HTTP ERROR 403 - every time I enable the #Include conf / extra / httpd-vhosts.conf line in httpd.conf. Any suggestion?

didn't work either...

my conf files...

# Virtual Hosts
#
# Required modules: mod_log_config

# If you want to maintain multiple domains/hostnames on your
# machine you can setup VirtualHost containers for them. Most configurations
# use only name-based virtual hosts so the server doesn't need to worry about
# IP addresses. This is indicated by the asterisks in the directives below.
#
# Please see the documentation at 
# <URL:http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/vhosts/>
# for further details before you try to setup virtual hosts.
#
# You may use the command line option '-S' to verify your virtual host
# configuration.

#
# VirtualHost example:
# Almost any Apache directive may go into a VirtualHost container.
# The first VirtualHost section is used for all requests that do not
# match a ServerName or ServerAlias in any <VirtualHost> block.
#
<VirtualHost *:80>
#   ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot "${SRVROOT}/htdocs"
    ServerName localhost
#   ServerAlias www.dummy-host.example.com
#   ErrorLog "logs/dummy-host.example.com-error.log"
#   CustomLog "logs/dummy-host.example.com-access.log" common
    <Directory "${SRVROOT}/htdocs">
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
        AllowOverride All
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
#    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    DocumentRoot "${SRVROOT}/htdocs"
    ServerName localhost
#    ErrorLog "logs/localhost.log"
#    CustomLog "logs/dummy-host2.example.com-access.log" common
</VirtualHost>

another one...

# ServerRoot: The top of the directory tree under which the server's
# configuration, error, and log files are kept.
#
# Do not add a slash at the end of the directory path.  If you point
# ServerRoot at a non-local disk, be sure to specify a local disk on the
# Mutex directive, if file-based mutexes are used.  If you wish to share the
# same ServerRoot for multiple httpd daemons, you will need to change at
# least PidFile.
#
Define SRVROOT "c:/Apache24"

ServerRoot "${SRVROOT}"

