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Home  FAQs Security & Performance APACHE: How do I block direct hot linking to image files using .htaccess? |
| Author(s): | Rliskey | Experience level: | Beginner | Contributors: | Joomla! version: |  | Date added: | Monday, 26 March 2007 | Date last changed: | Friday, 06 July 2007 |
Caveats
1. Your server must allow .htaccess files for this technique to work.
2. If you do not have a .htaccess file in your root directory, see the related FAQ first.
3. Do not use this method to redirect image hot links to HTML pages or to servers that are not your own.
4. Hot linked images can only be replaced by other images, not with HTML pages.
5. As with any .htaccess rewrite, you may block legitimate traffic, such as users behind proxies or firewalls.
Directions
1. Create a jpeg image called no_hot_link.jpe. Note that the odd file extention (.jpe) is intentional and important. Place this file in your images directory.
2. Place the following code in the .htaccess file of your root directory.
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http://(.+\.)?your_site\.com/ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteRule .*\.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ /images/no_hot_link.jpe [L]
Explanation
The first line begins the Apache rewrite rule.
The second line matches any requests from your own site, here called
your_site.com url. The [NC] flag means "No Case", which means, match
upper and lower case characters. The third line allows empty referrals.
The last line matches any files ending with the extension jpeg, jpg,
gif, bmp, or png. This is then replaced by the no_hot_link.jpe file in
your images directory. This JPEG file uses the extension jpe instead of
jpg to prevent these rules from blocking your replacement image.
Block hot linking from specific domains
To
stop hotlinking from specific domains only, such as myspace.com,
blogspot.com and livejournal.com, while allowing other web sites to
hotlink to your images, use the following code:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://(.+\.)?myspace\.com/ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://(.+\.)?blogspot\.com/ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://(.+\.)?livejournal\.com/ [NC]
RewriteRule .*\.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ /images/nohotlink.jpe [L]
You can add as many different domains as you want. Every RewriteCond
line except the last one should end with the [NC,OR] flags. NC means to
ignore case. OR means "Or Next", as in, match this line OR the next
line. The last RewriteCond omits the OR flag to stop matching after the
last RewriteCond.
Display a 403 forbidden code
Alternatively, you can display a 403 Forbidden error code. Replace the last line of the previous examples with this line:
RewriteRule .*\.(jpe?g|gif|bmp|png)$ - [F]
Last Updated Friday, 06 July 2007
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