apache virtualhost 403 forbidden

Apache 2.4.3 (or maybe slightly earlier) added a new security feature that often results in this error. You would also see a log message of the form "client denied by server configuration". The feature is requiring a user identity to access a directory. It is turned on by DEFAULT in the httpd.conf that ships with Apache. You can see the enabling of the feature with the directive

Require all denied

This basically says to deny access to all users. To fix this problem, either remove the denied directive (or much better) add the following directive to the directories you want to grant access to:

Require all granted

as in

<Directory "your directory here">
   Order allow,deny
   Allow from all
   # New directive needed in Apache 2.4.3: 
   Require all granted
</Directory>