title: Blocking bad requests with .htaccess file
body: <p>I have a site that is getting hit by users hitting variations of this URL 
  /index.php?s=</p>
  
  <p>I am trying to block all requests to the following string which should get rid of all the spammers <strong>php?s=</strong> </p>
  
  <p>The problem I seem to be having is the ? and = in the htaccess file are protected characters and I just can't get the syntax correct. How can I use <strong>php?s=</strong> in the following scenarios?</p>
  
  <p>I have tried </p>
  
  <blockquote>
  <pre><code>&lt;IfModule mod_rewrite.c&gt;
   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^.(*php?s=).* [NC]
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [F,L]
  &lt;/IfModule&gt;
  </code></pre>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>and</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;IfModule mod_rewrite.c&gt;
   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^.*php?s=$1&amp;%{QUERY_STRING}.* [NC]
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [F,L]
  &lt;/IfModule&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and</p>
  
  <blockquote>
  <pre><code>&lt;IfModule mod_rewrite.c&gt;
   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^.*(php?s=$1&amp;%{QUERY_STRING}).* [NC]
   RewriteRule ^(.*)$ - [F,L]
  &lt;/IfModule&gt;
  </code></pre>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>But nothing works.  Help please!</p>