One challenge in Joomla! is ensuring that certain PHP files in public_html containingexecutable code or confidential data are protected from direct Internet access.

There are various ways to protect such files, but most are not optimal. Many users and developer groups, such as Gallery2 and Apache.org strongly recommend against keeping vulnerable files and confidential data inside public_html.

The following method seems to be the simplest and most elegant way to protect read-only files that, for whatever reason, must be stored in public_html. In this example, we protect configuration.php, perhaps the most confidential file of any Joomla! site.

Note: Using this method, even if the Web server somehow delivers the contents of PHP files, for example due to a misconfiguration, nobody can see the contents of the real configuration file.

Directions

1. Move configuration.php to a safe directory outside of public_html and rename it

whatever you want. We use the name joomla.conf in this example.

2. Create a new configuration.php file containing only the following code:

<?php
require( dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/../../../joomla.conf' );
?>

Important!

Do not include blank lines or any characters (including blank spaces) before the php

3. Make sure the new configuration.php file is not writable, so that it can not be overwritten by the Joomla! Web admin interface.
File permission:
configuration.php  : 4 4 4
joomla.conf          : 6 4 4

4. If you need to change configuration settings, do so manually in the relocated joomla.conf.