HTTP Authentication (Basic Authentication Access) is to provide a secure connection between the user-agent and the webserver. HTTP Authentication requires the usage of specific HTTP Headers. Hypertext Transfer Protocol requires a username, password, user-agent for access to the webserver. A User-agent uses a web browser to authenticate via HTTP. To provide HTTP Authentication, the credentials and the authentication scheme should be specified within HTTP Authentication Headers. HTTP Authentication credentials are in the base64 format. HTTP Authentication and Digest Access Authentication are relevant to each other to provide access control. Digest Authentication is to prevent replay attacks with the MD5 Cryptographic Hash. An example of HTTP Authentication is below.
Authorization: Basic <credentials>During an HTTP Authentication process, the 401, 407, or 200 status codes can be used. The main benefit of the HTTP Basic Authentication (BA) is standardizing the sending and receiving credentials between the User-agent and the webserver. HTTP Authentication guide will process the HTTP Authentication Headers, Status Codes, Syntax, Directives, and Access Restriction methods, and types.
What is Basic Authentication?
Basic Authentication (BA) is the fundamental and common way for providing authentication and access restrictions. Basic Authentication is to provide access control for the web resources via HTTP. Basic Authentication doesn’t require any login page, cookies, session information, or URL parameters for the identification of the requestor.
What are Basic Authentication Headers?
The Basic Authentication Headers are the Proxy-Authenticate, Proxy-Authorization, WWW-Authenticate, Authorization. The explanations and examples of the Basic Authentication headers are below.
- Proxy-Authenticate: The HTTP Proxy-Authenticate response-header provides the authenticated mechanism to the proxy server for access validation to provide secure data transfer. The error message “HTTP request was forbidden with client authentication scheme anonymous” is an example of an authentication mismatch. This error message indicates a negative trust relationship between server and server. This implies the required credentials for authentication from Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) server to the client. An example for the HTTP-Authenticate Request Header is shown below.
Proxy-Authenticate: Basic realm="Access to the internal site"- Proxy-Authorization: The HTTP Proxy-Authorization request header provides the username and password after the status code 407 Proxy-Authentication and Proxy-Authenticate header to the user. HTTP digest authentication is a program that utilizes MD5 cryptographic hashing in conjunction with nonce data to avoid repeated attacks. An example for the HTTP-Authenticate Request Header is shown below.
Proxy-Authorization: Basic ZXyvKRVpbjlspXVuc4QzZN3l- WWW-Authenticate: The HTTP WWW-Authenticate response header determines the HTTP Authentication process to be used to provide secured access on a web server. The basic authentication header method provides the username and password listed. An example for the HTTP-Authenticate Request Header is shown below.
WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Access to the staging site", charset="UTF-8"- Authorization: The HTTP Authorization request header supplies the credentials to the user to the secured web server. HTTP Authorization request header provides a response with the status code 401 Unauthorized when the user provides no credentials upon access request from a secured proxy server. The HTTP Authorization fails when a credential is incorrect or the password is expired, the remote http basic access will be denied. An example for Authorization HTTP Request Header is shown below.
Proxy-Authorization: Basic YQxvLQRscjlspTYudc3QzWV1lHow does HTTP Authentication Framework function?
The general HTTP Authentication Framework provides the pattern where the server will challenge the client to supply the credentials to access the resource from the proxy web server. The challenge and response pattern for the HTTP Authentication framework is shown below.
- A status code “401 (Unauthorized)” with WWW-Authenticate Response Header and one or more challenges from the server will be responded to by the client, which includes the details on how to authorize.
- A client can authenticate itself with the server by providing the credentials with an HTTP Authorization Request Header.
- An HTTP Authorization Request Header with password prompt will be requested by the client from the user.
What is Proxy-Authentication?
A Proxy-Authentication approach ensures that every request to the server is authenticated. In the context of Proxy-Authentication, the HTTP Proxy-Authenticate includes the type and realm directives for Proxy Server Authentication. The HTTP Authentication provides the general framework for the access control and authentication required for Proxy-Authenticate to ensure that every request to the server is authenticated. Proxy Authentication is a method of providing a Middle-tier server for user verification. The administrator will be providing the authorization to a Middle-tier server to proxy a client. There are three forms of Proxy-Authentication shown below.
- The application user validates itself with the middletier server. Then the middletier validates with the database server.
- The middletier server doesn’t provide authentication to the client. The username and password are submitted to the database server for verification.
- For recovering the user’s credentials, the client submits the certificate or the Distinguished Name (DN) to the middletier server for authentication.
What does Access Forbidden mean for HTTP Authentication?
