code unix apache at paulcarvill.com, the home of Paul Carvill on the web

Solution:

Open your Apache conf file:

sudo vi /private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf

…and relax the permissions somewhat by commenting out (with a #) or removing the ‘deny from all’ line:

<Directory />
        AllowOverride None
        Order Deny,Allow
#       Deny from all
</Directory>

With thanks to Damon Parker. See his site for an explanation of why you need to fix this in the first place.