.htaccess - Apache folder and files returing 404 Not Found when should be returning 403 Forbidden on Linux

Question

I have made a custom folder within WordPress' uploads directory to house some downloadable files, however I don't want these to be directly accessible, they should only be accessible via a script for example.

To accomplish this I simply put a .htaccess file in the respective folder containing:

Deny from all

My development environment is Windows and this was working fine, both the folder and file returned a 403 Forbidden and I was able to force download the file via a script.

Now I have uploaded the site to a staging server that is running on Linux (RedHat I think?), Apache as well, but for both the folder and the file it returns a 404 Not Found and hence the file download also fails.

What am I missing here? Why is it acting differently? Should I be putting some different/extra in the .htaccess file?

Edit: I just noticed that whilst it IS stating it is a 404, it is redirecting to a 403.shtml file.

Answer 1

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