What are some best practices for securing PHP files and folders using .htaccess?

Securing PHP files and folders using .htaccess involves restricting access to sensitive files and directories, preventing unauthorized execution of PHP scripts, and blocking malicious requests. One way to achieve this is by using .htaccess directives to set specific permissions and rules for PHP files and folders. ```apache # Block access to specific PHP files <FilesMatch "\.php$"> Order allow,deny Deny from all </FilesMatch> # Block access to sensitive directories <Directory "/path/to/sensitive/directory"> Deny from all </Directory> # Prevent PHP script execution in specific directories <Directory "/path/to/executable/php/scripts"> RemoveHandler .php .phtml .php3 RemoveType .php .phtml .php3 php_flag engine off </Directory> # Block common malicious requests RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (\<|%3C).*script.*(\>|%3E) [NC,OR] RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} GLOBALS(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2}) [OR] RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} _REQUEST(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2}) RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [F,L] ```