Access Control¶

Apache users can utilize directives in .htaccess to control access to certain directories or files, like so:

Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all

However, OpenLiteSpeed only supports .htaccess for rewrite rules, and not for directives. So, OpenLiteSpeed provides other methods for controlling access.

Deny Access to a Directory with Rewrite Rules¶

Let's say we want to deny access to the /test/ directory The simplest way is to use a rewrite rule, like this one:

RewriteRule ^/test/.*$ - [F,L]

You can put the rule in .htaccess or use the Rewrite tab in WebAdmin, like so:

Once the new rewrite rule is added, restart OpenLiteSpeed to make it take effect, and test by visiting the site again:

As you can see access to the /test/ directory is now denied for all visitors.

Auto Load from .htaccess¶

If Auto Load from .htaccess is set to Yes, then use this rule instead:

RewriteRule ^test/.*$ - [F,L]

The difference is the forward slash. Please take a look at our documentation on Apache rewrite rules for more details about this difference.

Allow Access to a Directory for a single IP with Rewrite Rules¶

You can customize the above rewrite rule to allow access only for a certain IP address, like so:

RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^192\.0\.2\.0
RewriteRule ^test/.*$ - [F,L]

This set of rules will only allow access to /test/ directory if the visitor IP is 192.0.2.0.

Controlling Access to a Directory with A Static Context¶

Set Accessible to No to deny access to everyone.

You can exert more granular control on a URI's access by setting Accessible to Yes. Use Access Allowed and Access Denied to filter the types of visitors to allow and deny access, like so:

Controlling Access to Files¶

By manipulating context settings or rewrite rules, you can also control access to specific file types or individual files.

RewriteRule ^/.*\.(log|ini)$ - [F,L]

RewriteRule xmlpc.php$ - [F,L]

Block Multiple Files at Once¶

There are two ways to block multiple files, and both of them require you to separate file names with |.

Using a Context¶

URI:

exp:error_log|wp-config-sample.php|readme.html|readme.txt|license.txt|install.php|wp-config.php|php.ini|php5.ini|bb-config.php

Location:

$DOC_ROOT/$0

Accessible: No

With Rewrite Rules¶

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} error_log|wp-config-sample.php|readme.html|readme.txt|license.txt|install.php|wp-config.php|php.ini|php5.ini|bb-config.php [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]

Sitemap.xml access control example:¶

RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !.*(google|Bing).* [NC,OR]
RewriteRule sitemap.xml$ - [F,L]

To restrict your sitemap so that it is viewable only to known good bots, like Google, you can use the above rule. The [NC] flag is non-case-sensitive, and the [OR] flag on the first line is needed to match Google OR Bing.