The permissions for the Apache /etc/httpd/conf.d file should be set correctly.
(1) permissions
(1) via chown
L1 19. Updating Ownership and Permissions for Enhanced Security p27
CIS Apache Benchmark for Unix v1.7 For Apache Versions 1.3 and 2.0
CIS
2007-07-01
Version 1.7
Prose (PDF)