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Apache .htaccess not working

Hello, I created a htaccess and passed it at the root of the html directory. I even set it so that apache is the owner of the file. However, I am still able to hotlink to my image or pdf file. What could be the problem? Please see my htaccess file below.

Thanks for your assistance.

#prevent viewing of .htaccess file
<Files .htaccess>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</Files>

#prevent directory listing
IndexIgnore *

#custom error message
ErrorDocument 401 /custom-error/401.php
ErrorDocument 403 /custom-error/403.php
ErrorDocument 404 /custom-error/404.php
ErrorDocument 500 /custom-error/500.php

#prevent hotlinking to images (gif, png, jpg), documents (csv, pdf, xls, xlsx) and web files (javascript: js, css)
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^https://(www\.)?mydomain.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(gif|png|jpg|csv|pdf|xls|xlsx|js|css)$ - [F]

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Ray Paseur

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arober11

If you have root access, put the above block in the httpd.conf, as Apache will only have to parse and compile the rules once, at server start-up, rather than for every browser request received by Apache.

As to why it dosen't work, loose the first Http_referer condition, as that's allowing BLANK referer strings.

abolinhas

Try this tool
http://www.htaccesstools.com/hotlink-protection/

lgduong

ASKER

abolinhas -- i tried that and the code look the same to me.

arober11 - i don't think it is i the http_referer condition. it is recommending to have the blank refere string and i do want that as part of the condition

ray_paseur - that is a good idea if images and other files aren't changing as often as it is here.

I am still hoping to use htaccess so that I have control over security instead of having to rely on system admin because they are the only one who can configure the httpd.conf file.

Does anyone else see or know why my code might not be working??

arober11

If you want to see what's going on, have the admin temporarily paste the following into you httpd.conf and restart Apache:

RewriteLog  /tmp/tmp_apace_rewrite.log
RewtiteLogLevel 9

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lgduong

ASKER

arober11 - I have the admin perform the modification to the httpd.conf and when I viewed the log file, I get the following:

(2) init rewrite engine with requested uri /
(3) applying pattern '^(/htdocs/.*)' to uri '/'
(3) applying pattern '.*' to uri '/'
(4) RewriteCond: input='GET' pattern='^(TRACE|TRACK)' => not-matched
(1) pass through /
(3) [perdir /var/www/html/] strip per-dir prefix: /var/www/html/ ->
(3) [perdir /var/www/html/] applying pattern '\.(gif|png|jpg|csv|pdf|xls|xlsx|js|css)$' to uri ''
(1) [perdir /var/www/html/] pass through /var/www/html

Does the log indicates what the problem might be?

arober11

Nope, you've cut off the URI from the rules, was expecting output in the following format:

(3) [perdir /var/www/html/] applying pattern '\.(js|ico|gif|jpg|png|css)$' to uri 'index.php'

So the output above is of little use, other than to prove the rule is in place and being invoked.