How-To

How to Password Protect an Apache Website using .htaccess

By Steve Krause

Updated November 13, 2023

Websites running Apache can add a layer of security by requiring a password to access the site. This is done by adding a few lines to the .htaccess— filesecure lockdown the password If you’re running your Website with Apache, securing the site with a password is a simple process. I recently ran through the process on a Windows box (Majority of the shots below); however, the steps are pretty much the same for Windows or Linux Apache sites.

How to Secure Apache with a Password

All the work will be done using your .htaccess file. You can find this file at the root of your Apache Websites. The .htaccess file is checked by Apache before displaying web pages. Typically, it’s used for ReWrites or ReDirects; however, you can also use it to leverage the built-in security features of Apache.

Edit your .htaccess File

Step 1 – Add the following lines to your .htaccess file. Below is a sample .htaccess file. Your file will defer based on where you place the .htpasswd file.

AuthUserFile /full/path/to/.htpasswd
AuthName "Please Enter User & PW"
AuthType Basic
Require valid-user

What do These Commands Mean?

AuthUserFile

• APACHE needs the location of the User/Password file. Just enter the full path to your password file, as shown above.

AuthName

• This field defines the Title and Text for the popup box, which will be requesting the Username and PW. You can make this ANYTHING you want. Here’s an example on my test box:

AuthType

• This field tells Apache what type of authentication is being used. “Basic” is usually fine (and the most common.)

Require valid-user

• This last command tells Apache what accounts are allowed to log in. By using “valid-user,” you are telling Apache ANYONE is allowed to authenticate if they have a valid username and password inside the .htpasswd file you will create shortly.

If you prefer to be more EXACT, you can specify a specific USER or USER. This command would look like:

Require user mrgroove groovyguest

In this case, only the users, mrgroove, and groovyguest, would be allowed to enter the page/directory you’re protecting (after providing the correct username and password, of course). All other users (including valid ones) will be denied access. If you want to allow more users, just separate them with spaces.

So, now that we have all the config settings made, here’s what your finished .htaccess file should look like:

The screenshot is taken from a Windows Server running WordPress. The path is different than a typical Linux host.

Create the .htpasswd file and Encrypted Username and Password

Creating the .htpasswd file is a simple process. The file is nothing more than a text file containing a list of Users and their encrypted passwords. Each User string should be separated into its lines. Personally, I just use notepad++ or Windows Notepad to create the file.

Shot below is an example .htpasswd file with two users:

Although Apache doesn’t “require” you to encrypt the passwords, it’s a simple process for both Windows and Linux Systems. For example, for Windows users, you can run  C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2bin\htpasswd.exe to generate an MD5 encrypted Username/Password string. To learn more about this, you can run htpasswd.exe /?

In almost all cases, however, just execute the following command:

htpasswd -nb username password

Once the command is executed, the htpasswd.exe tool will output the User string with its encrypted password. Here is an example of executing the htpasswd.exe tool on the Windows Server.

Once you have the User String, copy it into your .htpasswd file.

Verify mod_auth Module is Enabled

By default, Apache has the correct Modules enabled. That being said, it never hurts to be a little proactive, plus it’s a quick “check.”

Open your Apache httpd.conf file and verify the AUTH module is enabled:

If you find the module isn’t enabled, just correct it as shown above. Don’t forget you need to restart Apache for changes to your httpd.conf to take effect.