<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> <!-- $Revision: 1.52 $ --> <chapter xml:id="features.http-auth" xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <title>HTTP authentication with PHP</title> <simpara> The <acronym>HTTP</acronym> Authentication hooks in PHP are only available when it is running as an Apache module and is hence not available in the CGI version. In an Apache module PHP script, it is possible to use the <function>header</function> 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 <link linkend="reserved.variables">predefined variables</link> <varname>PHP_AUTH_USER</varname>, <varname>PHP_AUTH_PW</varname>, and <varname>AUTH_TYPE</varname> set to the user name, password and authentication type respectively. These predefined variables are found in the <varname>$_SERVER</varname> and <varname>$HTTP_SERVER_VARS</varname> arrays. Both "Basic" and "Digest" (since PHP 5.1.0) authentication methods are supported. See the <function>header</function> function for more information. </simpara> <note> <title>PHP Version Note</title> <para> <link linkend="language.variables.superglobals">Superglobals</link>, such as <varname>$_SERVER</varname>, became available in PHP <link xlink:href="&url.php.release4.1.0;">4.1.0</link>. </para> </note> <para> An example script fragment which would force client authentication on a page is as follows: </para> <para> <example> <title>Basic HTTP Authentication example</title> <programlisting role="php"> <![CDATA[ <?php if (!isset($_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>"; } ?> ]]> </programlisting> </example> </para> <para> <example> <title>Digest HTTP Authentication example</title> <para> This example shows you how to implement a simple Digest HTTP authentication script. For more information read the <link xlink:href="&url.rfc;2617">RFC 2617</link>. </para> <programlisting role="php"> <![CDATA[ <?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 'Your 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(); 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]]); } return $needed_parts ? false : $data; } ?> ]]> </programlisting> </example> </para> <note> <title>Compatibility Note</title> <para> Please be careful when coding the HTTP header lines. In order to guarantee maximum compatibility with all clients, the keyword "Basic" should be written with an uppercase "B", the realm string must be enclosed in double (not single) quotes, and exactly one space should precede the <emphasis>401</emphasis> code in the <emphasis>HTTP/1.0 401</emphasis> header line. Authentication parameters have to be comma-separated as seen in the digest example above. </para> </note> <para> Instead of simply printing out <varname>PHP_AUTH_USER</varname> and <varname>PHP_AUTH_PW</varname>, as done in the above example, you may want to check the username and password for validity. Perhaps by sending a query to a database, or by looking up the user in a dbm file. </para> <para> Watch out for buggy Internet Explorer browsers out there. They seem very picky about the order of the headers. Sending the <emphasis>WWW-Authenticate</emphasis> header before the <literal>HTTP/1.0 401</literal> header seems to do the trick for now. </para> <simpara> As of PHP 4.3.0, in order to prevent someone from writing a script which reveals the password for a page that was authenticated through a traditional external mechanism, the PHP_AUTH variables will not be set if external authentication is enabled for that particular page and &safemode; is enabled. Regardless, <varname>REMOTE_USER</varname> can be used to identify the externally-authenticated user. So, you can use <varname>$_SERVER['REMOTE_USER']</varname>. </simpara> <note> <title>Configuration Note</title> <para> PHP uses the presence of an <literal>AuthType</literal> directive to determine whether external authentication is in effect. </para> </note> <simpara> 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. </simpara> <simpara> 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. </simpara> <para> <example> <title>HTTP Authentication example forcing a new name/password</title> <programlisting role="php"> <![CDATA[ <?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'] == 1 && $_POST['OldAuth'] == $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'])) { authenticate(); } else { echo "<p>Welcome: {$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']}<br />"; echo "Old: {$_REQUEST['OldAuth']}"; echo "<form action='{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}' METHOD='post'>\n"; echo "<input type='hidden' name='SeenBefore' value='1' />\n"; echo "<input type='hidden' name='OldAuth' value='{$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']}' />\n"; echo "<input type='submit' value='Re Authenticate' />\n"; echo "</form></p>\n"; } ?> ]]> </programlisting> </example> </para> <simpara> This behavior is not required by the HTTP Basic authentication standard, so you should never depend on this. Testing with Lynx has shown that Lynx does not clear the authentication credentials with a 401 server response, so pressing back and then forward again will open the resource as long as the credential requirements haven't changed. The user can press the '_' key to clear their authentication information, however. </simpara> <simpara> Also note that until PHP 4.3.3, HTTP Authentication did not work using Microsoft's IIS server with the CGI version of PHP due to a limitation of IIS. In order to get it to work in PHP 4.3.3+, you must edit your IIS configuration "Directory Security". Click on "Edit" and only check "Anonymous Access", all other fields should be left unchecked. </simpara> <simpara> Another limitation is if you're using the IIS module (ISAPI) and PHP 4, you may not use the <literal>PHP_AUTH_*</literal> variables but instead, the variable <literal>HTTP_AUTHORIZATION</literal> is available. For example, consider the following code: <literal>list($user, $pw) = explode(':', base64_decode(substr($_SERVER['HTTP_AUTHORIZATION'], 6)));</literal> </simpara> <note> <title>IIS Note:</title> <simpara> For HTTP Authentication to work with IIS, the PHP directive <link linkend="ini.cgi.rfc2616-headers">cgi.rfc2616_headers</link> must be set to <literal>0</literal> (the default value). </simpara> </note> <note> <para> If <link linkend="ini.safe-mode">safe mode</link> is enabled, the uid of the script is added to the <literal>realm</literal> part of the <literal>WWW-Authenticate</literal> header. </para> </note> </chapter> <!-- Keep this comment at the end of the file Local variables: mode: sgml sgml-omittag:t sgml-shorttag:t sgml-minimize-attributes:nil sgml-always-quote-attributes:t sgml-indent-step:1 sgml-indent-data:t indent-tabs-mode:nil sgml-parent-document:nil sgml-default-dtd-file:"../../manual.ced" sgml-exposed-tags:nil sgml-local-catalogs:nil sgml-local-ecat-files:nil End: vim600: syn=xml fen fdm=syntax fdl=2 si vim: et tw=78 syn=sgml vi: ts=1 sw=1 -->