Deny access to .svn folders on Apache

I do not like the idea of 404ing each file startig wit a dot. I'd use a more selective approach, either with the cvs I'm using in the project (svn in the example)

RedirectMatch 404 /\\.svn(/|$)

or a catch all cvs systems

RedirectMatch 404 /\\.(svn|git|hg|bzr|cvs)(/|$)

-- outdated answer follows (see comments) --

I cant write comments yet so... The answer of csexton is incorrect, because an user cannot access the .svn folder, but can access any files inside it ! e.g. you can access http://myserver.com/.svn/entries

The correct rule is

RedirectMatch 404 /\\.svn(/.*|$)

I think Riccardo Galli got it right. Even apache already had .svn setup as forbidden for me, but .svn/entries was certainly available...exposing my svn server, port number, usernames, etc.

I actually figure, why not restrict .git as a preventative measure (say you don't use git yet but may someday at which time you will not be thinking about directory restrictions).

And then I thought, why not restrict everything that should be hidden anyway? Can anyone conceive of a problem with this?

RedirectMatch 404 /\\..*(/.*|$)

I added the '.*' after the initial period - only difference from Riccardo. Seems to 404 .svn, .git, .blah, etc.

The best option is to use Apache configuration.

Using htaccess or global configuration depends mainly on if you control your server.

If you do, you can use something like

<DirectoryMatch .*\.svn/.*>
    Deny From All
</DirectoryMatch>

If you don't, you can do something similar in .htaccess files with FilesMatch

One other way to protect the .svn files would be to use a redirect in the Apache config:

RedirectMatch 404 /\\.svn(/|$)

So instead of getting a 403 forbidden (and providing clues to would be attackers) you get a 404, which is what we would expect when randomly typing in paths.