Subject: [PATCH] http.c: prompt for username on 403

From: Ashlesh Gawande <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2025 20:13:52 +0530

Scenario:
- There are a few pre-production systems that a lot of testers and
  developers need to time share because of low availability
- Devops generates a GitHub token with pull only access
  and adds it to the netrc file on these systems
  (Pull only as we don't want testers/others to be able to push)
- Testers log in and do a git pull for the latest changes
  (via netrc credentials - though testers may not be aware)
- Developers login to debug issues and may make fixes to the test repo
- Now when developers try to push their changes they receive:
  fatal: unable to access 'https://github.com/<org>/<project>/':
  The requested URL returned error: 403
- The developer is not given the chance to supply an authorized token
  and either needs to comment the netrc file or copy the changes over
  to their own machine

Signed-off-by: Ashlesh Gawande <[email-masked]>
---
 http.c                     |  2 +-
 t/lib-httpd.sh             |  9 +++++++++
 t/lib-httpd/apache.conf    |  4 ++++
 t/lib-httpd/passwd         |  1 +
 t/t5550-http-fetch-dumb.sh | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 5 files changed, 39 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/http.c b/http.c
index 7e3af1e72f..18959f63b9 100644
--- a/http.c
+++ b/http.c
@@ -1852,7 +1852,7 @@ static int handle_curl_result(struct slot_results *results)
 		return HTTP_NOMATCHPUBLICKEY;
 	} else if (missing_target(results))
 		return HTTP_MISSING_TARGET;
-	else if (results->http_code == 401) {
+	else if (results->http_code == 401 || results->http_code == 403) {
 		if ((http_auth.username && http_auth.password) ||\
 		    (http_auth.authtype && http_auth.credential)) {
 			if (http_auth.multistage) {
diff --git a/t/lib-httpd.sh b/t/lib-httpd.sh
index 5091db949b..cdc92b2916 100644
--- a/t/lib-httpd.sh
+++ b/t/lib-httpd.sh
@@ -325,6 +325,15 @@ set_askpass() {
 	echo "$2" >"$TRASH_DIRECTORY/askpass-pass"
 }
 
+set_netrc() {
+	# $HOME=$TRASH_DIRECTORY
+	echo "machine $1 login $2 password $3" > $TRASH_DIRECTORY/.netrc
+}
+
+clear_netrc() {
+	rm "$TRASH_DIRECTORY/.netrc"
+}
+
 expect_askpass() {
 	dest=$HTTPD_DEST${3+/$3}
 
diff --git a/t/lib-httpd/apache.conf b/t/lib-httpd/apache.conf
index e631ab0eb5..6b8c50a51a 100644
--- a/t/lib-httpd/apache.conf
+++ b/t/lib-httpd/apache.conf
@@ -238,6 +238,10 @@ SSLEngine On
 	AuthName "git-auth"
 	AuthUserFile passwd
 	Require valid-user
+
+	# return 403 for authenticated user: forbidden-user@host
+	RewriteCond "%{REMOTE_USER}" "^forbidden-user@host"
+	RewriteRule ^ - [F]
 </Location>
 
 <LocationMatch "^/auth-push/.*/git-receive-pack$">
diff --git a/t/lib-httpd/passwd b/t/lib-httpd/passwd
index d9c122f348..3bab7b6423 100644
--- a/t/lib-httpd/passwd
+++ b/t/lib-httpd/passwd
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 user@host:$apr1$LGPmCZWj$9vxEwj5Z5GzQLBMxp3mCx1
+forbidden-user@host:$apr1$LGPmCZWj$9vxEwj5Z5GzQLBMxp3mCx1
diff --git a/t/t5550-http-fetch-dumb.sh b/t/t5550-http-fetch-dumb.sh
index ed0ad66fad..6c4c1cafb2 100755
--- a/t/t5550-http-fetch-dumb.sh
+++ b/t/t5550-http-fetch-dumb.sh
@@ -102,6 +102,30 @@ test_expect_success 'cloning password-protected repository can fail' '
 	expect_askpass both wrong
 '
 
+test_expect_success 'using credentials from netrc to clone successfully' '
+	set_askpass wrong &&
+	set_netrc 127.0.0.1 user@host pass@host &&
+	git clone "$HTTPD_URL/auth/dumb/repo.git" clone-auth-netrc &&
+	expect_askpass none
+'
+clear_netrc
+
+test_expect_success 'netrc unauthorized credentials (prompt after 401)' '
+	set_askpass wrong &&
+	set_netrc 127.0.0.1 user@host pass@wrong &&
+	test_must_fail git clone "$HTTPD_URL/auth/dumb/repo.git" clone-auth-netrc-401 &&
+	expect_askpass both wrong
+'
+clear_netrc
+
+test_expect_success 'netrc authorized but forbidden credentials (prompt after 403)' '
+	set_askpass wrong &&
+	set_netrc 127.0.0.1 forbidden-user@host pass@host &&
+	test_must_fail git clone "$HTTPD_URL/auth/dumb/repo.git" clone-auth-netc-403 &&
+	expect_askpass both wrong
+'
+clear_netrc
+
 test_expect_success 'http auth can use user/pass in URL' '
 	set_askpass wrong &&
 	git clone "$HTTPD_URL_USER_PASS/auth/dumb/repo.git" clone-auth-none &&
-- 
2.43.0