PHP 7.0.6 Released

HTTP authentication with PHP

It is possible to use the header() function to send an "Authentication Required" message to the client browser causing it to pop up a Username/Password input window. Once the user has filled in a username and a password, the URL containing the PHP script will be called again with the predefined variables PHP_AUTH_USER, PHP_AUTH_PW, and AUTH_TYPE set to the user name, password and authentication type respectively. These predefined variables are found in the $_SERVER array. Both "Basic" and "Digest" (since PHP 5.1.0) authentication methods are supported. See the header() function for more information.

An example script fragment which would force client authentication on a page is as follows:

Example #1 Basic HTTP Authentication example

<?php
if (!isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'])) {
    
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="My Realm"');
    
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
    echo 
'Text to send if user hits Cancel button';
    exit;
} else {
    echo 
"<p>Hello {$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']}.</p>";
    echo 
"<p>You entered {$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']} as your password.</p>";
}
?>

Example #2 Digest HTTP Authentication example

This example shows you how to implement a simple Digest HTTP authentication script. For more information read the ยป RFC 2617.

<?php
$realm 
'Restricted area';

//user => password
$users = array('admin' => 'mypass''guest' => 'guest');


if (empty(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_DIGEST'])) {
    
header('HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized');
    
header('WWW-Authenticate: Digest realm="'.$realm.
           
'",qop="auth",nonce="'.uniqid().'",opaque="'.md5($realm).'"');

    die(
'Text to send if user hits Cancel button');
}


// analyze the PHP_AUTH_DIGEST variable
if (!($data http_digest_parse($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_DIGEST'])) ||
    !isset(
$users[$data['username']]))
    die(
'Wrong Credentials!');


// generate the valid response
$A1 md5($data['username'] . ':' $realm ':' $users[$data['username']]);
$A2 md5($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'].':'.$data['uri']);
$valid_response md5($A1.':'.$data['nonce'].':'.$data['nc'].':'.$data['cnonce'].':'.$data['qop'].':'.$A2);

if (
$data['response'] != $valid_response)
    die(
'Wrong Credentials!');

// ok, valid username & password
echo 'You are logged in as: ' $data['username'];


// function to parse the http auth header
function http_digest_parse($txt)
{
    
// protect against missing data
    
$needed_parts = array('nonce'=>1'nc'=>1'cnonce'=>1'qop'=>1'username'=>1'uri'=>1'response'=>1);
    
$data = array();
    
$keys implode('|'array_keys($needed_parts));

    
preg_match_all('@(' $keys ')=(?:([\'"])([^\2]+?)\2|([^\s,]+))@'$txt$matchesPREG_SET_ORDER);

    foreach (
$matches as $m) {
        
$data[$m[1]] = $m[3] ? $m[3] : $m[4];
        unset(
$needed_parts[$m[1]]);
    }

    return 
$needed_parts false $data;
}
?>

Note: Compatibility Note

Please be careful when coding the HTTP header lines. In order to guarantee maximum compatibility with all clients, the keyword "Basic" should be written with an uppercase "B", the realm string must be enclosed in double (not single) quotes, and exactly one space should precede the 401 code in the HTTP/1.0 401 header line. Authentication parameters have to be comma-separated as seen in the digest example above.

Instead of simply printing out PHP_AUTH_USER and PHP_AUTH_PW, as done in the above example, you may want to check the username and password for validity. Perhaps by sending a query to a database, or by looking up the user in a dbm file.

Watch out for buggy Internet Explorer browsers out there. They seem very picky about the order of the headers. Sending the WWW-Authenticate header before the HTTP/1.0 401 header seems to do the trick for now.

In order to prevent someone from writing a script which reveals the password for a page that was authenticated through a traditional external mechanism, the PHP_AUTH variables will not be set if external authentication is enabled for that particular page and safe mode is enabled. Regardless, REMOTE_USER can be used to identify the externally-authenticated user. So, you can use $_SERVER['REMOTE_USER'].

Note: Configuration Note

PHP uses the presence of an AuthType directive to determine whether external authentication is in effect.

Note, however, that the above does not prevent someone who controls a non-authenticated URL from stealing passwords from authenticated URLs on the same server.

Both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer will clear the local browser window's authentication cache for the realm upon receiving a server response of 401. This can effectively "log out" a user, forcing them to re-enter their username and password. Some people use this to "time out" logins, or provide a "log-out" button.

Example #3 HTTP Authentication example forcing a new name/password

<?php
function authenticate() {
    
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Test Authentication System"');
    
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
    echo 
"You must enter a valid login ID and password to access this resource\n";
    exit;
}
 
if (!isset(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) ||
    (
$_POST['SeenBefore'] == && $_POST['OldAuth'] == $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'])) {
    
authenticate();
} else {
    echo 
"<p>Welcome: " htmlspecialchars($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) . "<br />";
    echo 
"Old: " htmlspecialchars($_REQUEST['OldAuth']);
    echo 
"<form action='' method='post'>\n";
    echo 
"<input type='hidden' name='SeenBefore' value='1' />\n";
    echo 
"<input type='hidden' name='OldAuth' value=\"" htmlspecialchars($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) . "\" />\n";
    echo 
"<input type='submit' value='Re Authenticate' />\n";
    echo 
"</form></p>\n";
}
?>

This behavior is not required by the HTTP Basic authentication standard, so you should never depend on this. Testing with Lynx has shown that Lynx does not clear the authentication credentials with a 401 server response, so pressing back and then forward again will open the resource as long as the credential requirements haven't changed. The user can press the '_' key to clear their authentication information, however.

In order to get HTTP Authentication to work using IIS server with the CGI version of PHP you must edit your IIS configuration "Directory Security". Click on "Edit" and only check "Anonymous Access", all other fields should be left unchecked.

Note: IIS Note:
For HTTP Authentication to work with IIS, the PHP directive cgi.rfc2616_headers must be set to 0 (the default value).

Note:

If safe mode is enabled, the uid of the script is added to the realm part of the WWW-Authenticate header.

User Contributed Notes

derkontrollfreak+9hy5l at gmail dot com
2 years ago
Workaround for missing Authorization header under CGI/FastCGI Apache:

SetEnvIf Authorization .+ HTTP_AUTHORIZATION=$0

Now PHP should automatically declare $_SERVER[PHP_AUTH_*] variables if the client sends the Authorization header.
webmaster at kratia dot com
9 years ago
This is the simplest form I found to do a Basic authorization with retries.

<?php

$valid_passwords
= array ("mario" => "carbonell");
$valid_users = array_keys($valid_passwords);

$user = $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'];
$pass = $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'];

$validated = (in_array($user, $valid_users)) && ($pass == $valid_passwords[$user]);

if (!
$validated) {
 
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="My Realm"');
 
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
  die (
"Not authorized");
}

// If arrives here, is a valid user.
echo "<p>Welcome $user.</p>";
echo
"<p>Congratulation, you are into the system.</p>";

?>
marco dot moser at oltrefersina dot it
10 years ago
I suggest to demand user's authentication and management to the web server (by .htaccess, ...):

1. configure a global /logon/ directory with a .htaccess file restricted access

2. use fopen wrapper:

  $hh = @fopen("http://{$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']}:{$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']}".
    @{$_SERVER['SERVER_NAME']}/logon/", "r");
  if (!$hh) authenticate(); // usual header WWW-Authenticate ...
  fclose($hh);
sergio dot carvalho at gmail dot com
10 months ago
The only effective way I've found to wipe out the PHP_AUTH_DIGEST or PHP_AUTH_USER AND PHP_AUTH_PW credentials is to call the header HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized.

function clear_admin_access(){
    header('HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized');
    die('Admin access turned off');
}
Ome Ko
6 years ago
a link to http://logout:logout@<?=$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];?>/SECRET/ would force a fresh login for the /SECRET directory if no user logout with password logout exists.


[NOTE BY danbrown AT php DOT net: The following note was added by "Anonymous" on 01-APR-2010 (though we presume it's not an April Fool's Day joke).]

this logout method does not work 100% anymore, because of another bulls**t from M$:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/834489
somebody
10 years ago
In the previous example it will not work in IE. In order to have a single script work on both IE and FireFox (and handle the cache problem), you need to use the $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] variable to know which logout version to present to the user.

An full example can be seen in the url (could not post it here due to size restrictions):

http://www.free-php.org/index.php?
cat_select=HTTP&show=HTTP_Authentication

(URL split also due to size restrictions)
rob at theblip dot com
12 years ago
Regarding HTTP authentication in IIS with the php cgi 4.3.4, there's one more step. I searched mightily and didn't find this information anywhere else, so here goes. When using HTTP auth with the php CGI, you need to do the following things:

1. In your php.ini file, set "cgi.rfc2616_headers = 0"

2. In Web Site Properties -> File/Directory Security -> Anonymous Access dialog box, check the "Anonymous access" checkbox and uncheck any other checkboxes (i.e. uncheck "Basic authentication," "Integrated Windows authentication," and "Digest" if it's enabled.) Click OK.

3. In "Custom Errors", select the range of "401;1" through "401;5" and click the "Set to Default" button.

It's this last step that is crucial, yet not documented anywhere. If you don't, instead of the headers asking for credentials, IIS will return its own fancy but useless 'you are not authenticated' page. But if you do, then the browser will properly ask for credentials, and supply them in the $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_*'] elements.
kazakevichilya at gmail dot com
4 years ago
In case of CGI/FastCGI you would hot be able to access PHP_AUTH* info because CGI protocol does not declare such variables (that is why their names start from PHP) and server would not pass them to the interpreter. In CGI server should authenticate user itself and pass REMOTE_USER to CGI script after it.

So you need to "fetch" request headers and pass them to your script somehow.

In apache you can do it via environment variables if mod_env is installed.

Following construction in .htaccess copies request header "Authorization" to the env variable PHP_AUTH_DIGEST_RAW

SetEnvIfNoCase ^Authorization$ "(.+)" PHP_AUTH_DIGEST_RAW=$1

You can now access it via $_ENV.

Do not forget to strip auth type ("Digest" in my case) from your env variable because PHP_AUTH_DIGEST does not have it.

If mod_env is not installed you probably have mod_rewrite (everyone has it because of "human readable URLs").