Access Forbidden for HTTP Authentication implies invalid credentials received by the server from the user-agent. A status code “401 Unauthorized” or “407 Proxy Authentication Required” will be sent to the user as an error message. Then, the user may supply new credentials to provide another access request. Another related status code is “403 Forbidden”, which refers to the server’s permanent refusal of access to the client. An example of Access Forbidden is shown below.
HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2021 07:28:00 GMTHow to authenticate Cross-origin Images?
The Cross-Origin Resource Sharing protocol uses headers in HTTP to allow a server to indicate from other origins that a browser should authenticate the loading of resources from that domain. In Cross-Origin Images, the HTML, together with a Cross-Origin Resource Header, uses a Cross-Origin Attribute for images that permits images identified by the <img> element, HTML provides a cross-origin attribute for images that, in combination with an appropriate CORS header, allows images defined by the <img> element that are initiated from other domains to be provided for an <canvas> as it were they are from the current origin. The methodology of storing the images from an outside domain requires web server configuration. The server is configured to set up images with the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header. The Access-Control-Allow-Origin header authenticates Cross-Origin to access the image files. The web server will then allow other images from a foreign domain to be linked and saved in local storage.
How do WWW-Authenticate and Proxy-Authenticate Headers work together?
The HTTP WWW-Authenticate response header determines which HTTP authentication mechanics will be applied to provide access to a resource from the proxy web server. The response requires an HTTP WWW-Authenticate response header, together with one or more Challenge-Response Headers. The HTTP Proxy-Authenticate response header will then authenticate the specific authentication mechanics applied to allow access to a resource from the proxy web server. Status code “407 Proxy Authentication Required” is sent along with the Proxy-Authenticate header. An example is shown below.
WWW-Authenticate: Basic
WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Access to the staging site", charset="UTF-8"
Proxy-Authenticate: Basic
Proxy-Authenticate: Basic realm="Access to the internal site"How do Authorization and Proxy-Authorization Headers work together?
The HTTP Proxy-Authenticate response-header provides the authentication of the applied mechanics to access the webserver. HTTP Proxy-Authenticate is forwarded along with the “407 Proxy Authentication Required” status code, where credentials will be required. The HTTP Authorization header will then provide the webserver with the necessary username and password to validate a user agent to allow access. An example is shown below.
Proxy-Authenticate: Basic
Proxy-Authenticate: Basic realm="Access to the internal site"
Authorization: Basic ZXnqYWQplmordGWuc1VzQR2lWhat are the Authentication Schemes?
The authentication schemes are listed below.
- Basic authentication scheme
- Bearer Authentication Scheme
1. Basic Authentication Scheme
“Basic” HTTP Authentication is a scheme described in RFC 7617 that uses base64 to transfer the username and password. The Basic Authentication method is not secured when credentials are submitted as clear text since these are encoded and not encrypted. An example is shown below.
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Access to the staging site"
AuthUserFile /path/to/.htpasswd
Require valid-user2. Bearer Authentication Scheme
“Bearer” HTTP Authentication is a scheme described in RFC 6750 that provides security tokens that allow access to the client (the bearer of the token). A client is given the authorization to access the secured server with the owner’s approval. An example is shown below.
app.get('/profile',
passport.authenticate('bearer', { session: false }),
nction(req, res) {
res.json(req.user);
});3. Digest Authentication Scheme
The “Digest” HTTP Authentication scheme is one of the standard mechanisms used to authenticate the username and password of a user agent provided to the server. “Digest” HTTP Authentication scheme contains all access requests received by a proxy server and transferred to the domain administrator. An example is shown below.
HA1 = MD5(username:realm:password)
HA2 = MD5(method:digestURI)
response = MD5(HA1:nonce:HA24. HOBA Authentication Scheme
The HTTP Origin-Bound Authentication (HOBA) scheme doesn’t require a password. Instead, a signature-based scheme is designed to make it more secure than the Basic and Digest HTTP Authentication schemes. A design where credentials are not prone to phishing attacks and can be applied in Javascript-based authentication embedded in HTML. An example is shown below.
Authorization: HOBA result="kid"."challenge"."nonce"."sig"5. Mutual Authentication Scheme
HTTP Mutual Authentication scheme, also known as bidirectional authentication, requires verification from both sides, the client and server. HTTP Mutual Authentication schemes may require various methods of authentication, such as digital certificates. The difference between HTTP Mutual Authentication and other schemes is that both client and server have one mutual entity to be verified. An example is shown below.
The client sends a request to the server with:
Authorization: Mutual user="name"
ab1="..."The server responds with:
Authorization: Mutual sid=123
vab="..."6. Negotiate/NLTM Authentication Scheme
The Negotiate/NLTM Authentication scheme is also called SPNEGO. A method of authentication, defined in RFC 4559, selects between Kerberos and NTLM (Windows NT LAN Manager) authentication. Negotiate/NLTM Authentication scheme is used to negotiate several authentication schemes, allows mutual authentication and delegation of username and password to remote machines. Kerberos, a computer network authentication protocol, provides high-security measures by implementing ticket-based requests to allow user access over a non-secure network. An example is shown below.
Authorization: Negotiate <gssapi-data>7. VAPID Authentication Scheme
The “VAPID” HTTP Authentication scheme, also known as the Voluntary Application Server Identification scheme is created to allow independent communications between the web server and the push service. VAPID HTTP Authentication scheme authorizes the developers to indicate their contact information and websites to deliver push notifications without recognizing which browser it supplies. An example is shown below.
Authorization: vapid
t=slK0eXAiOiJKV2ZiLCJhbGciOiJFUzI1NiJ9.eyJhdWQiOiJodHRwczovL3B1c2guZXhhbXBsZS5uZXQiLCJleHAiOjE0NTM1MjM3NjgsInN1YiI6Im1haWx0bzpwdXNoQGV4YW1wbGUuY29tIn0.i3CYb7t4xfxCDquptFOepC9GAu_HLGkMlMuCGSK2rpiUfnK9ojFwDXb1JrErtmysazNjjvW2L9OkCCHzvoB1oA,
k=RC3Hxzyi1ZIP3b5wjxsn7nGxAszw2u61m164i3MrAIxHF6YK5h4SDYic-dRuU_RCPCfA5aq9ojSwk5Y2EmKLMJsWhere “t” is a token provided by the client and “k” is the private key that serves as the signature for the token.
8. AWS4-HMAC-SHA256 Authentication Scheme
The AWS4-HMAC-SHA256 Authentication Scheme is an AWS Signature Version 4 method of Authentication, supported by S3. The signing algorithm (HMAC-SHA256) and the AWS Signature Version 4 is used to specify the string. An example is shown below.
Authorization: AWS4-HMAC-SHA256
Credential=XKEOIOSFABNN7EXAMPLE/20130524/us-east-1/s3/aws4_request,
SignedHeaders=host;range;x-amz-date,
Signature=zo4f70f55d5fa3beca038a255ssWhy is the Basic Authentication Scheme the most common?
The Basic HTTP Authentication scheme is the most common method because it only transfers the credentials in cleartext without encryption, with the use of Base-64 encoded string. When compared with the HTTP “Bearer” Authentication scheme, the scheme requires approval from the owner of the server to allow access to the client, while the “Basic” Authentication scheme provides the credentials without approval from the owner of the server.
How is the security of the basic authentication?
The security of the Basic HTTP Authentication scheme is the weakest among the other HTTP authentication schemes. Basic HTTP Authentication scheme sends the username ID and password over the network on a clear text encoded without encryption. The Basic HTTP Authentication scheme is a simple challenge and easier scheme to implement since it is not intended to protect credentials, but to send username and password to the server as clear text. The Basic HTTP Authentication scheme can only be secured when combined with other Authentication schemes, such as “Bearer” or “Negotiate” Authentication scheme.
What is restricting access for authentication of HTTP?
The Restriction Access for Authentication of HTTP is added to an HTTP Authentication scheme to provide additional access limitations or requests for access approval from the server. Restriction Access is beneficial for open-source scripts, where data is unsafe and vulnerable to hackers. Restriction Access is helpful to secure private documents from a database. Restriction Access is efficient Network Access-Control Lists (ACLs). There are three ways to successfully implement Restriction Access, these are shown below.
1) Restriction Access using a static IP Address: Having a static IP address, the Restriction access can be hardcoded in the authentication function. A specific web page can be restricted by using the Restriction access combined with IP Address. An example is shown below.
<?php
//This function returns True if visitor IP is within the allowed range.
//Otherwise it returns False
function CheckAccess()
{
//allowed IP range start, change it to yours
//please note that $toip must be greater than $fromip
$fromip = '127.0.0.1';
//allowed IP range end
$toip = '127.0.0.100';
$ip = ip2long($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
return ($ip >= ip2long($fromip) && $ip <= ip2long($toip));
}
?>2) Restriction Access using a secret Parameter: Restriction Access using hidden parameters allows you to provide restrictions on the script without supplying several codes. Providing arbitrary additional parameters within the script URL allows access to the restricted scripts, otherwise, the status code “404 HTTP (Page not Found)” will be sent as an error message. An example is shown below.
<?php
//This function returns True if query string contains
secretkey and secretvalue.
//Otherwise it returns Falsez
function CheckAccess()
{
return @$_GET['secretkey']=='secretvalue';
}
?> 3) Restriction Access with Basic HTTP Authentication: Restriction Access used with the Basic HTTP Authentication scheme will require the user to provide the credentials to access the restricted page or site. The browser will be providing the credentials to the HTTP headers as plain text to authenticate. An example is shown below.
<?php
//This function returns True if login:testuser and password:testpass are provided
//Otherwise it returns False
function CheckAccess()
{
$result = (isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']) &&
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] == 'testuser' &&
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'] == 'testpass');
if (!$result)
{
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="Test restricted area"');
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
return false;
else
return true;
}
?> How to restrict access within NGINX Servers?
NGINX(Engine-X) Server is one of the best application and web servers that we can use as a mail server, reverse proxy server and load balancer. Approximately 400 million websites worldwide use the NGINX and NGINX Plus servers to provide a reliable, protected, and high-speed delivery of content on web servers. Examples of websites that use the NGINX Server are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Adobe, and Netflix.
To apply HTTP Authentication to NGINX Server, there are two directives applicable to protect the webserver. The two directives are shown below.
- auth_basic: Activates the authentication of user’s credentials with the use of “HTTP Basic Authentication” restrictions.
- auth_basic_user_file: provides the password.
To apply Restriction access to NGINX Server, there are three ways to configure the HTTP Authentication for NGINX Server, as shown below.
- Password Protect NGINX Virtual Hosts: Password Protect NGINX Virtual Hosts will apply the Basic HTTP Authentication to all blocks of the web server. The process is shown below.
Access the file named /etc/Nginx/Nginx.conf
In the HTTP context, encode the codes shown below.
http{
auth_basic "Restricted Access!";
auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/conf.d/.htpasswd;
……...
}- Password Protect NGINX Website or Domain: Password Protect NGINX Website or Domain enables the Basic HTTP Authentication on a specific sub-domain. The process is shown below.
Access the file under /etc/nginx/conf.d/ or /etc/nginx/conf/sites-available (file name will depend on how it was installed on Nginx)
In the HTTP context, encode the codes shown below.
server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com;
auth_basic "Restricted Access!";
auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/conf.d/.htpasswd;
location / {
……..
}
……...
}
- Password Protect Web directory in NGINX enables the Basic HTTP Authentication on a specific location directive. All users that will try to open the restricted location directive will be requested to provide the username and password. If authentication fails, a status code “401 Authorization Required” error will be shown as a response. The process is shown below.
server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com www.example.com;
location / {
……..
}
location /admin/ {
auth_basic "Restricted Access!";
auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/conf.d/.htpasswd;
}
location /public/{
auth_basic off; #turns off basic http authentication off for this block
}
……..
}To provide further protection against phishing attacks, the NGINX server limits the authentication of credentials from the user agent. Whenever someone is requesting several attempts to access the server and fails to authenticate the credentials, the status code “429 HTTP error” appears. “429 HTTP error” message is also known as the “Too Many Requests” error message. . “429 HTTP error” appears to notify the user that the NGINX server is overwhelmed by several attempts received to authenticate the credentials or NGINX server is blocking the access to the specific IP address with observed suspicious behavior. An example of suspicious behavior that triggers the “429 HTTP error” is the DDoS (Denial of Service) attacks. The limit of credentials authentication depends on the browser. The “429 HTTP error” code can appear in a different format, as shown below.
1. “HTTP 429”
2. “Error 429 (Too Many Requests)”
3. “429 error”
How to restrict access within Apache Servers?
The Apache HTTP Servers, also called Apache, is a well-known open-source server. Apache Servers are slower than NGINX Servers. Apache servers are considered to perform half as fast as NGINX servers, but they are often being chosen by small businesses due to their free features. To meet the demands of each specific environment, Apache HTTP Servers offers various MPMs (Multi-Processing Modules) that enable it to process with an event-hybrid mode, process-based model, or a hybrid (process and thread) mode.
To apply HTTP Authentication to Apex Server, there are two directives applicable to protect the webserver. The two directives are shown below.
- auth_basic: Activates the authentication of user’s credentials with the use of “HTTP Basic Authentication” restrictions.
- auth_basic_user_file: provides the password.
To apply Restriction access to Apache Server, there are two ways to configure the HTTP Authentication for an Apache Server. The process is shown below.
- To apply HTTP Authentication for all blocks of the Apache server. The process is shown below.
Access the main Apache config file /etc/apache/apache2.conf (file name will usually depend on how it was installed)
In the HTTP context, encode the codes shown below.
http{
auth_basic "Restricted Access!";
auth_basic_user_file /etc/apache/conf.d/.htpasswd;
……...
}- To apply HTTP Authentication on a specific location of the Apache server. The process is shown below.
Access the main Apache config file /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf (file name will usually depend on how it was installed)
In the HTTP context, encode the codes shown below.
server {
listen 80;
server_name example.com;
auth_basic "Restricted Access!";
auth_basic_user_file /etc/apache/conf.d/.htpasswd;
location / {
……..
}
……...
}
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