#

#Listen 12.34.56.78:80
Listen 80

#
#LoadModule access_compat_module modules/mod_access_compat.so
LoadModule actions_module modules/mod_actions.so
LoadModule alias_module modules/mod_alias.so
LoadModule allowmethods_module modules/mod_allowmethods.so
LoadModule asis_module modules/mod_asis.so
LoadModule auth_basic_module modules/mod_auth_basic.so
#LoadModule auth_digest_module modules/mod_auth_digest.so
#LoadModule auth_form_module modules/mod_auth_form.so
#LoadModule authn_anon_module modules/mod_authn_anon.so
LoadModule authn_core_module modules/mod_authn_core.so
#LoadModule authn_dbd_module modules/mod_authn_dbd.so
#LoadModule authn_dbm_module modules/mod_authn_dbm.so
LoadModule authn_file_module modules/mod_authn_file.so
#LoadModule authn_socache_module modules/mod_authn_socache.so
#LoadModule authnz_fcgi_module modules/mod_authnz_fcgi.so
#LoadModule authnz_ldap_module modules/mod_authnz_ldap.so
LoadModule authz_core_module modules/mod_authz_core.so
#LoadModule authz_dbd_module modules/mod_authz_dbd.so
#LoadModule authz_dbm_module modules/mod_authz_dbm.so
LoadModule authz_groupfile_module modules/mod_authz_groupfile.so
LoadModule authz_host_module modules/mod_authz_host.so
#LoadModule authz_owner_module modules/mod_authz_owner.so
LoadModule authz_user_module modules/mod_authz_user.so
LoadModule autoindex_module modules/mod_autoindex.so
#LoadModule brotli_module modules/mod_brotli.so
#LoadModule buffer_module modules/mod_buffer.so
#LoadModule cache_module modules/mod_cache.so
#LoadModule cache_disk_module modules/mod_cache_disk.so
#LoadModule cache_socache_module modules/mod_cache_socache.so
#LoadModule cern_meta_module modules/mod_cern_meta.so
LoadModule cgi_module modules/mod_cgi.so
#LoadModule charset_lite_module modules/mod_charset_lite.so
#LoadModule data_module modules/mod_data.so
#LoadModule dav_module modules/mod_dav.so
#LoadModule dav_fs_module modules/mod_dav_fs.so
#LoadModule dav_lock_module modules/mod_dav_lock.so
#LoadModule dbd_module modules/mod_dbd.so
#LoadModule deflate_module modules/mod_deflate.so
LoadModule dir_module modules/mod_dir.so
#LoadModule dumpio_module modules/mod_dumpio.so
LoadModule env_module modules/mod_env.so
#LoadModule expires_module modules/mod_expires.so
#LoadModule ext_filter_module modules/mod_ext_filter.so
#LoadModule file_cache_module modules/mod_file_cache.so
#LoadModule filter_module modules/mod_filter.so
#LoadModule http2_module modules/mod_http2.so
#LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so
#LoadModule heartbeat_module modules/mod_heartbeat.so
#LoadModule heartmonitor_module modules/mod_heartmonitor.so
#LoadModule ident_module modules/mod_ident.so
#LoadModule imagemap_module modules/mod_imagemap.so
LoadModule include_module modules/mod_include.so
#LoadModule info_module modules/mod_info.so
LoadModule isapi_module modules/mod_isapi.so
#LoadModule lbmethod_bybusyness_module modules/mod_lbmethod_bybusyness.so
#LoadModule lbmethod_byrequests_module modules/mod_lbmethod_byrequests.so
#LoadModule lbmethod_bytraffic_module modules/mod_lbmethod_bytraffic.so
#LoadModule lbmethod_heartbeat_module modules/mod_lbmethod_heartbeat.so
#LoadModule ldap_module modules/mod_ldap.so
#LoadModule logio_module modules/mod_logio.so
LoadModule log_config_module modules/mod_log_config.so
#LoadModule log_debug_module modules/mod_log_debug.so
#LoadModule log_forensic_module modules/mod_log_forensic.so
#LoadModule lua_module modules/mod_lua.so
#LoadModule macro_module modules/mod_macro.so
#LoadModule md_module modules/mod_md.so
LoadModule mime_module modules/mod_mime.so
#LoadModule mime_magic_module modules/mod_mime_magic.so
LoadModule negotiation_module modules/mod_negotiation.so
#LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
#LoadModule proxy_ajp_module modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so
#LoadModule proxy_balancer_module modules/mod_proxy_balancer.so
#LoadModule proxy_connect_module modules/mod_proxy_connect.so
#LoadModule proxy_express_module modules/mod_proxy_express.so
#LoadModule proxy_fcgi_module modules/mod_proxy_fcgi.so
#LoadModule proxy_ftp_module modules/mod_proxy_ftp.so
#LoadModule proxy_hcheck_module modules/mod_proxy_hcheck.so
#LoadModule proxy_html_module modules/mod_proxy_html.so
#LoadModule proxy_http_module modules/mod_proxy_http.so
#LoadModule proxy_http2_module modules/mod_proxy_http2.so
#LoadModule proxy_scgi_module modules/mod_proxy_scgi.so
#LoadModule proxy_uwsgi_module modules/mod_proxy_uwsgi.so
#LoadModule proxy_wstunnel_module modules/mod_proxy_wstunnel.so
#LoadModule ratelimit_module modules/mod_ratelimit.so
#LoadModule reflector_module modules/mod_reflector.so
#LoadModule remoteip_module modules/mod_remoteip.so
#LoadModule request_module modules/mod_request.so
#LoadModule reqtimeout_module modules/mod_reqtimeout.so
#LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
#LoadModule sed_module modules/mod_sed.so
#LoadModule session_module modules/mod_session.so
#LoadModule session_cookie_module modules/mod_session_cookie.so
#LoadModule session_crypto_module modules/mod_session_crypto.so
#LoadModule session_dbd_module modules/mod_session_dbd.so
LoadModule setenvif_module modules/mod_setenvif.so
#LoadModule slotmem_plain_module modules/mod_slotmem_plain.so
#LoadModule slotmem_shm_module modules/mod_slotmem_shm.so
#LoadModule socache_dbm_module modules/mod_socache_dbm.so
#LoadModule socache_memcache_module modules/mod_socache_memcache.so
#LoadModule socache_redis_module modules/mod_socache_redis.so
#LoadModule socache_shmcb_module modules/mod_socache_shmcb.so
#LoadModule speling_module modules/mod_speling.so
LoadModule ssl_module modules/mod_ssl.so
#LoadModule status_module modules/mod_status.so
#LoadModule substitute_module modules/mod_substitute.so
#LoadModule unique_id_module modules/mod_unique_id.so
#LoadModule userdir_module modules/mod_userdir.so
#LoadModule usertrack_module modules/mod_usertrack.so
#LoadModule version_module modules/mod_version.so
#LoadModule vhost_alias_module modules/mod_vhost_alias.so
#LoadModule watchdog_module modules/mod_watchdog.so
#LoadModule xml2enc_module modules/mod_xml2enc.so
LoadModule php7_module "C:PHPphp7apache2_4.dll"

