DOC HOME SITE MAP MAN PAGES GNU INFO SEARCH PRINT BOOK
 

htpasswd(1apache2)





NAME

       htpasswd - Manage user files for basic authentication


SYNOPSIS

       htpasswd [ -c ] [ -m ] [ -D ] passwdfile username

       htpasswd  -b  [  -c  ] [ -m | -d | -p | -s ] [ -D ] passwdfile username
       password

       htpasswd -n [ -m | -d | -s | -p ] username

       htpasswd -nb [ -m | -d | -s | -p ] username password


SUMMARY

       htpasswd is used to create and update  the  flat-files  used  to  store
       usernames  and  password  for  basic  authentication  of HTTP users. If
       htpasswd cannot access a file, such as not being able to write  to  the
       output  file  or not being able to read the file in order to update it,
       it returns an error status and makes no changes.

       Resources available from the Apache HTTP server can  be  restricted  to
       just  the  users  listed in the files created by htpasswd. This program
       can only manage usernames and passwords stored in a flat-file.  It  can
       encrypt and display password information for use in other types of data
       stores, though. To use a DBM database see dbmmanage.

       htpasswd encrypts passwords using either a version of MD5 modified  for
       Apache,  or the system's crypt() routine. Files managed by htpasswd may
       contain  both  types  of  passwords;  some  user   records   may   have
       MD5-encrypted  passwords  while  others in the same file may have pass-
       words encrypted with crypt().

       This manual page only lists the command line arguments. For details  of
       the  directives necessary to configure user authentication in httpd see
       the Apache manual, which is part of the Apache distribution or  can  be
       found at http://httpd.apache.org/.


OPTIONS

       -b     Use  batch  mode;  i.e.,  get the password from the command line
              rather than prompting for it. This option should  be  used  with
              extreme  care, since the password is clearly visible on the com-
              mand line.

       -c     Create the passwdfile.  If  passwdfile  already  exists,  it  is
              rewritten and truncated. This option cannot be combined with the
              -n option.

       -n     Display the results on standard output rather  than  updating  a
              file.  This is useful for generating password records acceptable
              to Apache for inclusion in non-text  data  stores.  This  option
              changes  the  syntax  of  the command line, since the passwdfile
              argument (usually the first one) is omitted. It cannot  be  com-
              bined with the -c option.

       -m     Use  MD5  encryption for passwords. On Windows, Netware and TPF,
              this is the default.

       -d     Use crypt() encryption for passwords. The default on  all  plat-
              forms but Windows, Netware and TPF. Though possibly supported by
              htpasswd on all platforms, it is  not  supported  by  the  httpd
              server on Windows, Netware and TPF.

       -s     Use  SHA encryption for passwords. Facilitates migration from/to
              Netscape servers using the  LDAP  Directory  Interchange  Format
              (ldif).

       -p     Use  plaintext  passwords. Though htpasswd will support creation
              on all platforms, the httpd daemon will only accept  plain  text
              passwords on Windows, Netware and TPF.

       -D     Delete  user.  If  the username exists in the specified htpasswd
              file, it will be deleted.

       passwdfile
              Name of the file to contain the user name and password. If -c is
              given,  this  file  is  created if it does not already exist, or
              rewritten and truncated if it does exist.

       username
              The username to create or update in passwdfile. If username does
              not exist in this file, an entry is added. If it does exist, the
              password is changed.

       password
              The plaintext password to be encrypted and stored in  the  file.
              Only used with the -b flag.


EXIT STATUS

       htpasswd  returns  a  zero status ("true") if the username and password
       have been successfully added or updated  in  the  passwdfile.  htpasswd
       returns 1 if it encounters some problem accessing files, 2 if there was
       a syntax problem with the command line, 3 if the password  was  entered
       interactively  and the verification entry didn't match, 4 if its opera-
       tion was interrupted, 5 if a value is  too  long  (username,  filename,
       password, or final computed record), 6 if the username contains illegal
       characters (see the Restrictions section), and 7 if the file is  not  a
       valid password file.


EXAMPLES

             htpasswd /usr/local/etc/apache/.htpasswd-users jsmith

       Adds or modifies the password for user jsmith. The user is prompted for
       the password. If executed on a Windows system,  the  password  will  be
       encrypted  using the modified Apache MD5 algorithm; otherwise, the sys-
       tem's crypt() routine will  be  used.  If  the  file  does  not  exist,
       htpasswd will do nothing except return an error.

             htpasswd -c /home/doe/public_html/.htpasswd jane

       Creates a new file and stores a record in it for user jane. The user is
       prompted for the password. If the file exists and cannot  be  read,  or
       cannot  be  written, it is not altered and htpasswd will display a mes-
       sage and return an error status.

             htpasswd -mb /usr/web/.htpasswd-all jones Pwd4Steve

       Encrypts the password from the command line (Pwd4Steve) using  the  MD5
       algorithm, and stores it in the specified file.


SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

       Web  password  files  such  as  those managed by htpasswd should not be
       within the Web server's URI space -- that is, they should not be fetch-
       able with a browser.

       This program is not safe as a setuid executable. Do not make it setuid.

       The use of the -b option is discouraged, since  when  it  is  used  the
       unencrypted password appears on the command line.

       When using the crypt() algorithm, note that only the first 8 characters
       of the password are used to form the password. If the supplied password
       is longer, the extra characters will be silently discarded.

       The  SHA  encryption format does not use salting: for a given password,
       there is only one encrypted representation. The crypt() and MD5 formats
       permute  the representation by prepending a random salt string, to make
       dictionary attacks against the passwords more difficult.


RESTRICTIONS

       On the Windows and MPE platforms, passwords encrypted with htpasswd are
       limited to no more than 255 characters in length. Longer passwords will
       be truncated to 255 characters.

       The MD5 algorithm used by htpasswd is specific to the Apache  software;
       passwords encrypted using it will not be usable with other Web servers.

       Usernames are limited to 255 bytes and may not include the character :.

Apache HTTP Server                2007-04-24                       HTPASSWD(1)

Man(1) output converted with man2html