Can't access cgi-bin directory off of Document Root

[Solaris 7- Apache 1.3.12 - Perl 5.6.0]
Upon attempting to access and browse the cgi-bin directory via http://dev.cte.net/cgi-bin [my acutal site], I keep getting a Forbidden (HTTP 403) error.

The User/Group permissions for the Document Root directory and all subdirectories are set to "nobody/nobody". CHMOD 777, to remove the possiblility of permissions violation.

I belive that the problem lies with the httpd.conf file. But am often wrong.

. . .
User nobody
Group nobody
ServerName dev.cte.net
DocumentRoot "/opt/local/etc/httpd"
<Directory />
Options None
AllowOverride None
</Directory>
<Directory "/opt/local/etc/http">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks IncludesNOEXEC
AllowOverride AuthConfig Limit
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>
Userdir disabled
AccessFileName .htaccess
<Files .htaccess>
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
<Files>
...
<IfModule mod_alias.c>
...
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/opt/local/etc/httpd/cgi-bin/"
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin "/opt/local/etc/httpd/cgi-bin/"
<Directory "/opt/local/etc/httpd/cgi-bin/"
AllowOverride None
Options None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
...
AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl
AddType text/html .shtml
AddHandler server-parsed .shtml
...

I am not accessing a cgi-bin directory from a userdir, so the <Directory /home/*/public_html> should not be the culprit?! And I have tried multiple tweakings of the permissions AllowOverride/Order to no avail.

If it helps, I have also setup a virtual site [unix.cte.net], and upon browsing to it, I get the same error, even though I am pointing to a different cgi-bin directory. Under the Virtual Sites section of the httpd.conf, I changed the ScriptAlias to point to another cgi-bin directory, off of its root. Which possible suggests a problem with a global config/permission, which the virtual site defaults too, in the absence of an entry. Upon using Netscape to drill-down to the directory: /opt/local/etc/httpd/cgi-bin (as compared to browsing), clicking on the perl/cgi-scripts, results in a display of the code, rather than running it. [Of course this problem could be a separate issue.

Any assistance or recommendations would be appreciated, if not greatly welcome. I am about to go from crazy to insane over it.

Sincerely,

-Plain Crazy

There are quite a few mistakes here...

1) <Files .htaccess>

Should be <Files ~ "^.htaccess$">

2) ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/opt/local/etc/httpd/cgi-bin/"

You should place cgi-bin above your docroot

3) Remove the duplicate ScriptAlias line

4) <Directory "/opt/local/etc/httpd/cgi-bin/"
AllowOverride None
Options None

The closing <Directory> block
"Options None" should be "Options ExecCGI" at the very least, otherwise, it defeats the purpose of having a cgi-bin.

5) <Directory "/opt/local/etc/http">

Is "http" a typo? Should it be "httpd" instead?

6) Any DirectoryIndex directive somewhere? If not and you don't want to get [403] error, at the line "Options Indexes FollowSymLinks IncludesNOEXEC", remove the "Indexes".

Still getting the 403. Made the modifications though, as seen below. Have a DirectoryIndex setup as well.

Is it possible that Apache prevents directory browsing to the cgi-bin directory--i.e., http://dev.cte.net/cgi-bin--while still allowing the execution of scripts contained in it.

-Plain Crazy

Port 80
Listen 80
<IfDefine SSL>
Listen 443
</IfDefine>
User nobody
Group nobody
ServerAdmin root@centurytel.com
ServerName dev.cte.net
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/opt/local/etc/httpd/cgi-bin/"
<Directory "/opt/local/etc/httpd/cgi-bin/">
AllowOverride AuthConfig Limit
Options ExecCGI
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
DocumentRoot "/opt/local/etc/httpd"
<Directory />
Options None
AllowOverride None
</Directory>
<Directory "/opt/local/etc/httpd">
Options FollowSymLinks IncludesNOEXEC
AllowOverride AuthConfig Limit
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
UserDir disabled
DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.shtml index.php3 index.php
AccessFileName .htaccess
<Files ~ "^.htaccess$">
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
</Files>
UseCanonicalName On
TypesConfig /opt/local/apache/conf/mime.types
DefaultType text/plain
<IfModule mod_mime_magic.c>
MIMEMagicFile /opt/local/apache/conf/magic
</IfModule>
HostnameLookups Off
ErrorLog /opt/local/apache/logs/error_log
LogLevel warn
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t "%r" %>s %b "%{Referer}i" "%{User-Agent}i"" combined
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t "%r" %>s %b" common
LogFormat "%{Referer}i -> %U" referer
LogFormat "%{User-agent}i" agent
CustomLog /opt/local/apache/logs/access_log combined
ServerSignature Off
<IfModule mod_alias.c>
Alias /icons/ "/opt/local/apache/icons/"
<Directory "/opt/local/apache/icons">
Options Indexes MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>
</IfModule>
...[Languages]...
AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl
AddType text/html .shtml
AddHandler server-parsed .shtml
BrowserMatch "Mozilla/2" nokeepalive
BrowserMatch "MSIE 4.0b2;" nokeepalive downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0
BrowserMatch "RealPlayer 4.0" force-response-1.0
BrowserMatch "Java/1.0" force-response-1.0
BrowserMatch "JDK/1.0" force-response-1.0
ErrorDocument 401 /error/missing.html
ErrorDocument 404 /error/missing.html

I figured it out. It was the

<Directory>
Options. . .
AllowOverride. . .
Order. . .
Allow. . .
</Directory>

settings, not only for the webroot directory, but also the cgi-bin directory as well.

Thanks for your posting FreeBSD, as it put me on the right path to figuring it out.

-Plain Crazy