How to find if anyone accessed a specific file on my webserver using the apache log or anything else

Question

I'm running apache in a lamp configuration. Recently I had some sensitive files available because of a mix up in the options -Indexes in my HTacess.

Now I want to find out if anyone accessed those files in the time they were up.

Where would I go to find such information?

The server has WHM and cpanel installed and I have full access to it.

HUB · Answer 1 · 2011-06-09 08:22:41Z

up vote 1 down vote accepted

It your apache is configured to write access.log, you can "grep" it to find strings, containing requests to these files.

grep "your.file" /var/log/apache2/access.log

Of course, use your own path to access.log.

answered Jun 9 '11 at 8:22

HUB
83319

	Where do I find my log file though? Sorry I'm a newbie to this. It's not in that directory unfortunately – Jason Jun 9 '11 at 22:07
	Not having set up the server, how would I know whether the log file exists? – Jason Jun 9 '11 at 22:07
	What is your Linux distro? I may try to find it's default log file location. – HUB Jun 10 '11 at 8:33
	We are using CENTos – Jason Jun 12 '11 at 5:58
	Well, the default location is: "/var/log/httpd/access_log". You can find out the exact location ot the log files by reading the apache config. It is usually placed in "/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf". Or try to search within "/etc/http" directory for files, containing "access_log". Hope, this will help you find your logs. Sorry for not answering for so long - I've been away from the PC. – HUB Jun 13 '11 at 6:47

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