Loading ...Lighttpd setup a password protected directory (directories)
If you require authentication on certain directories using the Lighttpd web server, you can use Lighttpd's mod_auth module. It allows you to protect any directory in web server with access restrictions (just like Apache's password protected directory) .
Lighttpd supports both basic and digest authentication methods. Now consider following sample setup:
- Domain name: theos.in
- Directory (DocRoot) to protect with a password: /home/lighttpd/theos.in/http/docs
- Username: vivek
- Lighttpd password file: /home/lighttpd/.lighttpdpassword (this file should be outside default http document root)
How do I use Basic authentication method?
Easy to implement and password stored in cleartext format using files. If you are going to use this method make sure you use SSL (Secure Socket Layer) connection/encryption.
Step #1: Open /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf file
Make sure mod_auth is loaded:
server.modules += ( "mod_auth" )
Now add following three directives:
auth.debug = 2
auth.backend = "plain"
auth.backend.plain.userfile = "/home/lighttpd/.lighttpdpassword"
Where,
- auth.debug = 2 : Specify debug level (0 turns off debug message, 1 for authentication ok message and 2 for detailed/verbose debugging message). This is useful for troubleshooting authentication problem. It logs message in access.log and error.log files
- auth.backend = "plain" : You are using plain text backend (other options are ldap, htpasswd and others)
- auth.backend.plain.userfile = "/home/lighttpd/.lighttpdpassword" : Filename of the username:password storage
Next, you need specify which directory you want to password protect. For example, consider directory /home/lighttpd/theos.in/http/docs directory. Find out your domains virtual hosting section (theos.in) and append following text:
auth.require = ( "/docs/" =>
(
"method" => "basic",
"realm" => "Password protected area",
"require" => "user=vivek"
)
)
Where,
- auth.require = ( "/docs/" => : Directory name
- "method" => "basic", : Authentication type
- "realm" => "Password protected area", : Password realm/message
- "require" => "user=vivek" : Only user vivek can use /docs/
At the end, your configuration should read as follows:
$HTTP["host"] == "theos.in" {
server.document-root = "/home/lighttpd/theos.in/http"
server.errorlog = "/var/log/lighttpd/theos.in/error.log"
accesslog.filename = "/var/log/lighttpd/theos.in/access.log"
auth.require = ( "/docs/" =>
(
"method" => "basic",
"realm" => "Password protected area",
"require" => "user=vivek"
)
)
}
Save and close the file.
Step # 2: Create a password file
Create a plain text username (vivek) and password file:
# vi /home/lighttpd/.lighttpdpassword
Append username:password:
vivek:mysecretepassword
Where,
- vivek - is the name of a user. Please note that do not use a system user stored in /etc/passwd file. It is recommended that you use a different username that only exists for the purpose of authenticating password protected directories.
- mysecretepassword - is the password for user vivek (must be in clear text format for plain text method)
Save and close the file. Make sure file /home/lighttpd/.lighttpdpassword is readable by lighttpd:
# chown lighttpd:lighttpd /home/lighttpd/.lighttpdpassword
Finally, restart lighttpd server:
# /etc/init.d/lighttpd restart
Step # 3: Test your configuration
Fire your browser and point a web browser to http://yourdomain.com/docs/ or http://localhost/docs/ or http://ip-address/docs. You should be prompted for a username and password.
This way you can restrict access to certain areas of your website. Make sure you also use SSL encryption for authenticating users and secure digest authentication.
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- Lighttpd secure digest authentication (mod_auth)
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- Wordpress 2.0.7 available for download
- FreeBSD : How to setup shared directories
- Install chrooted lighttpd under Ubuntu Linux 64 bit version
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Tags: lighthttpd password, lighttpd auth, lighttpd auth.require, lighttpd authentication, lighttpd configuration auth, lighttpd mod_auth, lighttpd password, lighttpd password protect, lighttpd password protected, password lighttpd
[...] I have already wrote about how to password protect directory using Apache and Lighttpd webserver. Please follow instructions as given on these two urls. [...]
Hello,
Great post .I am new to lightTPD and having trouble implementing the changes to the lighttpd.conf file.
Is there a way you could post the conf in its entirety?
Thanks,
Bryan
You want to see my sample conf file…
Yeah, that would be great. I am having a hard time inserting the tutorial items into my existing conf file.
Sorry for trouble. It was CSS code that was causing the problem. It is fixed now. You can now copy and paste instructions. Or just grab my configuration file:
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tmp/lighttpd.conf.txt
Thanks, I was able to get it working using your sample as a reference.
Do you have somehting like this for samba….??? I can’t get samba to ask for authentication crednetials after having worked on the config file and retsarted the daemon [and also tried restarted the server].
As you describe in this detailed post, using plain text password is not secure enough without SSL.
Question: What about using basic htpasswd or htdigest? Are these susceptible to replay attacks also?
Thanks,
Fabian.
Fabian,
There only 2 methods:
a) Basic - username nad password in cleartext over the network
b) Digest - The Digest method only transfers a hashed value over the network hence more secure
digest onlysupport plaintext or htdigest backend to store username/password information.
Question: What about using basic htpasswd or htdigest? Are these susceptible to replay attacks also?
To be frank, your password is more secure as compare to plain text, there are two things you need to consider:
Not all browser supports digest method (only IE 5.0+, Mozilla/FF 1.0.1. Netscape 7+, Opera4+ etc supports digest)
Second if an attacker knows http protocol very well he can still find out your password (a rare case)
In short which ever method you use, get SSL support. You can also use your own SSL certificate if you cannot afford to purchase original one.
