Overview

# cPanel layout
/home/youracct/
  ├── .env   ← private
  └── public_html/
    └── canibreakit.com/

// php/bootstrap/env.php
$envFile = dirname(__DIR__, 3) . '/.env';
if (is_file($envFile)) {
  foreach (file($envFile) as $line) {
    $line = trim($line);
    if ($line==='' || $line[0]==='#') continue;
    [$k,$v] = explode('=', $line, 2) + ['',''];
    $_ENV[trim($k)] = trim($v);
  }
}

// php/auth/db.php
require __DIR__.'/../bootstrap/env.php';
$host = $_ENV['DB_HOST'] ?? 'localhost';
$db = $_ENV['DB_NAME'] ?? '';
$user = $_ENV['DB_USER'] ?? '';
$pass = $_ENV['DB_PASS'] ?? '';

# public_html/.htaccess
<FilesMatch "^\.env">
  Require all denied
</FilesMatch>