Securing directory using .htaccess file

First make sure your Apache configuration is set for allowing .htaccess. Read this Article first before you move to the next steps.

.htaccess File Creation:

Let's assume /test-dir1 is to be password protected.

$ cd /var/www/html/test-dir1

$ vi .htaccess

Write the following lines into this file:

AuthName "Authorized Users Only."
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /etc/httpd/conf/.htpasswd
require user testusr

Telling Apache About Users:
Now we have to inform Apache about the user and its password.

$ htpasswd -c /etc/httpd/conf/.htpasswd testusr

The above command will work if you have htpasswd in your /usr/local/bin and it happens if you install Apache from RPM. /etc/httpd/conf/.htpasswd is the location of file that will contain the authenticated/trusted user password.

OR

$ cd /apache/bin/

$ ./htpasswd -c /etc/httpd/conf/.htpasswd testusr

The above commands correct if you have installed Apache from the sources, $ cd /apache/bin can be adjusted according to your system, as maybe you have installed it somewhere else.

.htpasswd File Permission:

We need to set the file permission of the .htpasswd file and make the apache user the owner of this file.

$ chown apache.apache /etc/httpd/conf/.htpasswd 

Notes on Apache htaccess disabled on Debain/Ubuntu server:

 

Iv jumped back to using my home media server as a web server for testing, and realized that apache2 wouldn’t recognize .htacess files, after some googling i found the answer, you need to open a terminal or putty session:

navigate to

cd /etc/apache2/sites-available

and open “default” up in your editor or choice

sudo nano default

Default for AllowOverride is none, it should be All, so your overall “default” file should look like this;

NameVirtualHost *

ServerAdmin admin@site.com

DocumentRoot /var/www/

Options FollowSymLinks

AllowOverride None

Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews

AllowOverride All

Order allow,deny

allow from all

# This directive allows us to have apache2's default start page

# in /apache2-default/, but still have / go to the right place

# Commented out for Ubuntu

#RedirectMatch ^/$ /apache2-default/

 

Then all you need to do is restart apache2:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart