Deny access from ips in file

Question

Is there a .htaccess command that denies access to every ip in a specific file? Say I have a file called bans.txt (sitting next to my .htaccess file) that consists of a simple list of ips, one under the other. I want to deny access to every ip in that file. Is there a simple .htaccess command that will do it? Something like:

Deny from bans.txt

I've been searching and I don't think there is, but just checking, thanks.

Answer 1

Actually there is a neat way to achieve this task purely from Apache. You need to use a feature called RewriteMap

1 - First enable mod_rewrite and .htaccess through httpd.conf and then put this code in your httpd.conf to enable a RewriteMap called ipmap:

RewriteMap ipmap txt:/some/path/to/ipmap.txt

2 - Then create your text file /some/path/to/ipmap.txt with entries like this listing all the IPs that you want to ban:

192.168.0.1 1
192.168.0.4 1
10.119.35.8 1
...
...

3 - Bounce your Apache process (since you have changed httpd.conf)

4 - Finally put this code in your .htaccess under your $DOCUMENT_ROOT directory:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

# if IP is found in ipmap then return Forbidden error
RewriteCond ${ipmap:%{REMOTE_ADDR}} ^1$
RewriteRule ^ - [F,L]