Block public access to your .htaccess file

10 min Impact: medium Effort: low ✓ Scan-verified — no manual checkbox

An Apache .htaccess file can contain access rules, redirect logic, and sometimes credentials or internal paths — if it's readable directly rather than being processed silently by the server, its contents (including any sensitive logic) become visible to anyone who requests it.

Your .htaccess file can reveal internal redirect rules, IP restrictions, and server configuration — a roadmap of exactly how your server is locked down, and therefore how to get around it.

How to fix it

1

Check exposure

Visit yoursite.com/.htaccess — a correctly configured Apache server should return 403, never the file's actual contents.
2

Add an explicit deny rule if it's exposed

Most Apache configs block this by default, but add <Files ".htaccess">Require all denied</Files> explicitly if it isn't already blocked.

Common mistakes

This is usually blocked by Apache's default configuration — if you're seeing it exposed, something in your specific server setup has overridden that default.

How you'll know it's done

yoursite.com/.htaccess returns a 403, never file contents.

H.I.V.E. checks this automatically

Fix it, then re-scan — the check confirms itself. No manual checkbox, the scan is the truth.

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Block public access to your .htaccess file

How to fix it

Common mistakes

How you'll know it's done

Related checks

H.I.V.E. checks this automatically