Preventing image hotlinking - is this code correct?

Server Config
1

Hi,

I noticed that some websites are linking to my images and I want to prevent this but at the same time I want to allow Google and other search engines to display my images on image search. I have this code in my .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^(.+\\.)?mydomain.com/.*$ [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^(.+\\.)?google\\. [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^(.+\\.)?yahoo\\. [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^(.+\\.)?bing\\. [NC]
RewriteRule \\.(gif|jpe?g|bmp|png|js|css)$ http://www.mydomain.com/stop-hotlinking.gif [R,L]

I wanted to make sure if this is the right code to use before uploading it to my website.

Thanks for any ideas.

2

ademmeda,

That looks good to me (except that I’d use R=301 rather than just R).

Regards,

DK

3

Just be aware tyhat you MAY need to always allow the ‘stop-hotlinking’ gif through the rules too - assuming its on the same host as the rules are there to protect.

4

Tim,

Hmmm, good thought! I’ve never seen that addressed but it’s a very valid comment!

Regards,

DK

5

I can dig out what I had to do on a previous site to allow this if needed - i had to forcibly allow the ‘block’ image through otherwisse it got stuck in an infinite loop.

6

Tim,

Not needed. All that would have to be done is to add another RewriteCond to examine the {REQUEST_URI} and NOT match against the “pirate” image.

Regards,

DK

7

Ah yes… I am awake today… honest :wink: