Set Apache Password Protected Directories With .htaccess File

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I am a new Linux server sysadmin. How do I protect a directory in Apache web-server on a Linux operating systems?

There are many ways you can password protect directories under an Apache web server. This is important to keep your file privates from both unauthorized users and search engines (when you do not want to get your data indexed). In this tutorial you will see the basics of password protecting a directory on your server. You can use any one of the following method:

  1. Putting authentication directives in a <Directory> section, in your main server configuration httpd.conf file, is the preferred way to implement this kind of authentication.
  2. If you do not have access to Apache httpd.conf file (for example shared hosting) then with the help of file called .htaccess you can create password protect directories. .htaccess file provide a way to make configuration changes on a per-directory basis.

In order to create apache password protected directories you need:

  • Password file
  • And Directory name which you would like to password protect (/var/www/docs)

Step # 1: Make sure Apache is configured to use .htaccess file

You need to have AllowOverride AuthConfig directive in httpd.conf file in order for these directives to have any effect. Look for DocumentRoot Directory entry. In this example, our DocumentRoot directory is set to /var/www. Therefore, my entry in httpd.conf looks like as follows:

<Directory /var/www>
Options Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride AuthConfig
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
</Directory>

Save the file and restart Apache
If you are using Red Hat /Fedora Linux:

# service httpd restart

If you are using Debian Linux:

# /etc/init.d/apache-perl restart

Step # 2: Create a password file with htpasswd

htpasswd command is used to create and update the flat-files (text file) used to store usernames and password for basic authentication of Apache users. General syntax:
htpasswd -c password-file username

Where,

  • -c : Create the password-file. If password-file already exists, it is rewritten and truncated.
  • username : The username to create or update in password-file. If username does not exist in this file, an entry is added. If it does exist, the password is changed.

Create directory outside apache document root, so that only Apache can access password file. The password-file should be placed somewhere not accessible from the web. This is so that people cannot download the password file:

# mkdir -p /home/secure/

Add new user called vivek

# htpasswd -c /home/secure/apasswords vivek

Make sure /home/secure/apasswords file is readable by Apache web server. If Apache cannot read your password file, it will not authenticate you. You need to setup a correct permission using chown command. Usually apache use www-data user. Use the following command to find out Apache username. If you are using Debian Linux use pache2.conf, type the following command:
# grep -e '^User' /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

Output:

www-data

Now allow apache user www-data to read our password file:
# chown www-data:www-data /home/secure/apasswords
# chmod 0660 /home/secure/apasswords

If you are using RedHat and Fedora core, type the following commands :
# grep -e '^User' /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Output:

apache

Now allow apache user apache to read our password file:
# chown apache:apache /home/secure/apasswords
# chmod 0660 /home/secure/apasswords

Now our user vivek is added but you need to configure the Apache web server to request a password and tell the server which users are allowed access. Let us assume you have directory called /var/www/docs and you would like to protect it with a password.

Create a directory /var/www/docs if it does not exist:
# mkdir -p /var/www/docs

Create .htaccess file using text editor:
# cd /var/www/docs
# vi .htaccess

Add following text:

AuthType Basic
AuthName "Restricted Access"
AuthUserFile /home/secure/apasswords
Require user vivek

Save file and exit to shell prompt.

Step # 3: Test your configuration

Fire your browser type url http://yourdomain.com/docs/ or http://localhost/docs/ or http://ip-address/docs


When prompted for username and password please supply username vivek and password. You can add following lines to any file <Diretory> entry in httpd.conf file:

AuthType Basic
AuthName "Restricted Access"
AuthUserFile /home/secure/apasswords
Require user vivek

To change or setup new user use htpasswd command again.

Troubleshooting

If password is not accepted or if you want to troubleshoot authentication related problems, open and see apache access.log/error.log files:

Fedora/CentOS/RHEL Linux log file location:
# tail -f /var/log/httpd/access_log
# tail -f /var/log/httpd/error_log

Ubuntu/Debian Linux Apache 2 log file location:
# tail -f /var/log/apache2/access.log
# tail -f /var/log/apache2/error.log

See also:

Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. He has worked with global clients and in various industries, including IT, education, defense and space research, and the nonprofit sector. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+.

