Stripe webhook not working in production

When dealing with Stripe webhooks, a 403 error typically indicates a permission issue or that the request is being blocked. Here are some steps to troubleshoot and resolve the issue:

1. Verify Webhook URL: Ensure that the webhook URL configured in your Stripe dashboard matches the endpoint in your application. It should be publicly accessible and correctly routed to handle the incoming requests.

2. CSRF Protection: You mentioned that you have configured CSRF token validation to exclude the stripe/* routes. Double-check that the webhook endpoint is correctly excluded from CSRF protection. The path should match exactly as it appears in your routes.

3. Firewall and Security Settings: Ensure that your server's firewall or any security settings are not blocking incoming requests from Stripe. You might need to whitelist Stripe's IP addresses.

4. SSL/TLS Configuration: Stripe requires that webhooks are served over HTTPS. Make sure your server has a valid SSL certificate and that the webhook URL uses https.

5. Stripe Secret Key: Ensure that your application is using the correct Stripe secret key for the environment (live or test). A mismatch can cause authentication issues.

6. Webhook Secret: Verify that you are using the correct webhook secret to validate the incoming requests from Stripe. This is different from your Stripe secret key and is used to ensure the request is genuinely from Stripe.

7. Logging: Add logging to your webhook handler to capture incoming requests and any errors that occur during processing. This can help identify where the issue might be.

Here's a basic example of how you might set up a Stripe webhook handler in PHP:

use Stripe\Webhook;
use Stripe\Exception\SignatureVerificationException;

$endpointSecret = 'your_webhook_secret';

$payload = @file_get_contents('php://input');
$sigHeader = $_SERVER['HTTP_STRIPE_SIGNATURE'];

try {
    $event = Webhook::constructEvent(
        $payload, $sigHeader, $endpointSecret
    );

    // Handle the event
    switch ($event->type) {
        case 'customer.subscription.created':
            $subscription = $event->data->object;
            // Save subscription to your database
            break;
        // ... handle other event types
        default:
            echo 'Received unknown event type ' . $event->type;
    }
} catch (UnexpectedValueException $e) {
    // Invalid payload
    http_response_code(400);
    exit();
} catch (SignatureVerificationException $e) {
    // Invalid signature
    http_response_code(400);
    exit();
}

http_response_code(200);

Make sure to replace 'your_webhook_secret' with your actual webhook secret from the Stripe dashboard. This code will help ensure that only valid requests from Stripe are processed.