Bug: PrivateVPN Server Update failing - 403 Forbidden

[MasterCash]

Is this urgent?

None

Host OS

Ubuntu

CPU arch

x86_64

VPN service provider

PrivateVPN

What are you using to run the container

docker run

What is the version of Gluetun

Running version latest built on 2026-02-15T00:47:05.784Z (commit be92aa2)

What's the problem 🤔

attempting to run: docker run --rm -v /yourpath:/gluetun qmcgaw/gluetun update -enduser -providers privatevpn to update my servers since I have an issue where my TLS handshake failed. it recommended updating the servers so I was trying to do that.

while doing the above command, it fails with the 403 forbidden trying to get the zip file. looks like when I manually go to the link its a cloudflare protected link which might explain why its failing.

I was following https://github.com/qdm12/gluetun-wiki/blob/main/setup/servers.md#update-the-vpn-servers-list

Share your logs (at least 10 lines)

2026-02-24T04:50:52Z INFO merging by most recent 20604 hardcoded servers and 20604 servers read from /gluetun/servers.json
2026-02-24T04:50:52Z INFO updating Privatevpn servers...
2026-02-24T04:50:53Z ERROR updating server information: getting privatevpn servers: HTTP status code not OK: https://privatevpn.com/client/PrivateVPN-TUN.zip: 403 403 Forbidden
2026-02-24T04:50:53Z INFO Shutdown successful

Share your configuration

[github-actions]

@qdm12 is more or less the only maintainer of this project and works on it in his free time.
Please:

• do not ask for updates, be patient
• 👍 the issue to show your support instead of commenting
  @qdm12 usually checks issues at least once a week, if this is a new urgent bug,
  revert to an older tagged container image

[qdm12]

Yeahhhh if you go to https://privatevpn.com/client/PrivateVPN-TUN.zip they now run a cloudflare bot check so you need a browser to load the javascripts; anyway let's wait a few days to see if they remove that protection (privatevpn may be under attack?); if not I'll look into adding https://github.com/go-rod/rod which download a headless chrome binary on request to be able to fetch that stupid zip file 😄

[V33m]

@MasterCash, are you still facing 403? I am abe to download the zip fine at my end, both through VPN and outside. I guess the Cloudflare bot check has been turned off if everything is working for you as well

[MasterCash]

I am no longer facing a 403 error when running. seems to be good again

[qdm12]

Ok let's close this then 😉

[github-actions]

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