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36 comment

  3. When i provide the username & password, it works fine. But when i try to again access something from the same location in the same browser , it does not promt fot the username & password.
    How can i do that?

  4. alka,

    Browser remembers your password/username for current running session. If you close browser it will again prompt for the same.

    HTH

  5. I want use the Password Protect Directories for add user in automaticly whit a simple FORM PHP … Tanks for your good services :P

  7. Thank you for great tips.
    I did as said in here and it works great.
    But, I have a question.
    The password length that works is only max 8 char.
    In other words, all I have to enter is the first 8 char for the password. After 8 ch, the characters are ignored.
    Is there any way to increase the password length?

    Thank you very much

  9. Have the same problem with 8-char password, but didn’t found the solution. Is there any way to fix it, please, explain more detailed.

  10. I’ve gone through these steps on Ubuntu Hardy twice and it still doesn’t work for me. Is there something I’m missing?

  12. Sweet! Instructions worked great on my freebsd box. I am curious though: Why did you choose put the file in /home/secure/, instead of a etc directory? I followed your recommendation and made /home/secure/ and it works fine. I was just wondering if there was a reason one should not put it in /etc or /usr/local/etc/ ?

  14. Change directive
    Require user vivek
    to
    Requre valid-user

    will allow all users in the password file to access.

  16. ive followed the above instructions but when i try to open the site its giving me errors like “The website declined to show this webpage ,This website requires you to log in.” this what am getting in the httpd error logs “[error] [client XX.XX.XX.XX] client denied by server configuration: /var/www/html/site1/”

  17. Just a quick note to say thanks for the post. I’m developing a website on a new VPS with Rackspace. My existing host provider, HostGator, provides a web interface for configuring .htaccess files in protected directories. However, after I installed the my chosen Linux distro (Ubuntu 10.04) I had to install LAMP. So, basically, I’m working from the command line in a bare bones server.

    This post helped me configure password protection on my new bare bones server. Thanks again!

  18. awesome!!!! this works so well for me. I made multiply accounts for Secured directory and now are secured. Vivek you are the man thank you!

  19. Vivek everything works well on my box now… i made multiplier accoutn for diffrent directory with out a problem…my question is how can now make multiplier user id to access the same directory? I like to make about 5 user id in case one of the users id needs to be deleted or disable etc…

    Thank yuo for your help!

  20. Set up SSL on apache2 Ubuntu. WOrks fine and prompts for password using http: but when you go the web server using https it does not prompt for a password. What configuration setting could be doing this?

  22. Thanks a lot! :) worked like a charm for me!

    Didn’t have to change the user privileges for the file though.

  23. You can add option “s” to make the password using SHA instead of the default crypt which only allow eight (8) characters long passwords.
    The command becomes:

    # htpasswd -cs /home/secure/apasswords vivek

    You will notice that the file now has {SHA} in password line.

    If you want too add user to already created file, remove the c options

  24. How do I add additional users? Every time I try it tells me it works but then I can’t use the new credentials to log in.

  25. For some reason I don’t seem to be able to make it work. I have made all the settings, in cPanel I can see that the folder is password protected and I have a username but when I access the folder via http, it returns a 404 error. Why is that?

  27. hi team,

    i have setup apache password protect but not able to login with user which i have crteated

    plz help

  31. Hi Vivek,

    I followed all the steps.. Now when I open apache link, it is asking username and password, if I enter the username and password, it does not take it.. Just keep asking..

    Please help me..

    Thanks

  33. can we block specific user from perticular ip address in apache?
    how can we do that?

    Thanks & Regards
    Vinay Gupta

  34. How do I get different user names and passwords for different sub-directories ? I have multiple sites arranged like this: /site1, /site2, and so on. The problems are: (1) Once my computer logs into one of these sites, additional browser sessions on my computer can access any of the other sites without having to login, (2) Once I have connected to multiple of these sites, logging out from any one of them logs me out from all of them. I need them all to be independent of one another.

    1. Some of my text was left out. All of these sites are on the same server and have the same document root.

    2. I cannot get the username and password page shown above, the one in docs, to display. Is there another location ?

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