Apache "Client denied by server configuration", despite allowing access to directory (vhost configuration)

Change your authorization configuration:

<Directory /home/remix/>
    #...
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>

...to the Apache 2.4 version of the same.

<Directory /home/remix/>
    #...
    Require all granted
</Directory>

Review the upgrading overview document for information on other changes you might need to make - and be aware that most of the config examples and assistance that you find out there on Google (as well as on this site) is referring to 2.2.


Check the permissions on the directory. I would bet that it's set to deny access to anyone but yourself, for instance:

$ ls -ld /home/remix
drwx------ 92 remix remix 4096 Aug 17 22:59 /home/remix

If you see drwx------ exactly, then this is the case. Fix it by running:

chmod a+x /home/remix

Make sure that the user who is running httpd service has access to this directories.


"client denied by server configuration" means that the Linux server itself forbids the access to the file, not Apache.

If providing access through changing permissions / ownership / group membership does not solve the problem, the route cause may be SELinux forbidding the access to any folder which has not the appropriate SE Linux context as explained in 'Relocating an Apache DocumentRoot under Selinux'.

  • If temporarily disabling SELinux by doing setenforce 0 makes the file accessible
  • Whereas re-enabling SELinux by doing setenforce 0 makes again the file not accessible

Then for sure the access is forbidden by SELinux whatever the file permissions are.