Four unknown apple-touch-icon png files!
You may have noticed that if you have a hosting account with ExpertWebHost.NET, your public_html folder may show a few un-known(files that you did not upload or your script like wordpress did not include) png image files each of around 3kb size.
Typically, the names of these four png image files will be :
- apple-touch-icon.png
- apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png
- apple-touch-icon-57×57.png
- apple-touch-icon-57×57-precomposed.png
Who placed them in public_html folder?
ExpertWebHost.NET utilizes many custom developed automated background processes that analyze all the hosted domain logs to determine required security and performance optimizations on all our servers.
One of our automated background process will periodically search all hosted domains public_html folder and if the png files are not found, will include the four apple-touch-icon png image files.
Why the apple png files are auto included?
Apple-touch-icon related(usually png) image files are used by Apple devices, such as iPhones and iPads, to display icons when users bookmark a webpage on their home screen or add it to their home screen as a web app. These icons are typically small square images and are used to provide a more visually appealing and recognizable representation of the visiting website or web app.
When a user visits a website on an Apple device, the device automatically looks for a specific file named “apple-touch-icon.png” or “apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png” in the web root directory of the website(in this case, it is public_html folder). If the icons are not found(404 error), the apple device will keep on trying to get the image repeatedly.
In many cases, these apple device automated visits may flood the website logs and may create the effect of a small dos or ddos attack(if there are multiple apple devices trying for the same files).
To avoid all these un-necessary issues, usually our ExpertWebHost.NETs automated background processes will copy some generic apple-touch-icon related png image files.
If the user feels the default images are not adequate or un-attractive, they are free to replace them with their own images.