How to hide certain file type using apache .htaccess?

Question

Its been a long time since I've needed to crack open an .htaccess file...

What is the simplest way to 40x prevent access to a specific file extension though out the entire site?

Answer 1

<FilesMatch "\.ext$">
    Deny from all
</FilesMatch>

See the Apache documentation on FilesMatch and Deny

EDIT: Artefacto makes a good point, this will return 403, not 404, if that's important for your purposes

Answer 2

With <FilesMatch> and Deny.

Answer 3

<FilesMatch "\.(htaccess|htpasswd|ini|log|sh|inc|bak)$">
Order Allow,Deny
Deny from all
</FilesMatch>

Loaded with some common extensions, add more as you need.

Answer 4

If you really want a 404 (and not a 403), you can use mod_rewrite:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule \.ext$ - [R=404]