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| Author(s): | Rliskey | Experience level: | Beginner | Contributors: | Joomla! version: |  | Date added: | Monday, 26 March 2007 | Date last changed: | Wednesday, 11 July 2007 |
Overview
This great tip comes from a post by friesengeist.
One challenge in Joomla! is ensuring that certain PHP files in public_html containing executable code or confidential data are protected from direct Internet access.
There
are various ways to protect such files, but most are not optimal. Many
users and developer groups, such as Gallery2 and Apache.org strongly
recommend against keeping vulnerable files and confidential data inside
public_html.
The following method seems to be the simplest and most elegant way to protect read-only files that, for whatever reason, must be stored in public_html. In this example, we protect configuration.php, perhaps the most confidential file of any Joomla! site.
Note:
Using this method, even if the Web server somehow delivers the contents
of PHP files, for example due to a misconfiguration, nobody can see the
contents of the real configuration file.
Directions
1. Move configuration.php to a safe directory outside of public_html and rename it whatever you want. We use the name joomla.conf in this example.
2. Create a new configuration.php file containing only the following code:
<?php
require( dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/../joomla.conf' );
?>
Important!
Do not include blank lines or any characters (including blank spaces) before the php start tag or after the php end tag. If you make this mistake, you very likely see the following error.
Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/xxxxx/public_html/configuration.php:2) in /home/xxxxx/public_html/index.php on line 250
3. Make sure the new configuration.php file is not writable, so that it can not be overwritten by the Joomla! Web admin interface.
4. If you need to change configuration settings, do so manually in the relocated joomla.conf.
Last Updated Wednesday, 11 July 2007
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