You can fetch header and pass it as GET parameter using rewrite rule:

RewriteRule ^.*$ site.php?PHP_AUTH_DIGEST_RAW=%{HTTP:Authorization} [NC,L]

Here HTTP request header Authorization would be acessible as PHP_AUTH_DIGEST_RAW via $_GET.

---
If you use ZF you probably use Zend_Auth_Adapter_Http to auth user.

It takes Authorization info using "Zend_Controller_Request::getHeader"
This method uses apache_request_header which is likely not to be accessible in old CGI/FastCGI installations or _$_SERVER['HTTP_<HeaderName>] , so you need to put your authentication data, obtained via _GET or ENV to
_$_SERVER['HTTP_AUTHORIZATION'].
It will make ZF work transparently with you solution and I believe any other framework should work also
xsanychx at mail dot ru
3 years ago
New auth:

<?php
$login
= 'test_login';
$pass = 'test_pass';

if((
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']!= $pass || $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] != $login)|| !$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'])
{
   
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Test auth"');
   
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
    echo
'Auth failed';
    exit;
}
?>
dan223 at gmail dot com
7 months ago
A simple script for SSL Client Certificate authentication with a basic authentication fall-back. I use this on my site using LDAP server to check username/passwords and client certificate to user mapping.

<?
// Check if and how we are authenticated
if ($_SERVER['SSL_CLIENT_VERIFY'] != "SUCCESS") { // Not using a client certificate
    if ((!$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) && (!$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'])) { // Not logged in using basic authentication
        authenticate(); // Send basic authentication headers
    }
}

if ($_SERVER['SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_CN'] != "chris") { // Check CN name of cert

    if (!(($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] == "test") && ($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'] == "123"))) { // Check username and password
        authenticate(); // Send basic authentication headers because username and/or password didnot match
    }
}

phpinfo();

// Call authentication display
function authenticate() {
    Header("WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=Website");
        Header("HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized");
        error401();
        exit;
}
?>

See my website (http://velocitypress.ca/index.php?page=/manuals/) for more details on client certificate with Apache and PHP.
admin at isprohosting dot com
9 years ago
There are .htaccess which actually works for us (cPanel + phpsuexec) unless others failed. Perhaps it may help someone.

# PHP (CGI mode) HTTP Authorization with ModRewrite:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} ^(.*)
RewriteRule ^(.*) - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%1]

Then you need small piece of php code to parse this line and then everything will work like with mod_php:

if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_AUTHORIZATION']))
{
$ha = base64_decode( substr($_SERVER['HTTP_AUTHORIZATION'],6) );
list($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'], $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']) = explode(':', $ha);
unset $ha;
}

Enjoy!
SlamJam
9 years ago
I used Louis example (03-Jun-2006) and it works well for me (thanks).

However, I added some lines, to make sure, the user does only get the Authentification-Window a few times:

<?php
$realm
= mt_rand( 1, 1000000000)."@YourCompany";
$_SESSION['realm'] = $realm;

// In the beginning, when the realm ist defined:
$_SESSION['CountTrials'] = 1;
?>

And then when it comes to check the authentification (ZEND-Tutorial):

<?php

// Not more than 3 Trials
if (!$auth) {
  
$_SESSION['CountTrials']++;
   if (
$_SESSION['CountTrials'] == 4) {  
      
session_destroy() ;
      
header('Location: noentry.php');
       exit ;  
   } else {
      
header("WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=".$_SESSION['realm']);
      
header("HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized");
       echo
'Authorization Required.';
       exit;
   }
} else {
         echo
'<P>You are authorized!</P>';
}
?>

noentry.php is slightely different from comeagain.php.
johng121 at gmail dot com
1 year ago
I came up with another approach to work around the problem of browsers caching WWW authentication credentials and creating logout problems. While most browsers have some kind of way to wipe this information, I prefer having my website to take care of the task instead of relying on the user's sanity.

Even with Lalit's method of creating a random realm name, it was still possible to get back into the protected area using the back button in Firefox, so that didn't work. Here's my solution:

Since browsers attach the credentials to specific URLs, use virtual paths where a component of the path is actually a PHP script, and everything following it is part of the URI, such as:

http://calgaryabwedding.photography/some_dir/login.php/auth/8f631b92/

By choosing a different number for the last component of the URL, browsers can be tricked into thinking that they are dealing with a completely different website, and thus prompting the user for credentials again.

Note that using a random, unrestricted number will still allow the user to hit the back button to get back into the page. You should keep track of this number in a server-side file or database and regenerate it upon each successful login, so that the last number(s) become invalid. Using an invalid number might result in a 403 response or, depending on how you feel that day, a 302 to a nasty website.

Care should be taken when linking from the page generated in this case, since relative links will be relative to the virtual and non-existant directory rather than the true script directory.

Hope this helps somebody.
idbobby at rambler dot ru
5 years ago
First of all, sorry for my English.
One more authorization script with logout solution.
In script given by meint_at_meint_dot_net (http://www.php.net/manual/en/features.http-auth.php#93859) rewrite_module is used. If there are any problems with that module and possibilities of administration of the web-server are restricted (including restrictions for use of .htaccess) then you can use this solution.

index.php
---------

<?php

$auth_realm
= 'My realm';

require_once
'auth.php';

echo
"You've logged in as {$_SESSION['username']}<br>";
echo
'<p><a href="?action=logOut">LogOut</a></p>'

?>

auth.php
--------

<?php

$_user_
= 'test';
$_password_ = 'test';

session_start();

$url_action = (empty($_REQUEST['action'])) ? 'logIn' : $_REQUEST['action'];
$auth_realm = (isset($auth_realm)) ? $auth_realm : '';

if (isset(
$url_action)) {
    if (
is_callable($url_action)) {
       
call_user_func($url_action);
    } else {
        echo
'Function does not exist, request terminated';
    };
};

function
logIn() {
    global
$auth_realm;

    if (!isset(
$_SESSION['username'])) {
        if (!isset(
$_SESSION['login'])) {
           
$_SESSION['login'] = TRUE;
           
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="'.$auth_realm.'"');
           
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
            echo
'You must enter a valid login and password';
            echo
'<p><a href="?action=logOut">Try again</a></p>';
            exit;
        } else {
           
$user = isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) ? $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] : '';
           
$password = isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']) ? $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'] : '';
           
$result = authenticate($user, $password);
            if (
$result == 0) {
               
$_SESSION['username'] = $user;
            } else {
               
session_unset($_SESSION['login']);
               
errMes($result);
                echo
'<p><a href="">Try again</a></p>';
                exit;
            };
        };
    };
}

function
authenticate($user, $password) {
    global
$_user_;
    global
$_password_;

    if ((
$user == $_user_)&&($password == $_password_)) { return 0; }
    else { return
1; };
}

function
errMes($errno) {
    switch (
$errno) {
        case
0:
            break;
        case
1:
            echo
'The username or password you entered is incorrect';
            break;
        default:
            echo
'Unknown error';
    };
}

function
logOut() {

   
session_destroy();
    if (isset(
$_SESSION['username'])) {
       
session_unset($_SESSION['username']);
        echo
"You've successfully logged out<br>";
        echo
'<p><a href="?action=logIn">LogIn</a></p>';
    } else {
       
header("Location: ?action=logIn", TRUE, 301);
    };
    if (isset(
$_SESSION['login'])) { session_unset($_SESSION['login']); };
    exit;
}

?>
ceo at l-i-e dot com
5 years ago
To force a logout with Basic Auth, you can change the Realm out from under them to a different Realm.

This forces a new set of credentials for a new "Realm" on your server.

You just need to track the Realm name with the user/pass and change it around to something new/random as they log in and out.

I believe that this is the only 100% guaranteed way to get a logout in HTTP Basic Auth, and if it were part of the docs a whole lot of BAD user-contributed comments here could be deleted.
djreficul at yahoo dot com
10 years ago
Well, I think it's easy to make authentification works correctly. I use a session var to force authentication everytime a user visit the logging area.

<?php
if (!isset ($_SESSION['firstauthenticate'])) {
   
session_start();
}
  function
authenticate() {
   
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Sistema autentificaci๏ฟฝn UnoAutoSur"');
   
header('HTTP/1_0 401 Unauthorized');
//    header("Status: 401 Access Denied");
   
echo "Unauthorized\n";
    exit;
  }
if (!isset(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) || strcmp ($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'],$user)!=0 ||
      !isset (
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']) || strcmp($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'],$pass)!=0 || !isset ($_SESSION['firstauthenticate']) || !$_SESSION['firstauthenticate']) {
    
$_SESSION['firstauthenticate']=true;
  
authenticate();
} else {
           
//I destroy the session var now
   
session_unset();
           
//Your code below
}
?>
charly at towebs dot com
11 years ago
A simpler approach on the post of:
bernard dot paques at bigfoot dot com
24-Sep-2004 01:42

This is another "patch" to the PHP_AUTH_USER and PHP_AUTH_PW server variables problem running PHP as a CGI.

First of all don't forget this fragment of code in your .htaccess (it's the only thing you need to make it work with mod_rewrite):

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
   RewriteEngine on
   RewriteRule .* - [E=REMOTE_USER:%{HTTP:Authorization},L]
</IfModule>

Then login.php

<?php
$a
= base64_decode( substr($_SERVER["REMOTE_USER"],6)) ;
if ( (
strlen($a) == 0) || ( strcasecmp($a, ":" )  == 0 ))
{
  
header( 'WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Private"' );
  
header( 'HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized' );
}
else
{
   list(
$name, $password) = explode(':', $a);
  
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] = $name;
  
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']    = $password;

}

echo
'PHP_AUTH_USER =' . $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] . '<br>';
echo
'PHP_AUTH_PW =' . $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'] . '<br>';
echo
'REMOTE_USER =' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_USER'] . '<br>';
?>

First, we decode the base64 encoded string discarding the first 6 characters of "Basic " and then we do a regular validation.
At the end of the script we print the variables to verify it's working. This should be ommited in the production version.

It's a variation of the script by Bernard Paques.
Thanks to him for that snippet.
php at cscott dot net
11 years ago
Note that Microsoft has released a 'security update' which disables the use of username:password@host in http urls.

   http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;834489

The methods described above which rely on this will no longer work in Microsoft browsers, sadly.

