.htaccess to deny access to most xml files

Question

I recently had a Joomla site hacked, so I'm trying to harden the site a bit. There's a section in the recommended .htaccess that restricts outside access to the xml files that come with extensions. However, it also keeps my sitemap.xml file from being accessed.

How do I allow a certain file whiles keeping the rest?

here's the default code:

<Files ~ "\.xml$">
 Order allow,deny
 Deny from all
 Satisfy all
</Files>

and my modification that caused a 500 error:

<Files ~ "(?!sitemap)\.xml$">
 Order allow,deny
 Deny from all
 Satisfy all
</Files>

Answer 1

The FilesMatch line has an extra "<". It should be:

<FilesMatch "(?!sitemap)\.xml$">

Answer 2

You should use <FilesMatch> as documented here

Also, I think your regex should be (?<!sitemap)\.xml$ instead. Like this:

<FilesMatch "(?<!sitemap)\.xml$">
   Order allow,deny
   Deny from all
</FilesMatch>

Answer 3

I finally decided not to mess with the regex.

I added:

<Files ~  "sitemap\.xml$">
  Order allow,deny
  Allow from all  
</Files>

afterward and it works like a charm.