Question

Explain line-by-line what the following snippet code from a .htaccess (WordPress) file means:

# Restricts access to PHP files from plugin and theme directories
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp-content/plugins/file/to/exclude\.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp-content/plugins/directory/to/exclude/
RewriteRule wp-content/plugins/(.*\.php)$ - [R=404,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp-content/themes/file/to/exclude\.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp-content/themes/directory/to/exclude/
RewriteRule wp-content/themes/(.*\.php)$ - [R=404,L]

Answer 1

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp-content/plugins/file/to/exclude\.php // this will protect your all php File Access Restriction
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp-content/plugins/directory/to/exclude/ // plugins folder will be not be directly accessed but whenever system need to access it will rewrite the conditon and change with toggle condition

RewriteRule wp-content/plugins/(.*\.php)$ - [R=404,L] // hackers can not access these php file directly or inject any malicious code to this php files

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp-content/themes/file/to/exclude\.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp-content/themes/directory/to/exclude/
RewriteRule wp-content/themes/(.*\.php)$ - [R=404,L] // theme folder will be protected and php files which need to use during run time will be excluded

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