You can re-enable this functionality as described at

   http://weblogs.asp.net/cumpsd/archive/2004/02/07/69366.aspx

but your users will probably be unwilling to do this.
emmanuel dot keller at net2000 dot ch
13 years ago
Some servers won't support the HTTP1.0 specification and will give an error 500 (for instance). This happened with a server where I uploaded an authentication script.

If it happens, you can try the HTTP1.1 header syntax :

<?php
header
("WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=\"My Realm\"");
header('status: 401 Unauthorized');
?>
vog at notjusthosting dot com
4 years ago
You shouldn't use the "last" ("L") directive in the RewriteRule! This will prevent all further rewrite rules to be skipped whenever a Basic or Digest Auth is given, which is almost certainly not what you want.

So the following lines are sufficient for the .htaccess (or httpd.conf) file:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
sjeffrey at inquesis dot com
14 years ago
To get it to work with IIS try using this code before setting your "$auth = 0" and the "if (isset($PHP_AUTH_USER) && isset($PHP_AUTH_PW))"

<?php
//////////////////////////////////////////

if ($PHP_AUTH_USER == "" && $PHP_AUTH_PW == "" && ereg("^Basic ", $HTTP_AUTHORIZATION))
{
  list(
$PHP_AUTH_USER, $PHP_AUTH_PW) =
   
explode(":", base64_decode(substr($HTTP_AUTHORIZATION, 6)));
}

//////////////////////////////////////////
?>

It worked for me on IIS 5 and PHP 4 in ISAPI
Anonymous
6 years ago
The regex in http_digest_parse from Example #2 does not work for me (PHP 5.2.6), because back references are not allowed in a character class.  This worked for me:

<?php

// function to parse the http auth header
function http_digest_parse($txt)
{
  
// protect against missing data
  
$needed_parts = array('nonce'=>1, 'nc'=>1, 'cnonce'=>1, 'qop'=>1, 'username'=>1, 'uri'=>1, 'response'=>1);
  
$data = array();

  
preg_match_all('@(\w+)=(?:(?:\'([^\']+)\'|"([^"]+)")|([^\s,]+))@', $txt, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);

   foreach (
$matches as $m) {
      
$data[$m[1]] = $m[2] ? $m[2] : ($m[3] ? $m[3] : $m[4]);
       unset(
$needed_parts[$m[1]]);
   }

   return
$needed_parts ? false : $data;
}

?>
Nicolas Merlet - admin(at)merletn.org
9 years ago
Be careful using http digest authentication (see above, example 34.2) if you have to use the 'setlocale' function *before* validating response with the 'http_digest_parse' function, because there's a conflict with \w in the pattern of 'preg_match_all' function :

In fact, as \w is supposed to be any letter or digit or the underscore character, you must not forgot that this may vary depending on your locale configuration (eg. it accepts accented letters in french)...

Due to this different pattern interpretation by the 'preg_match_all' function, the 'http_digest_parse' function will always return a false result if you have modified your locale (I mean if your locale accepts some extended characters, see http://fr.php.net/manual/en/reference.pcre.pattern.syntax.php for further information).

IMHO, I suggest you not to use setlocale before having your authentication completed...

PS : Here's a non-compatible setlocale declaration...
setlocale ( LC_ALL, 'fr_FR', 'fr', 'FR', 'french', 'fra', 'france', 'French', 'fr_FR.ISO8859-1' ) ;
roychri at php dot net
9 years ago
For PHP with CGI, make sure you put the rewrite rule above any other rewrite rule you might have.

In my case, I put this at the top of the .htaccess (below RewriteEngine On):
RewriteRule .* - [E=REMOTE_USER:%{HTTP:Authorization}]

My symptom was that the REMOTE_USER (or REDIRECT_REMOTE_USER in my case) was not being set at all.
The cause: I had some other RewriteRule that was kickin in and was set as LAST rule.
I hope this helps.
avp200681 at gmail dot com
3 years ago
I noted that $_SERVER['AUTH_TYPE'] is only available for a page that was authenticated through a traditional external mechanism (like Apache).
h3ndrik
4 years ago
On my configuration with php-cgi - after setting the RewriteRule - the correct variable would be: $_SERVER['REDIRECT_HTTP_AUTHORIZATION']

So the workaround for PhpCGI is:
Set in your .htaccess:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule .* - [env=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization},last]

Php workaround:
<?php
//set http auth headers for apache+php-cgi work around
if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_AUTHORIZATION']) && preg_match('/Basic\s+(.*)$/i', $_SERVER['HTTP_AUTHORIZATION'], $matches)) {
    list(
$name, $password) = explode(':', base64_decode($matches[1]));
   
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] = strip_tags($name);
   
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'] = strip_tags($password);
}

//set http auth headers for apache+php-cgi work around if variable gets renamed by apache
if (isset($_SERVER['REDIRECT_HTTP_AUTHORIZATION']) && preg_match('/Basic\s+(.*)$/i', $_SERVER['REDIRECT_HTTP_AUTHORIZATION'], $matches)) {
    list(
$name, $password) = explode(':', base64_decode($matches[1]));
   
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] = strip_tags($name);
   
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'] = strip_tags($password);
}
?>
john_2232 at gmail dot com
5 months ago
Here is my attempt to create a digest authentication class that will log the user in and out without using a cookie,session,db,or file. At the core is this simple code to parse the digest string into variables works for several browsers.
<?php
// explode the digest with multibrowser support by Tony Wyatt 21jun07
public function explodethedigest($instring) {
$quote = '"';
$equal = '=';
$comma = ',';
$space = ' ';
$a = explode( $comma, $instring);
$ax = explode($space, $a[0]);
$b = explode( $equal, $ax[1], 2);
$c = explode( $equal, $a[1], 2);
$d = explode( $equal, $a[2], 2);
$e = explode( $equal, $a[3], 2);
$f = explode( $equal, $a[4], 2);
$g = explode( $equal, $a[5], 2);
$h = explode( $equal, $a[6], 2);
$i = explode( $equal, $a[7], 2);
$j = explode( $equal, $a[8], 2);
$k = explode( $equal, $a[9], 2);
$l = explode( $equal, $a[10], 2);
$parts = array(trim($b[0])=>trim($b[1], '"'), trim($c[0])=>trim($c[1], '"'), trim($d[0])=>trim($d[1], '"'), trim($e[0])=>trim($e[1], '"'), trim($f[0])=>trim($f[1], '"'), trim($g[0])=>trim($g[1], '"'), trim($h[0])=>trim($h[1], '"'), trim($i[0])=>trim($i[1], '"'), trim($j[0])=>trim($j[1], '"'), trim($k[0])=>trim($k[1], '"'), trim($l[0])=>trim($l[1], '"'));

return
$parts;
}
?>
Give it a try at http://www.creativetheory.ca/ /tests/ta1.php Log in with user test password pass or user guest password guest. Go to page two for links to the code. Comments, ideas, suggestions, or critique welcome.
jake22 at gmail dot com
7 months ago
I came up with another approach to work around the problem of browsers caching WWW authentication credentials and creating logout problems. While most browsers have some kind of way to wipe this information, I prefer having my website to take care of the task instead of relying on the user's sanity.

Even with Lalit's method of creating a random realm name, it was still possible to get back into the protected area using the back button in Firefox, so that didn't work. Here's my solution:

Since browsers attach the credentials to specific URLs, use virtual paths where a component of the path is actually a PHP script, and everything following it is part of the URI, such as:

http://velocitypress.ca/some_dir/login.php/auth/8f631b92/

By choosing a different number for the last component of the URL, browsers can be tricked into thinking that they are dealing with a completely different website, and thus prompting the user for credentials again.

Note that using a random, unrestricted number will still allow the user to hit the back button to get back into the page. You should keep track of this number in a server-side file or database and regenerate it upon each successful login, so that the last number(s) become invalid. Using an invalid number might result in a 403 response or, depending on how you feel that day, a 302 to a nasty website.

Care should be taken when linking from the page generated in this case, since relative links will be relative to the virtual and non-existant directory rather than the true script directory.
Robb_Bean at gmx dot net
2 years ago
In the german example #2 (digest), the <?php $realm = "Geschรผtzter Bereich"; ?>. As far as I have tested the umlaut รผ is problematic, resulting in an password enter infinity loop. In my case it was written in UTF-8. So I suggest using only plain ASCII characters for the realm.
Ollie L
5 years ago
I tried example 7, and at first I couldn't get it to work. It took me a while to spot that somewhere along the line, probably by the server, a seemingly random number was being added to the realm - so the valid_result variable wasn't calculated using the correct realm.

To get around this, or any similar problems, make the following changes to the example:

Around line 43 (44 if after next step ;) ):
$needed_parts = array('nonce'=>1, 'nc'=>1, 'cnonce'=>1, 'qop'=>1, 'username'=>1, 'uri'=>1, 'response'=>1, 'realm'=>1);

Before line 24:
$realm = $data['realm'];

These two steps get the real realm used for the authentication request, and substitute it into the "valid_response" query.

Hope this helps :)
byoung at bigbluehat dot com
7 years ago
The sample from danja at k0a1a dot net is great for getting started. However, it has some typos. Below is a slightly revised version that should work "out of the box":

<?php
session_start
();

$authorized = false;

if(isset(
$_GET['logout']) && ($_SESSION['auth'])) {
   
$_SESSION['auth'] = null;
   
session_destroy();
    echo
"logging out...";
}

if(isset(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) && isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'])) {
   
$user = 'test';
   
$pass = 'test';
    if ((
$user == $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) && ($pass == ($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'])) && (!empty($_SESSION['auth']))) {
       
$authorized = true;
    }
}

if (isset(
$_GET["login"]) && (! $authorized)) {
   
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic Realm="Login please"');
   
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
   
$_SESSION['auth'] = true;
    print(
'Login now or forever hold your clicks...');
    exit;
}

?>

<h1>you have <? echo ($authorized) ? '' : 'not'; ?> logged!</h1>
Lars Stecken
8 years ago
To anybody who tried the digest example above and didn't get it to work.

For me the problem seemed to be the deprecated use of '\' (backslash) in the regex instead of the '$' (Dollar) to indicate a backreference. Also the results have to be trimmed off the remaining double and single quotes.

Here's the working example:

// function to parse the http auth header
function http_digest_parse($txt)
{
   
    // protect against missing data
    $needed_parts = array('nonce'=>1, 'nc'=>1, 'cnonce'=>1, 'qop'=>1, 'username'=>1, 'uri'=>1, 'response'=>1);
    $data = array();

    preg_match_all('@(\w+)=(?:([\'"])([^$2]+)$2|([^\s,]+))@', $txt, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);
   
    foreach ($matches as $m) {
        $data[$m[1]] = $m[3] ? trim($m[3],"\",'") : trim($m[4],"\",'");
        unset($needed_parts[$m[1]]);
    }
   
    return $needed_parts ? false : $data;
}

Probably there's a more sophisticated way to trim the quotes within the regex, but I couldn't be bothered :-)

Greets, Lars
web at kwi dot dk
9 years ago
While Digest authentication is still far superior to Basic authentication, there are a number of security issues that one must keep in mind.

In this respect, the Digest example given above is somewhat flawed, because the nonce never times out or otherwise become invalid. It thus becomes a password-equivalent (although to that specific URL only) and can be used by an eavesdropper to fetch the page at any time in the future, thus allowing the attacker to always access the latest version of the page, or (much worse) repeatedly invoke a CGI script -- for instance, if the user requests the URL "/filemanager?delete=somefile", the attacker can repeat this deletion at any point in the future, possibly after the file has been recreated.

And while it might not be possible to change GET data without reauthentication, cookies and POST data *can* be changed.

To protect against the first problem, the nonce can be made to include a timestamp, and a check added to ensure that nonces older than e.g. 30 minutes result in a new authentication request.

To solve the second problem, a one-time only nonce needs to be generated -- that is, all further requests using a particular nonce must be refused.

One way to do this: When the user requests an action such as "deletefile", store a randomly generated nonce in a session variable, issue a 401 authentication challenge with that nonce, and then check against the stored value when receiving the authentication (and clear the session variable).

This way, although a possible eavesdropper receives the nonce and thus gains the ability to perform the action, he can only perform it once -- and the user was going to perform it anyway. (Only the user or the attacker, but not both, gets to perform the action, so it's safe.)

Of course, at some point, the security can only be improved by switching to HTTPS / SSL / TLS (this is for instance the only way to defend against man-in-the-middle attacks). You decide the level of security.
henrik at laurells dot net
9 years ago
Above top example for digest mode dosn't work if you have safemode on. You need to add a dash and UID to the compare string to make it work. Something like this;;

$A1 = md5($data['username'].':'.
                $realm.'-'.getmyuid().':'.
                $users[$data['username']]);
kembl at example dot com
9 years ago
# PHP (CGI mode) HTTP Authorization with ModRewrite:
# most right example with header check for non empty:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization}  !^$
RewriteRule .* - [E=REMOTE_USER:%{HTTP:Authorization}, \
E=PHP_AUTH_USER:%{HTTP:Authorization},L]
cyberscribe at php dot net
9 years ago
To implement the Digest authentication mentioned above in PHP < 5.1, try prepending the following:

<?php
$headers
= apache_request_headers();
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_DIGEST'] = $headers['Authorization'];
?>

or, if you don't like the idea of modifying the global $_SERVER variable directly, just use the first line and then substitute $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_DIGEST'] in the sample code with $headers['Authorization']. Works great.
sezer yalcin
10 years ago
none of those 'logout' methods would work well.

Even tricky ones like using cookie to reset cache.

Do not waste your time on this.

Browsers want to keep username and password to help user anyway. Try closing the window, or telling user to restart browser.
oaev at mail dot ru
10 years ago
Once more time about PHP through CGI.

Sometimes by some reasons (settings) web-server does not allow to set any environment variables through .htaccess file, so method offered by bernard dot paques at bigfoot dot com will not work.

Another way to solve this is to set some GET variable:

file .htaccess (it's just my example, maybe you can find better way):

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
   RewriteEngine on
  
   RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^$
   RewriteRule ([^\s]+).php$ $1.php?BAD_HOSTING=%{HTTP:Authorization}
  
   RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^(.+)$
   RewriteRule ([^\s]+).php $1.php?%1&BAD_HOSTING=%{HTTP:Authorization}
</IfModule>

a part of php file:

<?php
   
if((empty($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) or empty($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'])) and isset($_REQUEST['BAD_HOSTING']) and preg_match('/Basic\s+(.*)$/i', $_REQUEST['BAD_HOSTING'], $matc))
        list(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'], $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']) = explode(':', base64_decode($matc[1]));

?>
me at lalit dot org
10 years ago
A very simple HTTP Authentication script that solves the logout problem. I wasted a lot of time figuring out a way to logout. This one works perfectly fine.

<?php

function auth_user() {
   
$realm = mt_rand( 1, 1000000000 );
   
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Realm ID='.$realm.']"');
   
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
    die(
"Unauthorized access forbidden!");
}

if (!isset(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'])) {
   
auth_user();
} else if (!isset(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'])) {
   
auth_user();
} else if (
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] != $auser || $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'] != $apass) {
   
auth_user();
} else if (isset(
$_GET['action']) && $_GET['action'] == "logout") {
   
auth_user();
}

// Normal Page Code Here
?>

Hope this helps,
Lalit
aplanefan at mail dot com
10 years ago
I found a way to log out easily
<?php
ob_start
();
if (!isset(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) || $_COOKIE['isin'] != "1") {
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="My Realm"');
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
setcookie ("isin", "1");
die(
'<a href="orderhan.php">Login</a>');
}
else {
if(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] == "USER" &&  $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']== "PASSWORD") {
echo
"you got in";
echo
"<a href='".$_SEVER['PHP_SELF']."?action=logout'>logout</a>";
}
else {
setcookie ("isin", "", time() - 3600);
$url=$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];
header("location: $url");
}
if(
$_GET['action'] == "logout") {
setcookie ("isin", "", time() - 3600);
$url=$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];
header("location: $url");
}
}
ob_end_flush();
?>
chris at schaake dot nu
11 years ago
A simple script for SSL Client Certificate authentication with a basic authentication fall-back. I use this on my site using LDAP server to check username/passwords and client certificate to user mapping.

<?
// Check if and how we are authenticated
if ($_SERVER['SSL_CLIENT_VERIFY'] != "SUCCESS") { // Not using a client certificate
    if ((!$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) && (!$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'])) { // Not logged in using basic authentication
        authenticate(); // Send basic authentication headers
    }
}

if ($_SERVER['SSL_CLIENT_S_DN_CN'] != "chris") { // Check CN name of cert

    if (!(($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] == "test") && ($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'] == "123"))) { // Check username and password
        authenticate(); // Send basic authentication headers because username and/or password didnot match
    }
}

phpinfo();

// Call authentication display
function authenticate() {
    Header("WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=Website");
        Header("HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized");
        error401();
        exit;
}
?>

See my website (http://www.schaake.nu/index.php?page=/manuals/sslmanual.xml) for more details on client certificate with Apache and PHP.
steuber at aego dot de
11 years ago
Quite a good solution for the logout problem:

Just tell browser that it is successfully logged in!
This works as follows:
1. User clicks logout button
2. Script sends 401 Header
3. User does NOT enter a password
4. If no password is entered, script sends 200 Header

So the browser remembers no password as a valid password.

Example:

<?php
if (
       (!isset(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']))
    ||(
           (
$_GET["login"]=="login")
    && !(
             (
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']=="validuser")
             && (
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']=="validpass")
           )
        )
    ||(
           (
$_GET["logout"]=="logout")
     && !(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']=="")
        )
     ) {
Header("WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=\"Realm\"");
Header("HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized");
echo
"Not logged out...<br>\n";
echo
"<a href=\"index.php?login=login\">Login</a>";
exit;
} else if (
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']=="") {
echo
"Logged out...<br>\n";
echo
"<a href=\"index.php?login=login\">Login</a>";
exit;
}
?>
ken_php_net at wolfpackinteractive dot com
12 years ago
Say you have password and groups files in standard Apache format (htpasswd etc.), but you want to apply authorization based on something other than filename, ie something you can't catch in .htaccess.  You want to emulate the server behavior in PHP -- the equivalent of:

AuthType Basic
AuthName "Members"
AuthUserFile /path/to/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /path/to/.groups
require group Members

Here's what I came up with:

<?PHP

$AuthUserFile
= file("/path/to/.htpasswd");
$AuthGroupFile = file("/path/to/.groups");
$group = "Members";
$realm = "Members";

function
authenticate(){
   
header("WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=\"$realm\"");
   
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
    echo
"You must enter a valid user name and password to access the requested resource.";
    exit;
}

for(;
1; authenticate()){
    if (!isset(
$HTTP_SERVER_VARS['PHP_AUTH_USER']))
        continue;

   
$user = $HTTP_SERVER_VARS['PHP_AUTH_USER'];
    if(!
preg_grep("/$group: $user$/", $AuthGroupFile))  # (format assumptions)
       
continue;

    if(!(
$authUserLine = array_shift(preg_grep("/$user:.*$/", $AuthUserFile))))
        continue;

   
preg_match("/$user:((..).*)$/", $authUserLine, $matches);
   
$authPW = $matches[1];
   
$salt = $matches[2];
   
$submittedPW = crypt($HTTP_SERVER_VARS['PHP_AUTH_PW'], $salt);
    if(
$submittedPW != $authPW)
        continue;

    break;
}

echo
"You got in!"
?>
Paul
12 years ago
Here is a extremely easy way to successfully logout.

<?php
if ( $realm == '' )
$realm = mt_rand( 1, 1000000000 );
   
header( 'WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm='.$realm );
?>

To log the user out simply change the value of $realm
JKi
13 years ago
To clear HTTP authentication cache in Internet Explorer (6 SP1 and later), use "ClearAuthenticationCache" command.

document.execCommand("ClearAuthenticationCache");
yaroukh at email dot cz
13 years ago
Here is my solution - works in MSIE and Mozilla.

I use http-authentication only for the first time user accesses his
private page; after valid username and password are provided, he is
recognized using his sessionID and ip ...
the reasons are following:
1) when users changes his password it is not required instantly
   (I find this quite comfortable)
2) auto-login function works fine (unless user click logout)

And here's how i works ...

The "trick" is to pass a temporary username+password to the browser.
(I call it "temporary" because no user account matching these
parameters is neccessary.)

The most essential thing is the following link on user's private page:

===
<?  $url = "http://".
        $username.     // see note 1
        ":".
        Session_ID().  // see note 2
        "@localhost/".PROJECT_NAME."/logout.phtml";
?>
<a href="<?=$url?>">logout</a>
===

1) we pass the actual username because MSIE uses this username as
   a "default pre-fill" for the login-window and some hash-string
   would confuse the users.
2) the temporary password is not too important, but there are
   two things we expect from it:
   a) we need to know this string in the logout.phtml script
   b) the string definetely should not match the user's password
      (otherwise user gets logged back instantly); using current
      Session_ID() we are pretty sure this won't happen

This link causes that the temporary login-params are available in
the logout.phtml script.
Using "www-authenticate" header in the logout.phtml script we force
the browser to accept our temporary login-params. (I suppose browser
actually repeats the request and the next time it checks
the login-params sent in the URL; but this is only my guess and
it is not important.)

The logout.phtml code:
===
<?  $query = "UPDATE users SET sessionID = NULL ".
        "WHERE sessionID = '".Session_ID()."'";
     $mysql->query($query);
     // because we (me :o) use the sessionID and the ip for
     // the identification we need to clean the sessionID; (I found it
     // a little bit easier to destroy the sessionID in the db than
     // unsetting the cookie and/or destroying+restarting
     // the current session)

     if($PHP_AUTH_PW != Session_ID()) {
        // keep asking for the login-params untill PHP_AUTH_PW returned
        // by the browser matches the current Session_ID() (which means
        // that the browser accepted the temporary login-params
        // we sent to it AND FORGOT THE REAL ONES)

        Header("HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized");
        Header("WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=\"".PROJECT_NAME."\"");
    }
?>
<html>
    <head>
        <meta http-equiv="author" content="yaroukh at email dot cz">
        <title><?=PROJECT_NAME?></title>
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" type="text/css">
    </head>
    <body>
         <a href="http://localhost/<?=PROJECT_NAME?>/main.phtml">continue</a>
    </body>
</html>
===

About the "continue" link: the link is not too important, but using it
we can get rid off the temporary login-params which wouldn't look
too aesthetically in the address-bar. :o)
snagnever at gmail dot com
10 years ago
It forces a auth each time the page is accessed:
(maybe can save someone)

<?
header("Expires: Sat, 01 Jan 2000 00:00:00 GMT");
header("Last-Modified: ".gmdate("D, d M Y H:i:s")." GMT");
header("Cache-Control: post-check=0, pre-check=0",false);
header("Pragma: no-cache");
session_cache_limiter("public, no-store");
session_start();

function http_auth()
{
    $_SESSION['AUTH'] = 1;
    header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
    header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="sn4g auth system"');
    // The actions to be done when the user clicks on 'cancel'
    exit();
}

if( !isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) or @$_SESSION['AUTH'] != 1 )
{
    http_auth();
    exit();
}

// Actions do be done when the user has logged

// rest, must clean the session array
$_SESSION = array();
session_destroy();
?>
Anonymous
1 year ago
I came up with another approach to work around the problem of browsers caching WWW authentication credentials and creating logout problems. While most browsers have some kind of way to wipe this information, I prefer having my website to take care of the task instead of relying on the user's sanity.

Even with Lalit's method of creating a random realm name, it was still possible to get back into the protected area using the back button in Firefox, so that didn't work. Here's my solution:

Since browsers attach the credentials to specific URLs, use virtual paths where a component of the path is actually a PHP script, and everything following it is part of the URI, such as:

http://www.personalinjurylawyercalgaryinc.ca/some_dir/login.php/auth/8f631b92/

By choosing a different number for the last component of the URL, browsers can be tricked into thinking that they are dealing with a completely different website, and thus prompting the user for credentials again.

Note that using a random, unrestricted number will still allow the user to hit the back button to get back into the page. You should keep track of this number in a server-side file or database and regenerate it upon each successful login, so that the last number(s) become invalid. Using an invalid number might result in a 403 response or, depending on how you feel that day, a 302 to a nasty website.

Care should be taken when linking from the page generated in this case, since relative links will be relative to the virtual and non-existant directory rather than the true script directory.

Hope this helps somebody.
Yuriy
7 years ago
Good day.
Sorry for my english.
This example shows programming "LOGIN", "LOGOUT" and "RE-LOGIN".
This script must use in the protected pages.
For work this script the browser address string must be following:
"http://localhost/admin/?login" - for Login,
"http://localhost/admin/?logout" - for Logout,
"http://localhost/admin/?logout&login" - for Re-Login.
<?php
session_start
();

$authorized = false;

# LOGOUT
if (isset($_GET['logout']) && !isset($_GET["login"]) && isset($_SESSION['auth']))
{
   
$_SESSION = array();
    unset(
$_COOKIE[session_name()]);
   
session_destroy();
    echo
"logging out...";
}

# checkup login and password
if (isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) && isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']))
{
   
$user = 'test';
   
$pass = 'test';
    if ((
$user == $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) && ($pass == ($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'])) && isset($_SESSION['auth']))
    {
   
$authorized = true;
    }
}

# login
if (isset($_GET["login"]) && !$authorized ||
# relogin
   
isset($_GET["login"]) && isset($_GET["logout"]) && !isset($_SESSION['reauth']))
{
   
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic Realm="Login please"');
   
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
   
$_SESSION['auth'] = true;
   
$_SESSION['reauth'] = true;
    echo
"Login now or forever hold your clicks...";
    exit;
}
$_SESSION['reauth'] = null;
?>
<h1>you have <? echo ($authorized) ? (isset($_GET["login"]) && isset($_GET["logout"]) ? 're' : '') : 'not '; ?>logged!</h1>
bleuciell at aol dot com
9 years ago
For admin , i repair a fault , all is good now
Sorry for my english

It's a piece of code , to give a piece of reflexion about simple auth , we can also cryp login and pass in db , time is here for non-replay , the code isn't finish , but it work , only for reflexion about auth mechanism

<?php
function ky( $txt,$crypt) { $key = md5($crypt); $cpt = 0; $var = "";
for (
$Ctr = 0; $Ctr < strlen($txt); $Ctr++) { if ($cpt == strlen($crypt)) $cpt = 0;
$var.= substr($txt,$Ctr,1) ^ substr($crypt,$cpt,1); $cpt++; } return $var; }

$key = "";$list = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789';
for(
$i = 0; $i< 200; $i++) {  $key .= $list{mt_rand() % strlen($list)}; }

function
cryp($txt,$key){ srand((double)microtime()*735412);  $crypt = crypt(rand(0,3895234));$cpt = 0;$var= "";
for (
$Ctr=0; $Ctr < strlen($txt); $Ctr++ ) { if ($cpt == strlen($crypt))$cpt = 0;
$var.= substr($crypt,$cpt,1).( substr($txt,$Ctr,1) ^ substr($crypt,$cpt,1) ); $cpt++; } return base64_encode(ky($var,$key) ); }

function
dcryp($txt,$key){ $txt=ky(base64_decode($txt),$key);$var= "";
for (
$Ctr = 0; $Ctr < strlen($txt); $Ctr++ ) { $md5 = substr($txt,$Ctr,1);$Ctr++; $var.= (substr($txt,$Ctr,1) ^ $md5); }return $var;}

$time= time(); $user = cryp('bubu',$key); $pwd = cryp('bubu-'.$time.'',$key);

function
pwd($j,$key){ $x = dcryp($j,$key); $x = explode('-',$x); return $x[0];}
function
pwd2($j,$key){ $x = dcryp($j,$key); $x = explode('-',$x); return $x[1];}

function
auth(){$realm="Authentification PHPindex";
Header("WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm='".$realm."'");Header("HTTP/1.0  401  Unauthorized");
echo
"Vous ne pouvez accรฉder ร  cette page"; }

if( !isset(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) && !isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']) ) {auth();
} else {
if(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] == dcryp($user,$key) && $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'] == pwd($pwd,$key) && $time == pwd2($pwd,$key)) {

          echo
'';

} else{
auth();}}

?>
sl at netcentrex dot net
11 years ago
This forces an instant re-authentication:

// Force a logout.
function imt_logout()
{
    global $_SESSION;
    global $HTTP_SERVER_VARS;
    global $PHP_SELF;
   
    // We mark the session as requiring a re-auth
    $_SESSION['reauth-in-progress'] = 1;

    // This forces the authentication cache clearing
    header("WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=\"My Realm\"");
    header("HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized");
   
    // In case of the user clicks "cancel" in the dialog box
    print '<a href="http://'.$HTTP_SERVER_VARS['HTTP_HOST'].$PHP_SELF.'">click me</a>';
    exit();
}

// Check login
function imt_login()
{
    global $_SERVER;
    global $_SESSION;
    global $REGISTERED_USERS;

    // the valid_user checks the user/password (very primitive test in this example)
    if (!valid_user($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'], $REGISTERED_USERS))
    {
        session_destroy();
        header("WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=\"My Realm\"");
        header("HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized");
        exit();
    }

    // OK, the user is authenticated
    $_SESSION['user'] = $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'];
}

Assuming that your page.php?action=logout forces a reauth on the same page, start your page with:

session_start()
if ($_REQUEST["action"] == "logout")
{
    if (isset($_SESSION['reauth-in-progress']))
    {
        session_destroy();
        header("Location: http://".$HTTP_SERVER_VARS['HTTP_HOST'].$PHP_SELF);
    }
    else
        imt_logout();
}
   
imt_login();
jason
11 years ago
on the php+mysql auth code by tigran at freenet dot am

There are some security weaknesses.

First
$user
  and
$pass

are both insecure, they could leave this code open to SQL injection, you should always remove invalid characters in both, or at least encode them.

Actually storing passwords as MD5 hashes leaves you less work to secure.

Second security risks
The same mysql user has rights to both update and select, and possibly even insert and on your auth database no less.
Again the SQL inject attack may occur with this., and the end user could then change the users username, password, or anything else in relation to this.

Third items is more of a performance issue,
 
Do you really need to update the database, as updates are slower then selects, and if you do them every time they access the page, you are costing some speed penalty. 

