5.1. Authentication Protocol

Authentication is simple in principle. The client sends its name and password to Apache. Apache looks up its file of names and encrypted passwords to see whether the client is entitled to access. The webmaster can store a number of clients in a list—either as a simple text file or as a database—and thereby control access person by person.

It is also possible to group a number of people into named groups and to give or deny access to these groups as a whole. So, throughout this chapter, bill and ben are in the group directors, and daphne and sonia are in the group cleaners. The webmaster can require user so and so or require group such and such. If you have to deal with large numbers of people, it is obviously easier to group them in this way.

Each username/password pair is valid for a particular realm, named when the passwords are created. The browser asks for a URL; the server sends back "Authentication Required" (code 401) and the realm. If the browser already has a username/password for that realm, it sends the request again with the username/password. If not, it prompts the user, usually including the realm's name in the prompt, and sends that.

Of course, all this is worryingly insecure since the password is sent unencrypted over the Web and any malign observer simply has to watch the traffic to get the password—which is as good in his hands as in the legitimate client's. Digest authentication improves on this by using a challenge/handshake protocol to avoid revealing the actual password. Well, it would, if any browsers supported the technique, which at the moment they don't. However, we include information concerning this procedure later in this chapter, in the hope that a miracle may occur during the lifetime of this edition.

5.1.1. site.authent

Examples are found in site.authent. The Config file looks like this:

User webuser
Group webgroup
ServerName www.butterthlies.com
NameVirtualHost 192.168.123.2

<VirtualHost www.butterthlies.com>
ServerAdmin [email protected]
DocumentRoot /usr/www/site.authent/htdocs/customers
ServerName www.butterthlies.com
ErrorLog /usr/www/site.authent/logs/error_log
TransferLog /usr/www/site.authent/logs/customers/access_log
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin /usr/www/cgi-bin
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost sales.butterthlies.com>
ServerAdmin [email protected]
DocumentRoot /usr/www/site.authent/htdocs/salesmen
ServerName sales.butterthlies.com
ErrorLog /usr/www/site.authent/logs/error_log
TransferLog /usr/www/site.authent/logs/salesmen/access_log
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin /usr/www/cgi-bin

<Directory /usr/www/site.authent/htdocs/salesmen>
AuthType Basic
AuthName darkness
AuthUserFile /usr/www/ok_users/sales
AuthGroupFile /usr/www/ok_users/groups
#AuthDBMUserFile /usr/www/ok_dbm/sales
#AuthDBMGroupFile /usr/www/ok_dbm/groups
require valid-user
#require user daphne bill
#require group cleaners
#require group directors
</Directory>

<Directory /usr/www/cgi-bin>
AuthType Basic
AuthName darkness
AuthUserFile /usr/www/ok_users/sales
AuthGroupFile /usr/www/ok_users/groups
#AuthDBMUserFile /usr/www/ok_dbm/sales
#AuthDBMGroupFile /usr/www/ok_dbm/groups
require valid-user
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

What is going on here? Read on.