Getting a 403 forbidden error for simplesaml after Apache upgrade

Question

My simplesaml was working perfectly until I upgraded Apache to 2.4.6 on Ubuntu

The error I was getting :

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /simplesaml/ on this server.

Answer 1

The instructions for installing simplesamlphp on Apache only require an alias for the simplesamlphp directory :

https://simplesamlphp.org/docs/stable/simplesamlphp-install#section_6

But for Apache 2.4.6+ the security has changed - it worked for me when I added a Directory directive. eg:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName mywebsite.dev
    DocumentRoot /home/myuser/www/mywebsite/

    <Directory /home/myuser/www/mywebsite/>
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    Alias /simplesaml /var/simplesamlphp/www

    <Directory /var/simplesamlphp/www/>
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

Answer 2

While the chosen answer is correct I would like to add that SELinux can also cause this error. It took me a couple hours to realize that was my problem after following tons of examples online.

If you are running SELinux make sure you run the following command:

chcon -R --reference=/var/www /var/simplesamlphp

This will place the /var/simplesamlphp directory in the same security context as /var/www. You can't just place the /var/simplesamlphp/www directory in the same context because _include.php accesses files in /var/simplesamlphp/lib.

I hope this prevents someone from spending as much time on this problem as I did.