Magento - Error Log (client denied by server)

Question

I have just checked my error logs and the following has come up numerous times:

[error] [client 95.128.128.74] client denied by server configuration:

/home/public_html/website/app/etc/local.xml

Any suggestions on a fix?

Answer 1

Magento checks for security

client denied by server configuration: /var/www/httpdocs/app/etc/local.xml is an Apache error message.

Someone tried to directly access your local.xml file via a web browser but were blocked by the server configuration which is correct.

Magento fills your error log with this message, one for each page you access in the Admin area.

Getting rid of the security notification

<layout>
    <default>
        <remove name="notification_security" />
        <remove name="notification_survey" />
    </default>
</layout>

This removes the blocks notification_security and notification_survey from the backend-pages entirely, skipping therefor the security check