<IfModule unixd_module>
#
# If you wish httpd to run as a different user or group, you must run
# httpd as root initially and it will switch.  
#
# User/Group: The name (or #number) of the user/group to run httpd as.
# It is usually good practice to create a dedicated user and group for
# running httpd, as with most system services.
#
User 
Group 

</IfModule>

#
ServerAdmin [email protected]

#
ServerName localhost:80

#
# Deny access to the entirety of your server's filesystem. You must
# explicitly permit access to web content directories in other 
# <Directory> blocks below.
#

<Directory />
    AllowOverride none
    Require all denied
</Directory>

# Note that from this point forward you must specifically allow
# particular features to be enabled - so if something's not working as
# you might expect, make sure that you have specifically enabled it
# below.
#

#
# DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your
# documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but
# symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other locations.
#
DocumentRoot "${SRVROOT}/htdocs"
<Directory "${SRVROOT}/htdocs">
    #
    # The Options directive is both complicated and important.  Please see
    # http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#options
    # for more information.
    #
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

    #
    # AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in .htaccess files.
    # It can be "All", "None", or any combination of the keywords:
    #   AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
    #
    AllowOverride None

    #
    # Controls who can get stuff from this server.
    #
    Require all granted
</Directory>

#
# DirectoryIndex: sets the file that Apache will serve if a directory
# is requested.
#
<IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
</IfModule>

#
# The following lines prevent .htaccess and .htpasswd files from being 
# viewed by Web clients. 
#
<Files ".ht*">
    Require all denied
</Files>

#
# ErrorLog: The location of the error log file.
#
ErrorLog "logs/error.log"

#
# LogLevel: Control the number of messages logged to the error_log.
# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
# alert, emerg.
#
LogLevel warn

<IfModule log_config_module>
    #
    # The following directives define some format nicknames for use with
    # a CustomLog directive (see below).
    #
    LogFormat "%h %l %u %t "%r" %>s %b "%{Referer}i" "%{User-Agent}i"" combined
    LogFormat "%h %l %u %t "%r" %>s %b" common

    <IfModule logio_module>
      # You need to enable mod_logio.c to use %I and %O
      LogFormat "%h %l %u %t "%r" %>s %b "%{Referer}i" "%{User-Agent}i" %I %O" combinedio
    </IfModule>

    #
    #
    CustomLog "logs/access.log" common

    #
</IfModule>

<IfModule alias_module>
    #
    # Redirect permanent /foo http://www.example.com/bar

    #
    #
    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "${SRVROOT}/cgi-bin/"

</IfModule>

<IfModule cgid_module>
    #
</IfModule>

#
#
<Directory "${SRVROOT}/cgi-bin">
    AllowOverride None
    Options None
    Require all granted
</Directory>

<IfModule headers_module>
    #
    RequestHeader unset Proxy early
</IfModule>

<IfModule mime_module>
    #
    TypesConfig conf/mime.types

    #
    #
    AddType application/x-compress .Z
    AddType application/x-gzip .gz .tgz
    AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .php
    AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .html
    Action application/x-httpd-php "C:PHPphp-cgi.exe"

