Preventing Online Exposure of Sensitive Files

How to Protect .htaccess File from Being Published

Question

An administrator is reviewing updates in the master online Git repository and notices a file named .htaccess.

The file contains passwords and should only be in the administrator's local repository, not the online one.

Which of the following would prevent this file from appearing online in the future?

Answers

Explanations

Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer

A. B. C. D.

D.

The correct answer is D. echo ".htaccess" >> .gitignore.

Explanation:

Git is a version control system that tracks changes to files and stores those changes in a repository. When a file is added to the repository, it is tracked by Git, and any changes made to the file are recorded in the repository. The .gitignore file is used to specify files or directories that Git should ignore when tracking changes.

In this scenario, the administrator has noticed that a file named .htaccess, which contains passwords, has been added to the master online Git repository. This file should only be in the administrator's local repository and not the online one. To prevent this file from appearing online in the future, we need to add it to the .gitignore file.

Option A (git commit -m "File Update" -x .htaccess) is a command to commit changes to the repository, but it does not prevent the file from being tracked by Git.

Option B (sed -i s/#Preserve Hidden=True/Preserve Hidden=True/g .git/config) is a command to change the Git configuration file to preserve hidden files, but it does not prevent the file from being tracked by Git.

Option C (chown nobody:nobody .htaccess) is a command to change the ownership of the .htaccess file, but it does not prevent the file from being tracked by Git.

Option D (echo ".htaccess" >> .gitignore) is the correct answer. This command appends the text ".htaccess" to the .gitignore file, telling Git to ignore this file when tracking changes. This will prevent the file from being added to the repository in the future.