Question

Trying to block directory access from everyone except 1 IP address. This .htaccess code blocks access but it blocks access to everything including images, css, etc. What do I need to change?

RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^XX\.XXX\.XX\.XXX$
RewriteRule ^hidedirectory(.*)$ http://site.com/ [R,L]

Anyone accessing mysite.com/hidedirectory except me should redirect to mysite.com. Is there a better, more secure way to do this including something like an http response code?

Answer 1

Better way is to do this in your .conf file:

<Directory /hidedirectory>
 options -Indexes
 Order Deny,Allow
 Deny from all
 Allow from XX.XXX.XX.XXX
</Directory> 

This will deny everythig like your rewrite rules.
But since you want to allow access to images/css etc…

RewriteCond %{REMOTE_ADDR} !^XX\.XXX\.XX\.XXX$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.(?:jpe?g|png|gif|css)$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^hidedirectory(.*)$ http://site.com/ [R,L]

Add any other extensions into (?:jpe?g|png|gif|css) suffixed by a |(or).