    #
</IfModule>

# Language settings
#Include conf/extra/httpd-languages.conf

# User home directories
#Include conf/extra/httpd-userdir.conf

# Real-time info on requests and configuration
#Include conf/extra/httpd-info.conf

# Virtual hosts
#Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

# Local access to the Apache HTTP Server Manual
#Include conf/extra/httpd-manual.conf

# Distributed authoring and versioning (WebDAV)
#Include conf/extra/httpd-dav.conf

# Various default settings
Include conf/extra/httpd-default.conf

# Configure mod_proxy_html to understand HTML4/XHTML1
<IfModule proxy_html_module>
Include conf/extra/proxy-html.conf
</IfModule>

# Secure (SSL/TLS) connections
# Include conf/extra/httpd-ssl.conf
#
# Note: The following must must be present to support
#       starting without SSL on platforms with no /dev/random equivalent
#       but a statically compiled-in mod_ssl.
#
<IfModule ssl_module>
    SSLRandomSeed startup builtin
    SSLRandomSeed connect builtin
</IfModule>

PHPIniDir "C:PHP"
Timeout 240

and the last one...

#
# When we also provide SSL we have to listen to the 
# standard HTTP port (see above) and to the HTTPS port
#
Listen 443


#   SSL Cipher Suite:
#   List the ciphers that the client is permitted to negotiate,
#   and that httpd will negotiate as the client of a proxied server.
#   See the OpenSSL documentation for a complete list of ciphers, and
#   ensure these follow appropriate best practices for this deployment.
#   httpd 2.2.30, 2.4.13 and later force-disable aNULL, eNULL and EXP ciphers,
#   while OpenSSL disabled these by default in 0.9.8zf/1.0.0r/1.0.1m/1.0.2a.
SSLCipherSuite HIGH:MEDIUM:!MD5:!RC4:!3DES
SSLProxyCipherSuite HIGH:MEDIUM:!MD5:!RC4:!3DES



#   User agents such as web browsers are not configured for the user's
#   own preference of either security or performance, therefore this
#   must be the prerogative of the web server administrator who manages
#   cpu load versus confidentiality, so enforce the server's cipher order.
SSLHonorCipherOrder on 

#   SSL Protocol support:
#   List the protocol versions which clients are allowed to connect with.
#   Disable SSLv3 by default (cf. RFC 7525 3.1.1).  TLSv1 (1.0) should be
#   disabled as quickly as practical.  By the end of 2016, only the TLSv1.2
#   protocol or later should remain in use.
SSLProtocol all -SSLv3
SSLProxyProtocol all -SSLv3

#   Pass Phrase Dialog:
#   Configure the pass phrase gathering process.
#   The filtering dialog program (`builtin' is an internal
#   terminal dialog) has to provide the pass phrase on stdout.
SSLPassPhraseDialog  builtin

#   Inter-Process Session Cache:
#   Configure the SSL Session Cache: First the mechanism 
#   to use and second the expiring timeout (in seconds).
#SSLSessionCache         "dbm:${SRVROOT}/logs/ssl_scache"
SSLSessionCache        "shmcb:${SRVROOT}/logs/ssl_scache(512000)"
SSLSessionCacheTimeout  300


<VirtualHost _default_:443>

#   General setup for the virtual host
DocumentRoot "${SRVROOT}/htdocs"
ServerName localhost:443
ServerAdmin [email protected]
ErrorLog "${SRVROOT}/logs/error.log"
TransferLog "${SRVROOT}/logs/access.log"
SSLCertificateFile "${SRVROOT}/conf/ssl/server.crt"
SSLCertificateKeyFile "${SRVROOT}/conf/ssl/server.key"

#   SSL Engine Switch:
#   Enable/Disable SSL for this virtual host.
SSLEngine on

#   Server Certificate:

SSLCertificateFile "${SRVROOT}/conf/ssl/server.crt"
#SSLCertificateFile "${SRVROOT}/conf/server-dsa.crt"
#SSLCertificateFile "${SRVROOT}/conf/server-ecc.crt"

#   Server Private Key:

SSLCertificateKeyFile "${SRVROOT}/conf/ssl/server.key"
#SSLCertificateKeyFile "${SRVROOT}/conf/server-dsa.key"
#SSLCertificateKeyFile "${SRVROOT}/conf/server-ecc.key"

#   Server Certificate Chain:

#SSLCertificateChainFile "${SRVROOT}/conf/server-ca.crt"

#   Certificate Authority (CA):

#SSLCACertificatePath "${SRVROOT}/conf/ssl/ssl.crt"
#SSLCACertificateFile "${SRVROOT}/conf/ssl.crt/ca-bundle.crt"


#   Client Authentication (Type):

#SSLVerifyClient require
#SSLVerifyDepth  10

BrowserMatch "MSIE [2-5]" 
         nokeepalive ssl-unclean-shutdown 
         downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0

CustomLog "${SRVROOT}/logs/ssl_request.log" 
          "%t %h %{SSL_PROTOCOL}x %{SSL_CIPHER}x "%r" %b"

</VirtualHost>                                  

---

This answer assumes that you are using a build of Apache from Apache Lounge (based on your error log example).

If this doesn't help to resolve your issue(s), you may wish to consider adding the contents of httpd.conf, httpd-vhosts.conf and any other virtual host or ssl configuration files to your question.

---

403 Forbidden

I get a 403 Forbidden error every time I enable Include conf/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf in httpd.conf.

Its important to be careful about where files are served from (including DocumentRoot(s)) and any related Directory settings with Apache. Note that this extends to attempting to access non-existent directories.

httpd.conf

In httpd.conf, you should have a "default" DocumentRoot directive and a related Directory block:

ex. Default DocumentRoot and Directory Settings (httpd.conf)

# [...] indicates omitted text for these examples.

# Apache 2.4.37+
Define SRVROOT "c:/Apache24"

# Apache 2.4.37+
ServerRoot "${SRVROOT}"

[...]

#
# DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your
# documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but
# symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other locations.
#
DocumentRoot "${SRVROOT}/htdocs"
<Directory "${SRVROOT}/htdocs">

    [...]
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks

    [...]
    AllowOverride None

    [...]
    Require all granted
</Directory>

In particular, the Option Indexes ... and Require all granted lines under the Directory block are important because they control access to ex. C:/Apache24/htdocs (the default DocumentRoot for the server above):

• Indexes allows the contents of a raw directory to be displayed (i.e. one without a DirectoryIndex file ex. index.html). If Indexes is missing under Options or Options isn't specified at all, a directory lacking a directory index file will return 403 Forbidden.

• Require all granted allows anyone to access the directory. Otherwise, again, a 403 Forbidden response may be returned (if Require all granted is changed to ex. Require ip 127.0.0.1 or Require all denied, for example).

httpd-vhosts.conf

In the default httpd-vhosts.conf file, there are two example virtual hosts that each specify a different DocumentRoot from the one in httpd.conf and no accompanying Directory settings:

ex. httpd-vhosts.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>

    [...]
    DocumentRoot "${SRVROOT}/docs/dummy-host.example.com"
    [...]

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>

    [...]
    DocumentRoot "${SRVROOT}/docs/dummy-host2.example.com"
    [...]

</VirtualHost>

These example hosts are asking for a 403 Forbidden response because:

• The docs folders aren't folders located under the server DocumentRoot in httpd.conf (ex. {SRVROOT}/htdocs/docs/...). This means they would need their own separate Directory blocks defined in their respective virtual hosts to allow access to them (including any Require directives and possibly Options directives with Indexes).

• ${SRVROOT}/docs/dummy-host.example.com and ${SRVROOT}/docs/dummy-host2.example.com don't even exist by default (!).

• The first virtual host specified will automatically be prioritized by Apache for "default" responses (say if a hostname doesn't match an existing virtual host). This includes any generated 403 Forbidden response.

If these examples are present in httpd-vhosts.conf, you should comment them out (put a # in front of each line) or delete them entirely.

SSL Session Cache

AH01873: Init: Session Cache is not configured [hint: SSLSessionCache]

Under your SSL configuration, you should have e.g.:

SSLSessionCache        "shmcb:${SRVROOT}/logs/ssl_scache(512000)"

Enabled before any VirtualHost directive. You should look at httpd-ssl.conf (conf/extras/httpd-ssl.conf) to see how your first SSL virtual host should look (assuming you aren't using httpd-ssl.conf itself for this).

Note that you should also have mod_socache_shmcb uncommented in httpd.conf as well ex.:

ex. httpd.conf

[...]
#LoadModule socache_redis_module modules/mod_socache_redis.so
LoadModule socache_shmcb_module modules/mod_socache_shmcb.so
#LoadModule speling_module modules/mod_speling.so
[...]

---

Path Notes

As a rule of thumb, to minimize potential issues, the path to Apache should not contain spaces. This means it is best to avoid C:Program Files, C:Program Files (x86) and likely your Users folder.

---

Update

Here are some additional notes based on the configuration files you provided:

Virtual Hosts

The following should be an (essentially) working virtual hosts example based on your original httpd-vhosts.conf file to try in place of what you have now:

ex. httpd-vhosts.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>

    # Required
    ServerName localhost

    # Optional
    # ServerAlias www.localhost.com
    # ServerAdmin admin@localhost

    # Required
    DocumentRoot "${SRVROOT}/htdocs"
    # DocumentRoot "${SRVROOT}/htdocs/localhost"

    # Optional
    <Directory "${SRVROOT}/htdocs">
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes ExecCGI
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    # Optional
    ErrorLog "logs/localhost-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/localhost-access.log" common

</VirtualHost>

# Literally using "localhost2" likely requires an entry
# in your "hosts" file or any local DNS server.
<VirtualHost *:80>

    # Required
    ServerName localhost2

    # Optional
    # ServerAlias www.localhost2.com
    # ServerAdmin admin@localhost2

    # Required
    DocumentRoot "${SRVROOT}/htdocs"
    # DocumentRoot "${SRVROOT}/htdocs/localhost2"

    # Optional
    ErrorLog "logs/localhost2-error.log"
    CustomLog "logs/localhost2-access.log" common

</VirtualHost>

Note that:

• The ServerName directives for each virtual host are no longer identical. Having two or more virtual hosts with the same name can cause issues when resolving these names (what DocumentRoot should Apache be serving files from?).

• The Order/Allow statements are deprecated and thus removed. In most cases, simply using newer directives like Require should be sufficient.

---

If this doesn't work for you, I might suggest trying to exclude PHP during testing (i.e. use just regular HTML files and comment out your PHP settings in httpd.conf). That way, you'll likely have a better idea if your having problems with Apache itself versus your PHP configuration.

---

SSL Configuration

• As noted above (post-update), you need to uncomment mod_socache_shmcb in httpd.conf:

ex. httpd.conf

[...]
#LoadModule socache_redis_module modules/mod_socache_redis.so
LoadModule socache_shmcb_module modules/mod_socache_shmcb.so
#LoadModule speling_module modules/mod_speling.so
[...]

• You also need to comment out SSLPassPhraseDialog builtin under httpd_ssl.conf on Windows:

ex. httpd_ssl.conf

[...]

#   Pass Phrase Dialog:
#   Configure the pass phrase gathering process.
#   The filtering dialog program (`builtin' is an internal
#   terminal dialog) has to provide the pass phrase on stdout.
# SSLPassPhraseDialog  builtin

[...]

Note that passphrases for SSL certificates broadly are unsupported on Apache for Windows.