Backend directory and files being cached in search engines

General General Questions
1

I recently activated the SEO add-on and the number of pages from my site being cached in search engines increased significantly. However I notice that most of that increase relates to the caching of backend files in the active skins directory.



I have checked and the directory is viewable via web browser and the files (e.g. tpl) in the directory are downloadable. This seems like a potential security issue and at the very least it is pointless having hundreds of pages cached in search engines that do not relate to the front end of the store.



Any thoughts on why this is happening? Is it related to the SEO add-on or might there be another issue causing this?



The skins folder permissions is currently set to 777 which I assume is required for the skins directory and its sub directories? I have also added a robotx.txt Disallow for the skins directory so hopefully that will stop the caching of that sub directory but it still bothers me that it can be browsed without hitting a “forbidden”.

2

I'd guess you have an .htaccess problem (or missing file) in your skins directory. Your template files should not be visible from a web browser.

3

[quote name='tbirnseth' timestamp='1330901802' post='132573']

I'd guess you have an .htaccess problem (or missing file) in your skins directory. Your template files should not be visible from a web browser.

[/quote]



Thanks for the reply tbirnseth, I notice that within my source installation for Cs Cart and even within very recent shop backups that the skins folder has a .htaccess file but not within my active shop! Not sure why this file was missing but after replacing the file the skins folder and sub folders are no longer able to be browsed.



Thanks for the help!

4

[quote name='CosmeticTattooist' timestamp='1330903984' post='132579']

Thanks for the reply tbirnseth, I notice that within my source installation for Cs Cart and even within very recent shop backups that the skins folder has a .htaccess file but not within my active shop! Not sure why this file was missing but after replacing the file the skins folder and sub folders are no longer able to be browsed.



Thanks for the help!

[/quote]



Short answer, you upgraded your store.