Great article, just what I was looking for. I have everything, except for the Chown command. I get the error message stating that there is no such group (or user) as lighttpd. Hope you can help!
Open your lighttpd config file and find out username and apply the same to .password file
If you only want to secure a file (not the entire directory), just add the full path information, e.g.:
auth.require = ( “/docs/secretpage.html” =>
(
“method” => “basic”,
“realm” => “Password protected area”,
“require” => “user=vivek”
)
Just tried to implement this, however I get stuck at the chown and the restart.(running lighttpd on my dns323)
So I skipped those and went to:
./lighttpd -D -f lighttpd.conf
Then I get the message:
can’t handle ‘$HTTP[url] =~ …’ as you compiled without pcre support.
two questions, what is pcre support, and what do Ihave to put in stead of the [url]
thanks
Patrick
PCRE support requires for perl style regex config option such as $HTTP[url] =~ ‘^/patj/to’ etc
Please add support package pcre-devel or pcre-lib and recompile lighttpd.
hi,
this configuration is not working i m not getting any username or password filed is i try to open the doc folders and its files in the browsers.
It shows me error 404- File Not Found
can you explain me why this error is coming
Thanks in advance
hi,
Aforsaid configuration is working now its my fault.
but now the problem is i have restriced a folder name d as docs in auth.require module and it has a file name as index.htm in it now when ever i run the website in my browser as https://mysite.com/docs/then it will ask me for username and password and after entering the username and password it shows error 404- File Not Found but i have index.htm in the doc folder.
what is the reason for this error.hope you will reply soon
Thanks in advance
hi,
sorry guys its me again.
no problem in ur article its fully my fault and i figured out where i was doing wrong.
sorry again ur tutorial helps me a lot starting from installing and configuring to protecting directories
i m really thankful to you
thanks a lot
Hi,
I’ve a question regarding all this. I don’t kno if it’s possible at all. My nas uses lighttpd for it’s administrative tasks. I use the build in lighttpd as well to serve some pages etc. Now I want to set a password on a folder. The admin function uses a password already and I want the same, I just want to add my folder that needs password protection. I have been trying to alter the conf file, but with no luck. Maybe you can shed some light on it? conf file pasted below:
server.document-root = “/usr/www/lib/”
server.pid-file = “/var/run/lighttpd.pid”
server.errorlog = “/var/log/lighttpd/error.log”
dir-listing.activate = “enable”
server.port = 5000
server.username = “www-data”
server.groupname = “www-data”
server.modules = (
“mod_auth”,
“mod_access”,
“mod_alias”,
“mod_cgi”,
“mod_fastcgi”,
“mod_accesslog”
)
server.errorfile-prefix = “/usr/www/lib/error-”
mimetype.assign = (
“.html” => “text/html”,
“.txt” => “text/plain”,
“.jpg” => “image/jpeg”,
“.png” => “image/png”,
“.gif” => “image/gif”,
“.css” => “text/css”
)
accesslog.filename = “/var/log/lighttpd/access.log”
static-file.exclude-extensions = ( “.fcgi”, “.php”, “.rb”, “~”, “.inc”, “.cgi” )
index-file.names = ( “nasMaster.pl” )
# bruce - I don’t think we need this now…
#cgi.assign = ( “.cgi” => “/usr/bin/perl” )
alias.url = ( “/auth” => “/usr/www/lib” )
auth.backend = “htdigest”
auth.backend.htdigest.userfile = “/var/private/lighttpd.htdigest.user”
auth.require = ( “/auth” =>
(
“method” => “digest”,
“realm” => “nas admin”,
“require” => “valid-user”
# bruce - removed user=
# “require” => “user=admin”
)
)
fastcgi.debug = 0
# Bruce - Removed host & port and replaced with a socket
# “host” => “127.0.0.1″,
# “port” => 1026,
fastcgi.server = ( “.pl” =>
(( “socket” => “/tmp/lighttpd.fcgi.socket”,
“bin-path” => “/usr/www/lib/nasMaster.pl”,
“check-local” => “disable”,
“min-procs” => 1,
“max-procs” => 1,
“idle-timeout” => 30,
“bin-environment” => (
# Environment variables for nasMaster.pl
“PERL5LIB” => “/usr/www/lib”,
“NAS_NBIN” => “/usr/www/nbin”,
),
)),
“nasMaster.pl” => (( “socket” => “/tmp/lighttpd.fcgi.socket”,
“check-local” => “disable”,
))
)
Hi,
I use the htdigest authentication, by adding a line to /var/private/lighttpd.htdigest.user .
Somehow, this added line is disappearing, so it seems the file is overwritten every now and then.
Anyone knows when and how?
Vincent,
Make file readonly using chattr or chmod.
How do I setup multiple user IDs? This example show only for one “user=vivek”
Paul,
Just append a new user / password
HTH
Hi…I have the same problem as influenza. I am trying to add a authentication to my nas (mybook). Has anyone figured this out.
you can add multiple users by sparating them with a tilde.
eg.
“require” => “user=user1|user=user2″
Is there a way to suppress directory listings?
directory listings can be enabled or disabled using
Turn on listing for /docs/ only:
$HTTP["url"] =~ “^/docs($|/)” { server.dir-listing = “enable” }