Smart Update in the Plesk WP Toolkit could not fetch the website sitemap: Response status code: 403

Symptoms

• Trying to update a WordPress site using Smart Updates in the WP Toolkit fails with the following error:

  ERR [extension/wp-toolkit] Unable to catch initial state of instance WordPress installation #9 ('https://example.com'), reason: Smart Update could not fetch the website sitemap. Response status code: 403

• The A record of the website resolves to Cloudflare IP addresses:
  Example record lookup for Windows Server:

  C:> nslookup -q=A example.com
  Server: UnKnown
  Address: 2620:0:28a9:4::1
  Non-authoritative answer:
  Name: example.com
  Addresses: 104.21.10.5
  172.67.161.206

  Example record lookup for Linux Server:

  # root@server:~# dig +short example.com A
  104.21.10.5
  172.67.161.206

• Running the curl command for the affected website from the Plesk server fails with the following error:

  # curl https://example.com
  error code: 1020

Cause

The Cloudflare WAF setup that is done on the side of Cloudflare prevents the Plesk server from accessing the website.

Resolution

Contact Cloudflare support in order to receive assistance in finding the exact misconfigured Firewall rule.

Additional Information

Cloudflare Community | Community Tip - Access was denied Error code 1020