How to deny access to a file in .htaccess - .htaccess

Question

I have the following .htaccess file:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
# Protect the htaccess file
<Files .htaccess>
Order Allow,Deny
Deny from all
</Files>
# Protect log.txt
<Files ./inscription/log.txt>
Order Allow,Deny
Deny from all
</Files>
# Disable directory browsing
Options All -Indexes
I am trying to forbid visitors to access the following file:
domain.example/inscription/log.txt
but what I have above does not work: I can still access the file from the browser remotely.

Answer 1

Within an htaccess file, the scope of the <Files> directive only applies to that directory (I guess to avoid confusion when rules/directives in the htaccess of subdirectories get applied superceding ones from the parent).
So you can have:
<Files "log.txt">
Order Allow,Deny
Deny from all
</Files>
For Apache 2.4+, you'd use:
<Files "log.txt">
Require all denied
</Files>
In an htaccess file in your inscription directory. Or you can use mod_rewrite to sort of handle both cases deny access to htaccess file as well as log.txt:
RewriteRule /?\.htaccess$ - [F,L]
RewriteRule ^/?inscription/log\.txt$ - [F,L]

Answer 2

Strong pattern matching — This is the method that I use here at Perishable Press. Using strong pattern matching, this technique prevents external access to any file containing “.hta”, “.HTA”, or any case-insensitive combination thereof. To illustrate, this code will prevent access through any of the following requests:
.htaccess
.HTACCESS
.hTaCcEsS
testFILE.htaccess
filename.HTACCESS
FILEROOT.hTaCcEsS
..etc., etc. Clearly, this method is highly effective at securing your site’s HTAccess files. Further, this technique also includes the fortifying “Satisfy All” directive. Note that this code should be placed in your domain’s root HTAccess file:
# STRONG HTACCESS PROTECTION
<Files ~ "^.*\.([Hh][Tt][Aa])">
order allow,deny
deny from all
satisfy all
</Files>

Answer 3

I don't believe the currently accepted answer is correct. For example, I have the following .htaccess file in the root of a virtual server (apache 2.4):
<Files "reminder.php">
require all denied
require host localhost
require ip 127.0.0.1
require ip xxx.yyy.zzz.aaa
</Files>
This prevents external access to reminder.php which is in a subdirectory.
I have a similar .htaccess file on my Apache 2.2 server with the same effect:
<Files "reminder.php">
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from localhost
Allow from 127.0.0.1
Allow from xxx.yyy.zzz.aaa
</Files>
I don't know for sure but I suspect it's the attempt to define the subdirectory specifically in the .htaccess file, viz <Files ./inscription/log.txt> which is causing it to fail. It would be simpler to put the .htaccess file in the same directory as log.txt i.e. in the inscription directory and it will work there.

Answer 4

Place the below line in your .htaccess file and replace the file name as you wish
RewriteRule ^(test\.php) - [F,L,NC]

Answer 5

Well you could use the <Directory> tag
for example:
<Directory /inscription>
<Files log.txt>
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
</Files>
</Directory>
Do not use ./ because if you just use / it looks at the root directory of your site.
For a more detailed example visit http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/sections.html