Issue

Cannot download .exe files from a WordPress website hosted on the Plesk Obsidian platform. Instead of downloading the file, the following error is displayed:

403 Forbidden
nginx

Resolution

The issue was caused by Plesk WordPress Toolkit security restrictions. To resolve this, open WordPress Toolkit for the website in question on your Plesk admin panel and click on the Check security link. 

On the next page disable (revert) the “Block access to potentially sensitive files” policy.

October 2021
WordPress 5.8.1
Plesk Obsidian 18.0.38