Eliminate error “127.0.0.1 Directory index forbidden by Options directive” in log files (and other needless noise)
Ubuntu Apache Error : client 127.0.0.1 Directory index forbidden by Options directive
This error and many others clog your log files with noise which can be easily eliminated without compromising security.
The reason I get this error is because I have set .htaccess in the server root directory to Options -Index for security reasons. I don’t want anyone browsing /var/www and badbots do try. Most other “fixes” I found when searching for a solution recommend Options +Index, which is not a viable solution for a production server.
Eliminate Noise in Your Logs
Further, there are other log entries that are simply noise resulting from not having all the little things that Apache is looking for in their place.
The solution:
In /var/www (or your chosen server root) Apache wants or needs the following files: index.html, favicon.ico, .htaccess, robots.txt
Create .htacess in /var/www (example below)
Create an empty index.html in /var/www
Put any favicon.ico you like in /var/www
Create a robots.txt in /var/www (example below)
Now set permissions for all to:
sudo chown www-data:www-data
sudo chmod 744
My examples: (the contents of each file)
.htaccess
Options -Indexes
robots.txt
User-agent: * Disallow: /index.html Disallow: /favicon.ico User-agent: Alexibot Disallow: / User-agent: Aqua_Products Disallow: / User-agent: asterias Disallow: / User-agent: b2w/0.1 Disallow: / User-agent: BackDoorBot/1.0 Disallow: / User-agent: BlowFish/1.0 Disallow: / User-agent: Bookmark search tool Disallow: / User-agent: BotALot Disallow: / User-agent: BotRightHere Disallow: / User-agent: BuiltBotTough Disallow: / User-agent: Bullseye/1.0 Disallow: / User-agent: BunnySlippers Disallow: / User-agent: CheeseBot Disallow: / User-agent: CherryPicker Disallow: / User-agent: CherryPickerElite/1.0 Disallow: / User-agent: CherryPickerSE/1.0 Disallow: / User-agent: Copernic Disallow: / User-agent: CopyRightCheck Disallow: / User-agent: cosmos Disallow: / User-agent: Crescent Internet ToolPak HTTP OLE Control v.1.0 Disallow: / User-agent: Crescent Disallow: / User-agent: DittoSpyder Disallow: / User-agent: EmailCollector Disallow: / User-agent: EmailSiphon Disallow: / User-agent: EmailWolf Disallow: / User-agent: EroCrawler Disallow: / User-agent: ExtractorPro Disallow: / User-agent: FairAd Client Disallow: / User-agent: Flaming AttackBot Disallow: / User-agent: Foobot Disallow: / User-agent: Gaisbot Disallow: / User-agent: GetRight/4.2 Disallow: / User-agent: Harvest/1.5 Disallow: / User-agent: hloader Disallow: / User-agent: httplib Disallow: / User-agent: HTTrack 3.0 Disallow: / User-agent: humanlinks Disallow: / User-agent: InfoNaviRobot Disallow: / User-agent: Iron33/1.0.2 Disallow: / User-agent: JennyBot Disallow: / User-agent: Kenjin Spider Disallow: / User-agent: Keyword Density/0.9 Disallow: / User-agent: larbin Disallow: / User-agent: LexiBot Disallow: / User-agent: libWeb/clsHTTP Disallow: / User-agent: LinkextractorPro Disallow: / User-agent: LinkScan/8.1a Unix Disallow: / User-agent: LinkWalker Disallow: / User-agent: LNSpiderguy Disallow: / User-agent: lwp-trivial/1.34 Disallow: / User-agent: lwp-trivial Disallow: / User-agent: Mata Hari Disallow: / User-agent: Microsoft URL Control - 5.01.4511 Disallow: / User-agent: Microsoft URL Control - 6.00.8169 Disallow: / User-agent: Microsoft URL Control Disallow: / User-agent: MIIxpc/4.2 Disallow: / User-agent: MIIxpc Disallow: / User-agent: Mister PiX Disallow: / User-agent: moget/2.1 Disallow: / User-agent: moget Disallow: / User-agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; BullsEye; Windows 95) Disallow: / User-agent: MSIECrawler Disallow: / User-agent: NetAnts Disallow: / User-agent: NICErsPRO Disallow: / User-agent: Offline Explorer Disallow: / User-agent: Openbot Disallow: / User-agent: Openfind data gatherer Disallow: / User-agent: Openfind Disallow: / User-agent: Oracle Ultra Search Disallow: / User-agent: PerMan Disallow: / User-agent: ProPowerBot/2.14 Disallow: / User-agent: ProWebWalker Disallow: / User-agent: psbot Disallow: / User-agent: Python-urllib Disallow: / User-agent: QueryN Metasearch Disallow: / User-agent: Radiation Retriever 1.1 Disallow: / User-agent: RepoMonkey Bait & Tackle/v1.01 Disallow: / User-agent: RepoMonkey Disallow: / User-agent: RMA Disallow: / User-agent: searchpreview Disallow: / User-agent: SiteSnagger Disallow: / User-agent: SpankBot Disallow: / User-agent: spanner Disallow: / User-agent: suzuran Disallow: / User-agent: Szukacz/1.4 Disallow: / User-agent: Teleport Disallow: / User-agent: TeleportPro Disallow: / User-agent: Telesoft Disallow: / User-agent: The Intraformant Disallow: / User-agent: TheNomad Disallow: / User-agent: TightTwatBot Disallow: / User-agent: toCrawl/UrlDispatcher Disallow: / User-agent: True_Robot/1.0 Disallow: / User-agent: True_Robot Disallow: / User-agent: turingos Disallow: / User-agent: TurnitinBot/1.5 Disallow: / User-agent: TurnitinBot Disallow: / User-agent: URL Control Disallow: / User-agent: URL_Spider_Pro Disallow: / User-agent: URLy Warning Disallow: / User-agent: VCI WebViewer VCI WebViewer Win32 Disallow: / User-agent: VCI Disallow: / User-agent: Web Image Collector Disallow: / User-agent: WebAuto Disallow: / User-agent: WebBandit/3.50 Disallow: / User-agent: WebBandit Disallow: / User-agent: WebCapture 2.0 Disallow: / User-agent: WebCopier v.2.2 Disallow: / User-agent: WebCopier v3.2a Disallow: / User-agent: WebCopier Disallow: / User-agent: WebEnhancer Disallow: / User-agent: WebSauger Disallow: / User-agent: Website Quester Disallow: / User-agent: Webster Pro Disallow: / User-agent: WebStripper Disallow: / User-agent: WebZip/4.0 Disallow: / User-agent: WebZIP/4.21 Disallow: / User-agent: WebZIP/5.0 Disallow: / User-agent: WebZip Disallow: / User-agent: Wget/1.5.3 Disallow: / User-agent: Wget/1.6 Disallow: / User-agent: Wget Disallow: / User-agent: wget Disallow: / User-agent: WWW-Collector-E Disallow: / User-agent: Xenu's Link Sleuth 1.1c Disallow: / User-agent: Xenu's Disallow: / User-agent: Zeus 32297 Webster Pro V2.9 Win32 Disallow: / User-agent: Zeus Link Scout Disallow: / User-agent: Zeus Disallow: /
Enjoy the silence!