January 2010 Archives

A client wanted to make files available available to the web browser from within their LAN and a handful of static IPs without requiring any sort of username or password.  This is the web equivalent of a shared, read only folder.  This is no big issue, you can create an .htaccess file like so:

Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 10.10.0.1/16
Allow from 127.0.0.1/32
Allow from 1.1.1.1/32

However, they would also like to access it from a remote location with a username and password.

First, we need to create a password file.  In the old days, you would use "AuthType Basic", but a more secure method is the Digest method.  To use this, you must have the auth_digest module loaded into your Apache configuration.  If you are running a Debian or Ubuntu version, you can do this by executing "sudo a2enmod auth_digest".  Using digest authentication prevents your username and password from being sent in the clear (however, I always recommend that any site requiring authentication should utilize https).

Next,  you create your htdigest file:

htdigest -c .htdigest authname username

When prompted, you would enter a password for username.

Finally, you need to modify your .htaccess file to allow either method:

Order deny,allow
Deny from all
AuthName "authname"
AuthType Digest
AuthUserFile /var/www/.htpasswd
require valid-user
Allow from 10.10.0.1/16
Allow from 127.0.0.1/32
Allow from 1.1.1.1/32
Satisfy Any

Now, a user can come from the 10.10.x.x network, localhost, or 1.1.1.1 without requiring authentication.  If they later come from an unrecognized IP, they can enter their username and password and be granted access.