Htaccess: Preventing hot linking
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.htaccess - Apache directory-level configuration file |
Hot linking
What is hot linking? It's when someone else links to some content on your server and uses your server to deliver the goods. It could be images or any non-html objects. They are effectively stealing your bandwidth at your expense.
The Uniform Server has mod-rewrite enabled, allowing you to rewrite the requested URL on-the-fly based on configuration directives and rules. It's as complex as it sounds. I found this code on the Internet which prevents hot linking to images on your site.
Just pop this code into your root .htaccess file for global effect, or a sub-directory to localise the effect to just one section of your site:
Serve a broken image
This code produces a broken image to be displayed when it's hot linked. Make sure to replace "mydomain.com" with your own.
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?mydomain.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ - [F]
Or
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?(subdomain_mydomain\.)?mydomain.com/ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(jpe?g|gif|png|bmp)$ - [F]
Link: I think the original source came from here: webmasterworld.com
Serve an alternative image
Remember, it's your server and you can do what you like, so why not serve an alternative image in your favor. Again, remember to replace "mydomain.com" with your own:
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(www\.)?mydomain.com/.*$ [NC]
RewriteRule \.(gif|jpg)$ http://www.mydomain.com/nasty.gif [R,L]
General note
I have seen several cases where mod rewrite is used in .htaccess files and the line
Options +FollowSymLinks
is missing, which effectively informs Apache to ignore mod_rewrite.
This error shows up in the log files as:
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[client 127.0.0.1] Options FollowSymLinks or SymLinksIfOwnerMatch is off which implies that RewriteRule directive is forbidden: W:/www/textpattern/ |