One option, if you want to use sql (I think mysql has it) is memory only databases, and create a table within memory, the stores a unique session identifier for each user, that is logged in, or alternatively if it's a single front end system, you could use db files.
najprogramato at post dot sk
12 years ago
Don't use apache authentification in plain text. Is more better to use own script to generete new ID which is relevant to password. Apache auth data are sent to every page, so the posible mistake are known.
Mario
3 years ago
if you are using apache with mod fcgid you have to add

<IfModule fcgid_module>
    FcgidPassHeader Authorization
</IfModule>

to make it work
Louis
9 years ago
I couldn't get authentication to work properly with any of the examples. Finally, I started from ZEND's tutorial example at:
http://www.zend.com/zend/tut/authentication.php?article=authentication (validate using .htpasswd) and tried to deal with the additional cases. My general conclusion is that changing the realm is the only reliable way to cause the browser to ask again, and I like to thank the person who put that example in the manual, as it got me on the right path. No matter what, the browser refuses to discard the values that it already has in mind otherwise. The problem with changing the realm, of course, is that you don't want to do it within a given session, else it causes a new request for a password. So, here goes, hopefully the spacing isn't too messed up by the cut'n'paste.

I spent the better part of a day getting this to work right. I had a very hard time thinking through what the browser does when it encounters an authentication request: seems to me that it tries to get the password, then reloads the page... so the HTML doesn't get run. At least, this was the case with IE, I haven't tested it with anything else.

<?php
session_start
() ;
if (!isset(
$_SESSION['realm'])) {
       
$_SESSION['realm'] = mt_rand( 1, 1000000000 ).
               
" SECOND level: Enter your !!!COMPANY!!! password.";

       
header( "WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=".$_SESSION['realm'] );

       
//  Below here runs HTML-wise only if there isn't a $_SESSION,
        // and the browser *can't* set $PHP_AUTH_USER... normally
        // the browser, having gotten the auth info, runs the page
        // again without getting here.
        //  What I'm basically getting to is that the way to get
        // here is to escape past the login screen. I tried
        // putting a session_destroy() here originally, but the
        // problem is that the PHP runs regardless, so the
        // REFRESH seems like the best way to deal with it.
       
echo "<meta http-equiv=\"REFRESH\"
                content=\"0;url=index.php\">"
;
        exit;
        }

if (
$_POST['logout'] == "logout") {
       
session_destroy() ;
       
header('Location: comeagain.php');
        exit ;
        }

// "standard" authentication code here, from the ZEND tutorial above.

comeagain.php is as follows:

<?
session_start();
unset(
$_SESSION['realm']);
session_destroy();
echo
"<html><head><title>Logged Out</title><h1>Logout Page</h1><body>" ;
echo
"You have successfully logged out of TOGEN";
echo
" at ".date("h:m:s")." on ".date("d F Y") ;
echo
"<p><a href=\"index.php\">Login Again</a>" ;
echo
"</body></html>" ;
?>

The idea is to be able to trash the session (and thus reset the realm) without prompting the browser to ask again... because it has been redirected to logout.php.

With this combination, I get things to work. Just make sure not to have apache run htpasswd authentication at the same time, then things get really weird :-).
meint at meint dot net
6 years ago
The definitive "logout" solution for Basic Authentication

As asserted by many on this page "Basic Authentication" has nog "logout" feature. There is however a standards based method (RFC2617) by which you can make the basic authentication session unique and therefore can emulate a log out function. This function works in all situations and across all browsers which is not the case for most solutions on this page.

The RFC2617 HTTP Authentication standard states that two elements determine the protection space:
- realm, a self chosen, server provided string identifier
- abs_path (i.e. the url)

By making both elements unique and changing them at the log out you will break (and "logout") the basic authentication.

The solution requires the use of mod_rewrite to direct traffic for non-existent resources to the index.php file. Please place a .htaccess file with the following contents in the folder that you wish to protect:

.htaccess:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . index.php [NC,L]

Please place an index.php file in the same folder (/auth in this example) with the following content:
<?php

session_start
();

if (empty(
$_SESSION['session_id'])) {
   
session_regenerate_id();
   
$_SESSION['session_id'] = session_id();
   
header("Location: /auth/" . $_SESSION['session_id'] . "/", TRUE, 301);
}

$url_action = (empty($_REQUEST['action'])) ? 'HomePage' : $_REQUEST['action'];
if (isset(
$url_action)) {   
    if (
is_callable($url_action)) {
       
call_user_func($url_action);
    } else {
        print
'Function does not exist, request terminated';
    }
}

function
HomePage() {   
    print
'<h1>Homepage</h1>';
    print
'<p><a href="?action=LogIn">LogIn</a></p>';
    print
'<p><a href="?action=LogOut">LogOut</a></p>';
    print
'<p><a href="?action=SecureContent">Secure Content</a></p>';
}

function
LogIn($url='') {
   
$session_id = $_SESSION['session_id'];
    while (!
IsAuthenticated()) {
       
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="' . $session_id . '"');
       
header('HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized');
        die(
'Authorization Required');
    }
    if (!empty(
$url)) {
        return
TRUE;
    } else {
       
header("Location: /auth/" . $_SESSION['session_id'] . "/", TRUE, 301);   
    }
}   

function
LogOut() {
   
session_destroy();
   
session_unset($_SESSION['session_id']);
   
header("Location: /auth/", TRUE, 301);   
}

function
SecureContent() {
    if (
LogIn("SecureContent")) {
        print
'<h1>Secure Content</h1>';
        print
'<p>This is secure content</p>';
        print
'<p><a href="/auth/' . $_SESSION['session_id'] . '/?action=HomePage">Home Page</a></p>';
    } else {
        print
'<h1>Not Authorized</h1>';
    }
}

function
IsAuthenticated() {
    if (isset(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) && isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'])) {
       
$httpd_username = filter_var($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING, FILTER_FLAG_ENCODE_HIGH|FILTER_FLAG_ENCODE_LOW);
       
$httpd_password = filter_var($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING, FILTER_FLAG_ENCODE_HIGH|FILTER_FLAG_ENCODE_LOW);
        if (
$httpd_username == "test" && $httpd_password == "test") {
            return
TRUE;
        } else {
            return
FALSE;
        }
    }
    return
FALSE;
}

?>

Both files need to be put in a folder named /auth for these examples to work. You can change the folder name in the index.php example to suit your own environment.

A the start of the script a unique id is generated through PHP session mechanism and this session id is inserted into the url (hence the requirement for mod_rewrite to catch these urls). A redirect takes place to this new url and the homepage is shown. If you click on login a 401 header is generated using a realm that uses the same session id. If you click logout the current session id is destroyed and you are redirected to the start of the script where a new session id is generated. If you click on a protected item without a login the login function is called.
norther
6 years ago
If you are using PHP + IIS, make sure to set HTTP Error 401;5 to Default in IIS directory config. Otherwise it won't prompt for username and password but just show an error message.
luismontreal at gmail dot com
4 years ago
Using sessions like this makes the enter auth values at each request

<?php
if($_SESSION['http_logged'] != 1) {
     
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] = '';
     
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'] = '';
    }

    if (
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] != $your_username || $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'] != $your_password ) {
     
$_SESSION['http_logged'] = 1;
     
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="realm"');
     
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
      exit;
    } else {
     
$_SESSION['http_logged'] = 0;
    }
?>
ZyX
10 years ago
Simple PHP Script to login on a Basic Authentication page.

<?php

/* Access Configuration */
define ('x401_host', 'www.example.com');
define ('x401_port', 80);
define ('x401_user', 'your_username');
define ('x401_pass', 'your_password');

/* Function */
function get401Page($file) {
  
$out  = "GET $file HTTP/1.1\r\n";
  
$out .= "Host: ".x401_host."t\r\n";
  
$out .= "Connection: Close\r\n";
  
$out .= "Authorization: Basic ".base64_encode(x401_user.":".x401_pass)."\r\n";
  
$out .= "\r\n";

   if (!
$conex = @fsockopen(x401_host, x401_port, $errno, $errstr, 10))
       return
0;
  
fwrite($conex, $out);
  
$data = '';
   while (!
feof($conex)) {
      
$data .= fgets($conex, 512);
   }
  
fclose($conex);
   return
$data;
}

/* Code */
if ($source = get401Page('/absolute/path/file.php?get=value')) {
  echo
$source;
} else {
  echo
"I can't connect!";
}

?>
silkensedai at online dot fr
8 years ago
Here is my code for basic authentification login/logout.

Include that code before any of your files:
<?php
function redirect_back($http=true, $html=true, $back=NULL){
    if(
is_null($back)){
        if(isset(
$_REQUEST['referer'])){
           
$back = $_REQUEST['referer'];
       
//}elseif(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'])){
        //    $back = isset($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']);
       
}else{
           
$back = "index.html";
        }
    }
    if(
$http) header("Location: $back");
    if(
$html){
       
$back = htmlspecialchars($back);
        print <<<EOF
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
  <head>
    <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=
$back">
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized</h1>
    <p><a href="
$back">Go back</a></p>
  </body>
</html>
EOF;
        exit();
    }
}
$userid = 0;
$username = false;
if(isset(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) and $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']){
   
$username = $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'];
   
$userid = authenticate($username, $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']);
    if(
$userid===false) $username=false; // login failed
}
// If login succeeded (we have a username) or logout succeeded (no username)
if(isset($_GET['login']) && $username || isset($_GET['logout']) && !$username){
   
// Go back
   
redirect_back();
}elseif(isset(
$_GET['login']) || isset($_GET['logout'])){
   
// Ask for password
   
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=""');
   
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
   
redirect_back(false);
}
?>

You have to test of $username is not false if you want to be sure the user is authenticated.

