Learn how to - Configure Apache Web Page Authentication on Ubuntu / Debian

Learn how to – Configure Apache Web Page Authentication on Ubuntu / Debian.

How can I secure an Apache web page with Password Authentication on Ubuntu / Debian web server?. How to use Basic Authentication to limit access to specific web pages on Apache?. After installing and configuring your Apache web server, you may want to configure password authentication for a web page. This guide will cover how to set up a password protected directory using basic authentication.

Apache web server can be installed on Ubuntu or Debian server/workstation by running the command below.

sudo apt update
sudo apt -y install apache2

Confirm that the service is started.

$ systemctl status  apache2
* apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
  Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d
           `-apache2-systemd.conf
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2023-06-05 23:45:36 UTC; 34s ago
 Main PID: 3797 (apache2)
    Tasks: 55 (limit: 1110)
   CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
           |-3797 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           |-3799 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           `-3800 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

Jun 05 23:45:3 ubuntu-01 systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...
Jun 05 23:45:3 ubuntu-01 apachectl[3771]: AH00558: apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1
Jun 05 23:45:3 ubuntu-01 systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.

The following test page should be visible on the server’s IP address/hostname.

Configure Apache Web Page Authentication on Ubuntu / Debian 1

Configure Apache password protected directory using basic authentication.

After installing Apache web server, install Basic Authentication packages.

sudo apt -y install apache2-utils pwauth libapache2-mod-authnz-external

Then create Apache website configuration file under /etc/apache2/sites-available directory.

sudo tee /etc/apache2/sites-available/secure-page.conf<<EOF
<Directory /var/www/html/secured>
    AuthType Basic
    AuthName "Basic Authentication"
    AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/.htpasswd
    require valid-user
</Directory>
EOF

Add users to the Basic Authentication file.

$ sudo htpasswd -c /etc/apache2/.htpasswd webuser1
New password: 
Re-type new password: 
Adding password for user webuser1

The “-c” option is used to create a file during initial setup. To update file by adding other users, use:

$ sudo htpasswd /etc/apache2/.htpasswd webuser2
New password: 
Re-type new password: 
Adding password for user webuser2

The file with users will have:

$ cat /etc/apache2/.htpasswd
webuser1:$apr1$nIxlKLgc$xGTv.J1x5wtbJqAfFPt6o1
webuser2:$apr1$F4OnyIyv$WImqRIR5BBopTMjqGXs/c1

Now enable secure website.

$ sudo a2ensite secure-page
Enabling site secure-page.
To activate the new configuration, you need to run:
  systemctl reload apache2

Create secure website directory.

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/html/secured

Add content to the directory for testing.

sudo tee /var/www/html/secured/index.html<<EOF
<html>
<body>
<div style="width: 100%; font-size: 50px; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;">
My secure web page - Using Basic Auth
</div>
</body>
</html>
EOF

Restart Apache service.

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Test access to the page.

Configure Apache Web Page Authentication on Ubuntu / Debian 2

When asked for username and password, authenticate with credentials configured earlier.

Configure Apache Web Page Authentication on Ubuntu / Debian 3

We have confirmed basic authentication to be working for accessing a secure web page. The same procedure applies to secure existing web pages on your server.

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