[Discuss] Help with Apache & SSL - can't fix 403 errors

[Daniel Barrett]

I've been trying to set up an HTTPS website on localhost (Ubuntu
18.04), but no matter what I do, I get a 403 "Access Denied" error
when I hit the site. I've tried all the solutions I can find
documented on the web:

- The site is served perfectly over http (i.e., http://localhost)
- Web root dir (/var/www/html) has appropriate permissions (rwxr-xr-x)
- The SSL virtual host is enabled (a2enable)
- Apache SSL module is installed & enabled (a2enmod)
- SSL key & cert files exist in their correct locations
- Firewall permits port 443 (I even turned the firewall off to be sure)
- Apache conf file mirrors the simplest examples I've found:

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
   <VirtualHost *:443>
      ServerAdmin webmaster at localhost
      DocumentRoot /var/www/html
      ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
      CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
      SSLEngine on
      SSLCertificateFile    /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
      SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key

      # Not sure I need this, since the main apache2.conf covers /var/www.
      <Directory /var/www/html>
         Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
         AllowOverride None
         Require all granted
      </Directory>

      <FilesMatch "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$">
            SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
      </FilesMatch>
      <Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin>
            SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
      </Directory>
   </VirtualHost>
</IfModule>

And yet... all I get is a 403 error at https://localhost.
There must be some factor I haven't considered.
Any clues?

Thanks so much.

--
Dan Barrett
dbarrett at blazemonger.com