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diff --git a/docs/manual/howto/auth.html b/docs/manual/howto/auth.html deleted file mode 100644 index 3ea56e4508..0000000000 --- a/docs/manual/howto/auth.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,379 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> - -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> - <head> - <meta name="generator" content="HTML Tidy, see www.w3.org" /> - - <title>Authentication</title> - <link rev="made" href="mailto:rbowen@rcbowen.com" /> - </head> - <!-- Background white, links blue (unvisited), navy (visited), red (active) --> - - <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" - vlink="#000080" alink="#FF0000"> - <!--#include virtual="header.html" --> - - <h1 align="center">Authentication</h1> - <a id="__index__" name="__index__"></a> <!-- INDEX BEGIN --> - - - <ul> - <li><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a></li> - - <li><a href="#theprerequisites">The prerequisites</a></li> - - <li><a href="#gettingitworking">Getting it working</a></li> - - <li><a href="#lettingmorethanonepersonin">Letting more - than one person in</a></li> - - <li><a href="#possibleproblems">Possible problems</a></li> - - <li><a href="#whatotherneatstuffcanido">What other neat - stuff can I do?</a></li> - - <li><a href="#moreinformation">More information</a></li> - </ul> - <!-- INDEX END --> - <hr /> - - <table border="1"> - <tr> - <td valign="top"><strong>Related Modules</strong><br /> - <br /> - <a href="../mod/mod_auth.html">mod_auth</a><br /> - <a href="../mod/mod_access.html">mod_access</a><br /> - </td> - - <td valign="top"><strong>Related Directives</strong><br /> - <br /> - <a href="../mod/mod_access.html#allow">Allow</a><br /> - <a - href="../mod/mod_auth.html#authgroupfile">AuthGroupFile</a><br /> - <a href="../mod/core.html#authname">AuthName</a><br /> - <a href="../mod/core.html#authtype">AuthType</a><br /> - <a - href="../mod/mod_auth.html#authuserfile">AuthUserFile</a><br /> - <a href="../mod/mod_access.html#deny">Deny</a><br /> - <a href="../mod/core.html#options">Options</a><br /> - <a href="../mod/core.html#require">Require</a><br /> - </td> - </tr> - </table> - - <h1><a id="authentication" - name="authentication">Authentication</a></h1> - - <p>Authentication is any process by which you verify that - someone is who they claim they are. Authorization is any - process by which someone is allowed to be where they want to - go, or to have information that they want to have.</p> - - <h2><a id="introduction" - name="introduction">Introduction</a></h2> - - <p>If you have information on your web site that is sensitive - or intended for only a small group of people, the techniques in - this article will help you make sure that the people that see - those pages are the people that you wanted to see them.</p> - - <p>This article covers the "standard" way of protecting parts - of your web site that most of you are going to use.</p> - - <h2><a id="theprerequisites" name="theprerequisites">The - prerequisites</a></h2> - - <p>The directives discussed in this article will need to go - either in your main server configuration file (typically in a - <Directory> section), or in per-directory configuration - files (<code>.htaccess</code> files).</p> - - <p>If you plan to use <code>.htaccess</code> files, you will - need to have a server configuration that permits putting - authentication directives in these files. This is done with the - <code><a - href="../mod/core.html#allowoverride">AllowOverride</a></code> - directive, which specifies which directives, if any, may be put - in per-directory configuration files.</p> - - <p>Since we're talking here about authentication, you will need - an <code>AllowOverride</code> directive like the following:</p> -<pre> - AllowOverride AuthConfig -</pre> - - <p>Or, if you are just going to put the directives directly in - your main server configuration file, you will of course need to - have write permission to that file.</p> - - <p>And you'll need to know a little bit about the directory - structure of your server, in order to know where some files are - kept. This should not be terribly difficult, and I'll try to - make this clear when we come to that point.</p> - - <h2><a id="gettingitworking" - name="gettingitworking">Getting it working</a></h2> - - <p>Here's the basics of password protecting a directory on your - server.</p> - - <p>You'll need to create a password file. This file should be - placed somewhere not accessible from the web. This is so that - folks cannot download the password file. For example, if your - documents are served out of - <code>/usr/local/apache/htdocs</code> you might want to put the - password file(s) in <code>/usr/local/apache/passwd</code>.</p> - - <p>To create the file, use the <a - href="../programs/htpasswd.html">htpasswd</a> utility that came - with Apache. This be located in the <code>bin</code> directory - of wherever you installed Apache. To create the file, type:</p> -<pre> - htpasswd -c /usr/local/apache/passwd/password rbowen -</pre> - - <p><code>htpasswd</code> will ask you for the password, and - then ask you to type it again to confirm it:</p> -<pre> - # htpasswd -c /usr/local/apache/passwd/passwords rbowen - New password: mypassword - Re-type new password: mypassword - Adding password for user rbowen -</pre> - - <p>If <code>htpasswd</code> is not in your path, of course - you'll have to type the full path to the file to get it to run. - On my server, it's located at - <code>/usr/local/apache/bin/htpasswd</code></p> - - <p>Next, you'll need to configure the server to request a - password and tell the server which users are allowed access. - You can do this either by editing the <code>httpd.conf</code> - file or using an <code>.htaccess</code> file. For example, if - you wish to protect the directory - <code>/usr/local/apache/htdocs/secret</code>, you can use the - following directives, either placed in the file - <code>/usr/local/apache/htdocs/secret/.htaccess</code>, or - placed in httpd.conf inside a <Directory - /usr/local/apache/apache/htdocs/secret> section.</p> -<pre> - AuthType Basic - AuthName "Restricted Files" - AuthUserFile /usr/local/apache/passwd/passwords - require user rbowen -</pre> - - <p>Let's examine each of those directives individually. The <a - href="../mod/core.html#authtype">AuthType</a> directive selects - that method that is used to authenticate the user. The most - common method is <code>Basic</code>, and this is the method - implemented by <a href="../mod/mod_auth.html">mod_auth</a>. It - is important to be aware, however, that Basic authentication - sends the password from the client to the browser unencrypted. - This method should therefore not be used for highly sensitive - data. Apache supports one other authentication method: - <code>AuthType Digest</code>. This method is implemented by <a - href="../mod/mod_auth_digest.html">mod_auth_digest</a> and is - much more secure. Only the most recent versions of clients are - known to support Digest authentication.</p> - - <p>The <a href="../mod/core.html#authname">AuthName</a> - directive sets the <em>Realm</em> to be used in the - authentication. The realm serves two major functions. First, - the client often presents this information to the user as part - of the password dialog box. Second, it is used by the client to - determine what password to send for a given authenticated area. - So, for example, once a client has authenticated in the - <code>"Restricted Files"</code> area, it will automatically - retry the same password for any area on the same server that is - marked with the <code>"Restricted Files"</code> Realm. - Therefore, you can prevent a user from being prompted more than - once for a password by letting multiple restricted areas share - the same realm. Of course, for security reasons, the client - will always need to ask again for the password whenever the - hostname of the server changes.</p> - - <p>The <a - href="../mod/mod_auth.html#authuserfile">AuthUserFile</a> - directive sets the path to the password file that we just - created with <code>htpasswd</code>. If you have a large number - of users, it can be quite slow to search through a plain text - file to authenticate the user on each request. Apache also has - the ability to store user information in fast database files. - The <a href="../mod/mod_auth_dbm.html">mod_auth_dbm</a> module - provides the <a - href="../mod/mod_auth_dbm.html#authdbmuserfile">AuthDBMUserFile</a> - directive. These files can be created and - manipulated with the <a - href="../programs/dbmmanage.html">dbmmanage</a> program. Many - other types of authentication options are available from third - party modules in the <a - href="http://modules.apache.org/">Apache Modules - Database</a>.</p> - - <p>Finally, the <a href="../mod/core.html#require">require</a> - directive provides the authorization part of the process by - setting the user that is allowed to access this region of the - server. In the next section, we discuss various ways to use the - <code>require</code> directive.</p> - - <h2><a id="lettingmorethanonepersonin" - name="lettingmorethanonepersonin">Letting more than one - person in</a></h2> - - <p>The directives above only let one person (specifically - someone with a username of <code>rbowen</code>) into the - directory. In most cases, you'll want to let more than one - person in. This is where the <a - href="../mod/mod_auth.html#authgroupfile">AuthGroupFile</a> - comes in.</p> - - <p>If you want to let more than one person in, you'll need to - create a group file that associates group names with a list of - users in that group. The format of this file is pretty simple, - and you can create it with your favorite editor. The contents - of the file will look like this:</p> -<pre> - GroupName: rbowen dpitts sungo rshersey -</pre> - - <p>That's just a list of the members of the group in a long - line separated by spaces.</p> - - <p>To add a user to your already existing password file, - type:</p> -<pre> - htpasswd /usr/local/apache/passwd/password dpitts -</pre> - - <p>You'll get the same response as before, but it will be - appended to the existing file, rather than creating a new file. - (It's the <code>-c</code> that makes it create a new password - file).</p> - - <p>Now, you need to modify your <code>.htaccess</code> file to - look like the following:</p> -<pre> - AuthType Basic - AuthName "By Invitation Only" - AuthUserFile /usr/local/apache/passwd/passwords - AuthGroupFile /usr/local/apache/passwd/groups - require group GroupName -</pre> - - <p>Now, anyone that is listed in the group - <code>GroupName</code>, and has an entry in the - <code>password</code> file, will be let in, if they type the - correct password.</p> - - <p>There's another way to let multiple users in that is less - specific. Rather than creating a group file, you can just use - the following directive:</p> -<pre> - require valid-user -</pre> - - <p>Using that rather than the <code>require user rbowen</code> - line will allow anyone in that is listed in the password file, - and who correctly enters their password. You can even emulate - the group behavior here, by just keeping a separate password - file for each group. The advantage of this approach is that - Apache only has to check one file, rather than two. The - disadvantage is that you have to maintain a bunch of password - files, and remember to reference th right one in the - <code>AuthUserFile</code> directive.</p> - - <h2><a id="possibleproblems" name="possibleproblems">Possible - problems</a></h2> - - <p>Because of the way that Basic authentication is specified, - your username and password must be verified every time you - request a document from the server. This is even if you're - reloading the same page, and for every image on the page (if - they come from a protected directory). As you can imagine, this - slows things down a little. The amount that it slows things - down is proportional to the size of the password file, because - it has to open up that file, and go down the list of users - until it gets to your name. And it has to do this every time a - page is loaded.</p> - - <p>A consequence of this is that there's a practical limit to - how many users you can put in one password file. This limit - will vary depending on the performance of your particular - server machine, but you can expect to see slowdowns once you - get above a few hundred entries, and may wish to consider a - different authentication method at that time.</p> - - <h2><a id="whatotherneatstuffcanido" - name="whatotherneatstuffcanido">What other neat stuff can - I do?</a></h2> - - <p>Authentication by username and password is only part of the - story. Frequently you want to let people in based on something - other than who they are. Something such as where they are - coming from.</p> - - <p>The <code>allow</code> and <code>deny</code> directives let - you allow and deny access based on the host name, or host - address, of the machine requesting a document. The - <code>order</code> directive goes hand-in-hand with these two, - and tells Apache in which order to apply the filters.</p> - - <p>The usage of these directives is:</p> -<pre> - allow from address -</pre> - - <p>where <em>address</em> is an IP address (or a partial IP - address) or a fully qualified domain name (or a partial domain - name); you may provide multiple addresses or domain names, if - desired.</p> - - <p>For example, if you have someone spamming your message - board, and you want to keep them out, you could do the - following:</p> -<pre> - deny from 205.252.46.165 -</pre> - - <p>Visitors coming from that address will not be able to see - the content covered by this directive. If, instead, you have a - machine name, rather than an IP address, you can use that.</p> -<pre> - deny from host.example.com -</pre> - - <p>And, if you'd like to block access from an entire domain, - you can specify just part of an address or domain name:</p> -<pre> - deny from 192.101.205 - deny from cyberthugs.com moreidiots.com - deny from ke -</pre> - - <p>Using <code>order</code> will let you be sure that you are - actually restricting things to the group that you want to let - in, by combining a <code>deny</code> and an <code>allow</code> - directive:</p> -<pre> - order deny,allow - deny from all - allow from dev.example.com -</pre> - - <p>Listing just the <code>allow</code> directive would not do - what you want, because it will let folks from that host in, in - addition to letting everyone in. What you want is to let - <em>only</em> those folks in.</p> - - <h2><a id="moreinformation" name="moreinformation">More - information</a></h2> - - <p>You should also read the documentation for <code><a - href="../mod/mod_auth.html">mod_auth</a></code> and <code><a - href="../mod/mod_access.html">mod_access</a></code> which - contain some more information about how this all works.</p> - </body> -</html> - |