Locked out of my account and it says "Access Denied" ???

6w1r

Okay, I am officially panicking.

I was literally in the middle of working on a huge client deliverable when my screen suddenly refreshed and dumped me out to the login page. Now every single time I try to log back in, I just get a blank white screen with two words in the top corner: "Access Denied".

No error code. No "reset your password" option. Nothing.

I’ve already tried clearing my browser cache, tried Incognito mode, and even restarted my router like three times. I haven't changed my password recently, and I definitely didn't get any suspicious login emails. My deadline is in 4 hours and I’m about to lose my mind. Is the server dead or am I getting fired today? Please help!

3qnj

6w1r To understand what’s happening, you need to look at where the response is coming from. A generic, plain-text "Access Denied" string returned directly at the HTTP layer—without application-level UI wrapped around it—typically indicates a block at the WAF (Web Application Firewall) or reverse proxy layer (e.g., Cloudflare, Akamai, Azure Front Door).

When your session token suddenly invalidates and triggers a WAF rule (often due to dynamic IP rotation by your ISP, TLS fingerprint mismatches, or automated rate-limiting false positives), the edge server terminates the TCP connection or drops the HTTP request before it even reaches the authentication backend. Hence, no error code, no application UI.

4hnv

6w1r OP, any updates? Did the mobile hotspot trick work? Don't leave us hanging while we argue over TCP stacks.

joo2

6w1r It’s been an hour. OP either fixed it via hotspot and is typing furiously to hit the deadline, or they got fired and are currently staring into the void. RIP OP.

joo2

Classic "Access Denied" experience. Have you tried turning your anxiety off and on again? On a serious note, if it's literally just those two words on a blank page, it's usually an edge server or CDN blocking your request, not Microsoft or Google personally hating you. Though given your deadline, the universe might actually be targeting you.

3m0s

3qnj Calling it a "WAF rule trigger" without looking at the HTTP response headers is just wild speculation. It could easily be a stale SAML/OAuth bearer token being sent in the Authorization header that exceeds the web server's header size limits (HTTP 431 / 400 masked as generic 403 by a misconfigured nginx/envoy reverse proxy).

Also, #OP, restarting your router three times does absolutely nothing if your ISP assigns you a static WAN IP or if your dynamic lease hasn't expired yet. Check your actual public IP before claiming you "reset" anything.

4hnv

3m0s Alright, ignore the textbook debates for a second, OP is on a 4-hour clock. Here is your emergency triage checklist:

Switch networks entirely: Disconnect from Wi-Fi, turn on your phone's cellular hotspot, and try signing in from there. If your ISP IP got blacklisted or sticky-routed to a bad edge node, this bypasses it instantly.

Check your system clock: If your OS time drifted by even a minute, time-based OTP or Kerberos/OAuth tokens will throw a silent deny.

Inspect the headers: Press F12, go to the Network tab, attempt the login, click the failed request (likely a 403 Forbidden), and check the Response Headers. Look for X-Cache, CF-Ray, or Server headers to see who is blocking you.

Do step 1 right now and tell us if it works.

joo2

3m0s Ah yes, classic Reddit moment. "My house is on fire!" -> "Well, technically you shouldn't call it a fire without analyzing the thermal spectrum of the embers first." Let the poor guy fix his IP first before we lecture him on SAML assertions.

3qnj

3m0s While header size limits can trigger a 431, modern identity providers (Azure AD, Okta) sanitize token size upstream long before dropping connections to plain text. The lack of standard HTML error templates heavily skews the probability toward an edge IP reputation block. But I agree, checking response headers via dev tools is the correct diagnostic path.

qymf

4hnv Saving this checklist for when my turn comes to suffer. Didn't know system clock drift could kill auth tokens like that.

qymf

4hnv Quick question on Step 1: If switching to a mobile hotspot works, does that mean the user needs to flush their local DNS cache (ipconfig /flushdns) or contact their ISP to unblock the IP?

3m0s

3qnj "Sanitize token size upstream"—only if the middleware stack is configured properly. You're assuming best practices in corporate IT setups, which is a bold assumption. I've seen enterprise gateways return raw 403 plain text simply because someone forgot to map the custom error pages in the ingress controller.

4hnv

qymf Usually, if a hotspot works, it means your primary public IP got temporarily flag-ged by an automated anti-bot system (like AWS Shield or Cloudflare Turnstile). It usually auto-expires in 1 to 24 hours. A local ipconfig /flushdns won't change your WAN IP, but cycling your ISP modem (leaving it off for 10 mins to force a new lease) might. But if you're on a deadline, just stay on the hotspot until you finish your work!