either the client nor the server as the culprit in this scenario. In these situations, the server
(or a proxy server
, in some cases) is still the network object that is producing the 407 Proxy Authentication Required
and returning it as the HTTP response code to the client, but it could be that the client is causing the issue in some way.staging
server that is either inactive, or publicly inaccessible. This will give you a clean testing ground on which to test all potential fixes needed to resolve the issue, without threatening the security or sanctity of your live application.407 Proxy Authentication Required
indicates that the client has failed to provide proper authentication credentials to a proxy server
that is a node (i.e. connection) between the client and the primary web server accepting the original request. As specified by RFC7235 HTTP/1.1 Authentication standards document the proxy server must send a special Proxy-Authenticate
header, which indicates to the client what type of authentication can be used to complete the original request, and what access that will provide.Proxy-Authenticate
header is as follows: Proxy-Authenticate: <type> realm=<realm>
.<type>
value can be any of the handful of valid authentication schemes
allowed in HTTP/1.1, with the most common authentication scheme being Basic
, which accepts a username
and password
credential pair to validate authentication.<realm>
value is used as a simple description of the protected area or “scope” of access that this particular authentication process will provide to the client.407
response code that includes a Proxy-Authenticate
header indicating the authentication scheme
the proxy server will accept, the user agent will then typically respond with the corresponding Proxy-Authorization
request header: Proxy-Authorization: <type> <credentials>
.Proxy-Authenticate
response header, <type>
in the Proxy-Authorization
request header is used to specify the authentication scheme
, which should match the scheme required by the proxy server.<credentials>
should be replaced with the valid credentials to authenticate the client. In the case of a Basic
authentication scheme the username
and password
values are concatenated with a colon separator (i.e. username:password
), which is then encoded to a base64 text string. Thus, a full Proxy-Authorization
request header using the Basic
scheme with a username and password of username
and password
would look like this: Proxy-Authorization: Basic dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=
. Once the user agent includes that header in the follow-up request, the proxy server will authenticate and authorize the client and the request will succeed.407 Proxy Authentication Required
is a client error response
code, it’s best to start by troubleshooting any potential client-side issues that could be causing this error. Here are a handful of tips to try on the browser or device that is giving you problems.407 Proxy Authentication Required
is simply inputting an incorrect URL. Many servers are tightly secured, so as to disallow unexpected requests to resources that a client/user agent should not have access to. It may be that the requested URL is slightly incorrect, which is causing the user agent to request an unintended resource, which may be routed through a proxy server that requires authentication. For example, a request to the URI https://airbrake.io/login
might route requests through a separate proxy server used to handle user authentication. If the original request did not contain appropriate credentials, the result could be a 407 Proxy Authentication Required
error response. It’s always a good idea to double-check the exact URL that is returning the 407 Proxy Authentication Required
error to make sure it is intended resource.407 Proxy Authentication Required
, you may want to start by looking into the stability and functionality of those platforms first. The most common content management systems — like WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal — are all typically well-tested out of the box, but once you start making modifications to the underlying extensions or PHP
code (the language in which nearly all modern content management systems are written in), it’s all too easy to cause an unforeseen issue that results in a 407 Proxy Authentication Required
.407 Proxy Authentication Required
appeared, you may want to consider rolling back to the previous version you had installed when things were working fine. Similarly, any extensions or modules that you may have recently upgraded can also cause server-side issues, so reverting to previous versions of those may also help. For assistance with this task, simply Google “downgrade [PLATFORM_NAME]” and follow along. In some cases, however, certain CMSs don’t really provide a version downgrade capability, which indicates that they consider the base application, along with each new version released, to be extremely stable and bug-free. This is typically the case for the more popular platforms, so don’t be afraid if you can’t find an easy way to revert the platform to an older version.PHP
code, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or database. As such, it may be wise to uninstall any new extensions that may have been recently added. Again, Google the extension name for the official documentation and assistance with this process.407 Proxy Authentication Required
, is to open the database and manually look through tables and records that were likely modified by the extension.407 Proxy Authentication Required
. Chances are you’ll find someone who has experienced the same issue.407 Proxy Authentication Required
isn’t related to that — here are some additional tips to help you troubleshoot what might be causing the issue on the server-side of things.Apache
or nginx
. At the time of publication, both of these web servers make up 84% of the world’s web server software! Thus, one of the first steps you can take to determine what might be causing these 407 Proxy Authentication Required
response codes is to check the configuration files for your web server software for unintentional redirect or request handling instructions..htaccess
file within the root directory of your website file system. For example, if your application is on a shared host you’ll likely have a username associated with the hosting account. In such a case, the application root directory is typically found at the path of /home/<username>/public_html/
, so the .htaccess
file would be at /home/<username>/public_html/.htaccess
..htaccess
file then open it in a text editor and look for lines that use ProxyXXX
directives, which are part of the mod_proxy
module in Apache. Covering exactly how these directives work is well beyond the scope of this article, however, the basic concept is that proxy directives allow the Apache server to map or associate local server requests and URIs to remote proxy locations.ProxyPass
and ProxyPassReverse
directives to match requests to the local /login
URI and route them to https://proxy.airbrake.io/login
. The <Location /login>
section defines the authentication scheme and details we’re using:Proxy
directives in the .htaccess
file that don’t seem to belong, then try temporarily commenting them out (using the #
character prefix) and restarting your web server to see if this resolves the issue.nginx
, you’ll need to look for a completely different configuration file. By default this file is named nginx.conf
and is located in one of a few common directories: /usr/local/nginx/conf
, /etc/nginx
, or /usr/local/etc/nginx
. Once located, open nginx.conf
in a text editor and look for proxy_
directives. For example, here is a simple block directive
(i.e. a named set of directives) that configures a virtual server for airbrake.io
and ensures that, similar to above, a request to https://airbrake.io/login
will be authenticated via the proxy_pass
directive to https://proxy.airbrake.io/login
:nginx.conf
file for any abnormal proxy_
directives and comment out any abnormalities before restarting the server to see if the issue was resolved.Application logs
are typically the history of what the application did, such as which pages were requested, which servers it connected to, which database results it provides, and so forth. Server logs
are related to the actual hardware that is running the application, and will often provide details about the health and status of all connected services, or even just the server itself. Google “logs [PLATFORM_NAME]” if you’re using a CMS, or “logs [PROGRAMMING_LANGUAGE]” and “logs [OPERATING_SYSTEM]” if you’re running a custom application, to get more information on finding the logs in question.407 Proxy Authentication Required
occurred and view the application code at the moment something goes wrong.407 Proxy Authentication Required
within your own application is a good indication you may want to implement an error management tool, which will help you automatically detect errors and will alert you the instant they occur. Airbrake’s error monitoring software provides real-time error monitoring and automatic exception reporting for all your development projects. Airbrake’s state of the art web dashboard ensures you receive round-the-clock status updates on your application’s health and error rates. No matter what you’re working on, Airbrake easily integrates with all the most popular languages and frameworks. Plus, Airbrake makes it easy to customize exception parameters, while giving you complete control of the active error filter system, so you only gather the errors that matter most.