htaccess question

[olyclimber]

Looking at my forum (I inherited it, so I dont' know all the history), it has somethings secured with .htaccess files that appear to have originated from an IPB script or install.  The reason I say that is that they start off with "#<ipb-protection>".  I also have search a bit and it looks as if perhaps in the past in the ACP there was a place to configure htaccess?

I set up a minty fresh test install of IPB and in it I don't see a single htaccess file.   There is also zero mention of htaccess in the installation guide or in ACP that I can find. Am I not looking in the right place?

Has what htaccess delivered been replaced with another method or practice?  Pardon, I don't know the whole history of IPB, but I'm wondering if I still need to retain the htaccess files that are in place, or can they be removed as the forum software has been hardened in other ways?

Thanks in advance for any guidance here.

[Marc]

There is no built in htaccess with the platform. This used to be something you could generate a long long time ago, but Im talking about nearly a decade ago.

Protection of your admin CP via htaccess is actually an old way of doing things. We suggest these days using 2 factor authentication. You can see more about this here

 

[olyclimber]

Thank you @Marc Stridgen .  This was actually an htaccess protecting the uploads directory.

It was actually causing me an issue with an app, so good to know it is no longer necessary:

#<ipb-protection>
<Files ~ "^.*\.(php|cgi|pl|php3|php4|php5|php6|phtml|shtml|([a-z0-9]{32}))$">
    Order allow,deny
    Deny from all
</Files>
#</ipb-protection>

I assume to prevent scripts being run?

Edited March 7, 2023 by olyclimber

[Nathan Explosion]

That .htaccess file would have been from this:

 

[Randy Calvert]

11 minutes ago, Nathan Explosion said:

That .htaccess file would have been from this:

 

I remember that release...

Good times.

[olyclimber]

LOL...yeah our Forum has been around for a while (since 2001).  Originally was UBB.threads!  I just checked and was actually surprised to see that UBBcentral is still kicking, though they still haven't made it to PHP 8.

I think we switched over in 2016 actually.

Anyway, thanks for the background folks!

[olyclimber]

I had to check up on ole UBB...last version update was in 2020.  Yeah we made the right call getting off that platform.

[Jim M]

23 hours ago, olyclimber said:

Yeah we made the right call getting off that platform.

Glad to hear you're happy to be with us 🙂 .

[olyclimber]

I am @Jim M. If I had to do any other community forum (I'm considering starting another) I would choose Invision every time.