Example of use in HTML code:

<?php if($username){ ?>
            <p>You are logged in with username <?php print htmlspecialchars($username); ?>.</p>
            <ul>
                <li><a href="?logout&amp;referer=<?php print htmlspecialchars(urlencode($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'])); ?>">logout</a></li>
            </ul>
<?php }else{ ?>
            <p>You are anonymous.</p>
            <ul>
                <li><a href="?login&amp;referer=<?php print htmlspecialchars(urlencode($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'])); ?>">login</a></li>
            </ul>
<?php } ?>
gbelyh at gmail dot com
8 years ago
Back to the autherisation in CGI mode. this is the full working example:

#  Create the .htaccess file with following contents:
# also you can use the condition (search at this page)
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule .* - [E=REMOTE_USER:%{HTTP:Authorization},L]

# In the beginning the script checking the authorization place the code:

$userpass = base64_decode(substr($_SERVER["REDIRECT_REMOTE_USER"],6)) ;

$userpass = explode(":", $userpass);

if (  count($userpass) == 2  ){
     #this part work not for all.
     #print_r($userpass);die; #<- this can help find out right username and password
     list($name, $password) = explode(':', $userpass);
     $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] = $name;
     $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'] = $password;

}
Whatabrain
9 years ago
Back to the problem of authenticating in CGI mode... mcbethh suggested using this to set a local variable in php:
RewriteRule .* - [E=REMOTE_USER:%{HTTP:Authorization},L]

It didn't work. I couldn't see the variable. My solution is pretty round-about, but it works:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} !^$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_METHOD} =GET
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} =""
RewriteRule ^page.php$ page.php?login=%{HTTP:Authorization}$1

This causes the Auth string to be added to the URL if there are no parameters and it's a GET request. This prevents POSTs and parameter lists from being corrupted.

Then, in the PHP script, I store the Auth string as a session cookie.

So the only way to log in to my script is to go to the url with no parameters.
notter at thisaddress dot com
10 years ago
A better example of the solution Brian was suggesting [admins: please delete my previous post]

logout.php:

<?php
if (!isset($_GET['quit'])) { ?>
        <h4>To complete your log out, please click "OK" then "Cancel" in
        this <a href="logout.php?quit=y">log in box</a>. Do not fill in a
        password. This should clear your ID and password from the cache of your
        browser.
        <blockquote>Note: Logging in from this particular box is  
        disabled!</blockquote>
        <p>Go <a href="/">back to the site</a>.</h4>
        <?php
} else {
       
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="This Realm"');
       
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
       
// if a session was running, clear and destroy it
       
session_start();
       
session_unset();
       
session_destroy();
        echo
"<h3>Logged out!</h3><h4>Go <a href=\"/\">back to the site</a>.</h4>";
}
?>

Note: "This Realm" should be changed to precisely match the name of your realm in your main login.
siberion at hotmail dot com
10 years ago
I came up with another approach to work around the problem of browsers caching WWW authentication credentials and creating logout problems. While most browsers have some kind of way to wipe this information, I prefer having my website to take care of the task instead of relying on the user's sanity.

Even with Lalit's method of creating a random realm name, it was still possible to get back into the protected area using the back button in Firefox, so that didn't work. Here's my solution:

Since browsers attach the credentials to specific URLs, use virtual paths where a component of the path is actually a PHP script, and everything following it is part of the URI, such as:

http://www.example.com/some_dir/login.php/auth/8f631b92/

By choosing a different number for the last component of the URL, browsers can be tricked into thinking that they are dealing with a completely different website, and thus prompting the user for credentials again.

Note that using a random, unrestricted number will still allow the user to hit the back button to get back into the page. You should keep track of this number in a server-side file or database and regenerate it upon each successful login, so that the last number(s) become invalid. Using an invalid number might result in a 403 response or, depending on how you feel that day, a 302 to a nasty website.

Care should be taken when linking from the page generated in this case, since relative links will be relative to the virtual and non-existant directory rather than the true script directory.

Hope this helps somebody.
s dot i dot g at gmx dot com
6 years ago
<?php

// try to mimic cpanel logout style
// only diff is usr & pwd field is cleared when re-login
// tested with ff2 & ie8

session_start();

$username = "test";
$password = "test";

if(isset(
$_GET['logout']))
{
  unset(
$_SESSION["login"]);
  echo
"You have logout ... ";
  echo
"[<a href='" . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . "'>Login</a>]";
  exit;
}

if (!isset(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) || !isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']) || !isset($_SESSION["login"]))
{
 
header("WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=\"Test\"");
 
header("HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized");
 
$_SESSION["login"] = true;
  echo
"You are unauthorized ... ";
  echo
"[<a href='" . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . "'>Login</a>]";
  exit;
}
else
{
  if(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] == $username && $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'] == $password)
  {
    echo
"You have logged in ... ";
    echo
"[<a href='" . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . "?logout'>Logout</a>]";
  }
  else
  {
    unset(
$_SESSION["login"]);
   
header("Location: " . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']);
  }
}

// content here

?>
ian AT iyates DOT co DOR uk
12 years ago
In my use of HTTP Authentication, I've found that some Apache setups swap around the usual variables.
Here's the fix I made so that you can still use PHP_AUTH_USER and PHP_AUTH_PW. Hope it helps someone

<?php
## Apache server fix ##
if (isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) && !isset($_ENV['REMOTE_USER']))
   
$_ENV['REMOTE_USER'] = $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'];
if (isset(
$_SERVER['AUTH_PASSWORD']) && !isset($_ENV['PHP_AUTH_PW']))
   
$_ENV['PHP_AUTH_PW'] = $_SERVER['AUTH_PASSWORD'];
?>
mg at evolution515 dot net
9 years ago
Example for digest doesn't work (at least for me):

use this fix:
--------------
preg_match_all('@(\w+)=(?:(([\'"])(.+?)\3|([A-Za-z0-9/]+)))@', $txt, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);

foreach ($matches as $m) {
    $data[$m[1]] = $m[4] ? $m[4] : $m[5];
    unset($needed_parts[$m[1]]);
}

It's also better to but to put the Auth-Digest-Header in a function and call it on unsuccessful authentification again. Otherwise users only have the chance to submit their username/password just one time.
najeeb dot khokhar at yahoo dot com
1 year ago
The definitive "logout" solution for Basic Authentication

As asserted by many on this page "Basic Authentication" has nog "logout" feature. There is however a standards based method (RFC2617) by which you can make the basic authentication session unique and therefore can emulate a log out function. This function works in all situations and across all browsers which is not the case for most solutions on this page.

The RFC2617 HTTP Authentication standard states that two elements determine the protection space:
- realm, a self chosen, server provided string identifier
- abs_path (i.e. the url)

By making both elements unique and changing them at the log out you will break (and "logout") the basic authentication.

The solution requires the use of mod_rewrite to direct traffic for non-existent resources to the index.php file. Please place a .htaccess file with the following contents in the folder that you wish to protect:

.htaccess:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . index.php [NC,L]

Please place an index.php file in the same folder (/auth in this example) with the following content:
<?php

session_start
();

if (empty(
$_SESSION['session_id'])) {
   
session_regenerate_id();
   
$_SESSION['session_id'] = session_id();
   
header("Location: /auth/" . $_SESSION['session_id'] . "/", TRUE, 301);
}

$url_action = (empty($_REQUEST['action'])) ? 'HomePage' : $_REQUEST['action'];
if (isset(
$url_action)) {   
    if (
is_callable($url_action)) {
       
call_user_func($url_action);
    } else {
        print
'Function does not exist, request terminated';
    }
}

function
HomePage() {   
    print
'<h1>Homepage</h1>';
    print
'<p><a href="?action=LogIn">LogIn</a></p>';
    print
'<p><a href="?action=LogOut">LogOut</a></p>';
    print
'<p><a href="?action=SecureContent">Secure Content</a></p>';
}

function
LogIn($url='') {
   
$session_id = $_SESSION['session_id'];
    while (!
IsAuthenticated()) {
       
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="' . $session_id . '"');
       
header('HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized');
        die(
'Authorization Required');
    }
    if (!empty(
$url)) {
        return
TRUE;
    } else {
       
header("Location: /auth/" . $_SESSION['session_id'] . "/", TRUE, 301);   
    }
}   

function
LogOut() {
   
session_destroy();
   
session_unset($_SESSION['session_id']);
   
header("Location: /auth/", TRUE, 301);   
}

function
SecureContent() {
    if (
LogIn("SecureContent")) {
        print
'<h1>Secure Content</h1>';
        print
'<p>This is secure content</p>';
        print
'<p><a href="/auth/' . $_SESSION['session_id'] . '/?action=HomePage">Home Page</a></p>';
    } else {
        print
'<h1>Not Authorized</h1>';
    }
}

function
IsAuthenticated() {
    if (isset(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) && isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'])) {
       
$httpd_username = filter_var($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING, FILTER_FLAG_ENCODE_HIGH|FILTER_FLAG_ENCODE_LOW);
       
$httpd_password = filter_var($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'], FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING, FILTER_FLAG_ENCODE_HIGH|FILTER_FLAG_ENCODE_LOW);
        if (
$httpd_username == "test" && $httpd_password == "test") {
            return
TRUE;
        } else {
            return
FALSE;
        }
    }
    return
FALSE;
}

?>

Both files need to be put in a folder named /auth for these examples to work. You can change the folder name in the index.php example to suit your own environment.

A the start of the script a unique id is generated through PHP session mechanism and this session id is inserted into the url (hence the requirement for mod_rewrite to catch these urls). A redirect takes place to this new url and the homepage is shown. If you click on login a 401 header is generated using a realm that uses the same session id. If you click logout the current session id is destroyed and you are redirected to the start of the script where a new session id is generated. If you click on a protected item without a login the login function is called.
jon at toolz4schoolz dot com
7 years ago
I can't get the second example to work. The regular expression is beyond the scope of this programmer so I rewrote it as seven easy-to-read regular expressions and it works.

Here's the whole function http_digest_parse() that works for me:

<?php

// function to parse the http auth header
function http_digest_parse($txt) {

// protect against missing data
/*
$needed_parts = array('nonce'=>1, 'nc'=>1, 'cnonce'=>1, 'qop'=>1, 'username'=>1, 'uri'=>1, 'response'=>1);
$data = array();

preg_match_all('@(\w+)=(?:([\'"])([^\2]+)\2|([^\s,]+))@', $txt, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER);

foreach ($matches as $m) {
    $data[$m[1]] = $m[3] ? $m[3] : $m[4];
    unset($needed_parts[$m[1]]);
}
*/

$res = preg_match("/username=\"([^\"]+)\"/i", $txt, $match);
$data['username'] = $match[1];
$res = preg_match('/nonce=\"([^\"]+)\"/i', $txt, $match);
$data['nonce'] = $match[1];
$res = preg_match('/nc=([0-9]+)/i', $txt, $match);
$data['nc'] = $match[1];
$res = preg_match('/cnonce=\"([^\"]+)\"/i', $txt, $match);
$data['cnonce'] = $match[1];
$res = preg_match('/qop=([^,]+)/i', $txt, $match);
$data['qop'] = $match[1];
$res = preg_match('/uri=\"([^\"]+)\"/i', $txt, $match);
$data['uri'] = $match[1];
$res = preg_match('/response=\"([^\"]+)\"/i', $txt, $match);
$data['response'] = $match[1];

//return $needed_parts ? false : $data;
return $data;

}

?>
tonwyatt at yahoo dot com
8 years ago
Here is my attempt to create a digest authentication class that will log the user in and out without using a cookie,session,db,or file. At the core is this simple code to parse the digest string into variables works for several browsers.
<?php
// explode the digest with multibrowser support by Tony Wyatt 21jun07
public function explodethedigest($instring) {
$quote = '"';
$equal = '=';
$comma = ',';
$space = ' ';
$a = explode( $comma, $instring);
$ax = explode($space, $a[0]);
$b = explode( $equal, $ax[1], 2);
$c = explode( $equal, $a[1], 2);
$d = explode( $equal, $a[2], 2);
$e = explode( $equal, $a[3], 2);
$f = explode( $equal, $a[4], 2);
$g = explode( $equal, $a[5], 2);
$h = explode( $equal, $a[6], 2);
$i = explode( $equal, $a[7], 2);
$j = explode( $equal, $a[8], 2);
$k = explode( $equal, $a[9], 2);
$l = explode( $equal, $a[10], 2);
$parts = array(trim($b[0])=>trim($b[1], '"'), trim($c[0])=>trim($c[1], '"'), trim($d[0])=>trim($d[1], '"'), trim($e[0])=>trim($e[1], '"'), trim($f[0])=>trim($f[1], '"'), trim($g[0])=>trim($g[1], '"'), trim($h[0])=>trim($h[1], '"'), trim($i[0])=>trim($i[1], '"'), trim($j[0])=>trim($j[1], '"'), trim($k[0])=>trim($k[1], '"'), trim($l[0])=>trim($l[1], '"'));

return
$parts;
}
?>
Give it a try at http://tokko.kicks-ass.net/tests/ta1.php Log in with user test password pass or user guest password guest. Go to page two for links to the code. Comments, ideas, suggestions, or critique welcome.
ad_ver at inbox dot ru
12 years ago
Modified script from "jonhaynes at bigfoot dot com" using Oracle logon

<?php
function authenticate() {
header("WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=\"My Realm\"");
header("HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized");
print(
"You must enter a valid login username and password
to access this resource.\n"
);
exit;
}

if(!isset(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'])){ authenticate(); }
else {
   
$conn = @ OCILogon($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'], $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'], "orcl92") ;
    if(!
$conn)
        {
authenticate(); }
    else {
OCILogoff($conn);};
}
?>
Anonymous
13 years ago
A more elegant way to force a new name/password, cf. example 17-2 (if you don't mind passing the old user in the query string):

<?
if (isset($PHP_AUTH_USER))
{
    if (!isset($prev_user))
    {
        header("Location: http://$HTTP_HOST$PHP_SELF?prev_user=$PHP_AUTH_USER");
        exit;
    }
    else
    {
        if ($PHP_AUTH_USER == $prev_user)
        {
            header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Secure"');
            header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
            exit;
        }
    }
}
else
{
    header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Secure"');
    header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
    exit;
}
?>

The final set of headers is necessary because some browsers seem to unset $PHP_AUTH_USER when the location header is sent.
steve at topozone dot com
12 years ago
The method described in the text does not appear to work with PHP in cgi mode and Apache-2.x. I seems that Apache has gotten stricter or introduced a bug such that you can initiate the authentication, but Apache seems to try to  authenticate the browser response which always fails because it does not know what to authenticate against and the headers never get passed back to the PHP script.

I didn't try it with PHP as a module.
louis dot carlier at ngroups dot com
13 years ago
The definitive HTTP authorization code:

<?php
function login_error()
{
echo
"error - login process failed."
}

if (!isset(
$PHP_AUTH_USER))
{
header("WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=\"Mosaic Authorization process\"");
header("HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized");

//Result if user hits cancel button
login_error();
}
else
{

//check the login and password
if('=>test on login and password<=')
{
 
//User is logged
 
...
  ...
}
else
{
 
//This re-asks three times the login and password.
 
header( "WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=\"Test Authentication System\"");
 
header("HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized");

 
//Result if user does not give good login and pass
 
login_error();
}
}
?>
rovok at web dot de
9 years ago
People are encouraged NOT to use register_globals, but Example 34.2. of german PHP documentation (http://de.php.net/manual/de/features.http-auth.php) uses register_globals in their example, assumed that the example is the whole script.

There is a <form> which has an <input> with type = "hidden", a name = "SeenBefore" and a value = "1". The Form is submitted by POST, so $SeenBefore should better be accessed by $_POST['SeenBefore'] instead of $SeenBefore.
danja at k0a1a dot net
7 years ago
a simplistic login/logout script, mainly for development of user-customizable pages.

<?php
session_start
();

$autorized = false;

if(isset(
$_GET['logout']) && ($_SESSION['auth'])) {
   
$_SESSION['auth'] = null;
   
session_destroy();
    echo
"logging out...";
}

if(isset(
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) && isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'])) {
   
$user = test;
   
$pass = test;
    if ((
$user == $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) && ($pass == ($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'])) && ($_SESSION['auth'])) {
       
$authorized = true;
    }
}

if (isset(
$_GET["login"]) && (! $authorized)) {
   
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic Realm="Login please"');
   
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
   
$_SESSION['auth'] = true;
    print(
'Login now or forever hold your clicks...');
    exit;
}

?>

<h1>you have <? echo ($authorized) ? '' : 'not'; ?> logged!</h1>

<?

?>
Dutchdavey
9 years ago
My sincere thanks to: webmaster at kratia dot com 21-Feb-2007 01:53

The principle is to not allow an invalid PHP_AUTH_USER to exist.

The following easy peasy example using Oracle is based on his simple genius:

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// do_html_header
//
// This function outputs the html header for the page.
//
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
function initialize_session()
{
   $err=error_reporting(0);
   $connection=oci_connect($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'],
                          $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'],$databasename) ;
   error_reporting($err);
   if (!$connection)
   {
      header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic Realm="ZEIP1"');
      header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
      echo "Login Cancelled';
      exit;
   }
   ..
   Normal Code..
   ..
}
brian at nerdlife dot net
11 years ago
My solution to the logout conondrum:
<?php
if($_GET[op] == 'logout')
{
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Click \'Ok\' then \'Cancel\' to Log Out"');
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
  echo
'You have been successfully logged out. Click <a href="index.php">here</a> to log back in.');
  die();
}
if(!isset(
$_SERVER[PHP_AUTH_USER]))
{
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Site Login"');
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
  echo
'You must enter a valid username and password to access this resource.';
  die();
}
else
{
//Validate User
//If Validated:
echo "Welcome. <a href='index.php?op=logout'>Logout?</a>"
}
?>
I assume that if the user is reliable enough to even bother logging out, they are reliable enough to click "ok" then "cancel", thereby logging out and displaying the "logged out" message.
nuno at mail dot ideianet dot pt
11 years ago
In Windows 2003 Server/IIS6 with the php4+ cgi I only get HTTP authentication working with:
<?php header("Status: 401 Access Denied"); ?>
with
<?php header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized'); ?>
doesn't work !
I also need in "Custom Errors" to select the range of "401;1" through "401;5" and click the "Set to Default" button.
Thanks rob at theblip dot com
mt at shrewsbury dot org dot uk
8 years ago
On my servers here, the standard rewrite spell

RewriteRule .* - [E=REMOTE_USER:%{HTTP:Authorization},L]

to set $_SERVER[REMOTE_USER] with digest authentication results in the entire digest being bundled into $_SERVER[REMOTE_USER]

I have used this :

RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} username=\"([^\"]+)\"
RewriteRule .* - [E=REMOTE_USER:%1,L]

And it seems to work successfully.
owld at mail dot ru
15 years ago
Good day.I've solved a problem where IE4 asks for the age one more time after a 401, defeating sending a 401 once to force a user to log on again.

<?php
 
function  authenticate()  {
   
setcookie("noauth","");
   
Header( "WWW-authenticate:  Basic realm=\"test\"");
   
Header( "HTTP/1.0  401  Unauthorized");
    echo
"You must enter user name";
   exit ;
  }
  if  (   !isset(
$PHP_AUTH_USER) ||  ($logoff==1) && $noauth=="yes"  )   {
   
authenticate();
  } 
?>

And logoff link -

<a href="samehtml.phtml?logoff=1">Logoff</a></td>

Dmitry Alyekhin
ale (at) tana (dot) it
6 years ago
After we do auth with PHP in Apache, we miss the userid in the access.log file, unless we redefine the LogFormat to be "%{REMOTE_USER}e" rather than "%u", and upon successful authentication we do
<?php
   apache_setenv
('REMOTE_USER', $user);
?>
blah at blah dot com
9 years ago
Getting PHP Authentication to work with CGI-bin.

You must have mod_rewrite installed for this to work. In the directory (of the file) you want to protect, for the .htaccess file:

# PHP (CGI mode) HTTP Authorization with ModRewrite:
# most right example with header check for non empty:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization}  !^$
RewriteRule ^test.php$ test.php?login=%{HTTP:Authorization}

Change the Rewrite rule to whatever you want it to be. For simplicity, this example only applies to one file, test.php and only if the HTTP Authorization needs to take place.

In the php file:
<?
if (isset($_GET['login'])) {
    $d = base64_decode( substr($_GET['login'],6) );
    list($name, $password) = explode(':', $d);
    echo 'Name:' . $name . "<br>\n";
    echo 'Password:' . $password . "<br>\n";
} else {
   header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="My Realm"');
   header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
   echo 'You are not authorized. Bad user, bad!';
   exit;
}
?>

You need to get rid of the first 6 characters for some reason, then decode the Auth data from its base64 format. Then it's a simple matter of extracting the data. You can even pass the data to the $_SERVER variables $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] and $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']. These are the variables that get the login data if you have PHP running as an Apache module. This is useful for mods or plugins.
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