ID: 24768
User updated by: tgourrier at hotmail dot com
Reported By: tgourrier at hotmail dot com
-Status: Bogus
+Status: Open
Bug Type: HTTP related
Operating System: All
PHP Version: 4.3.1
New Comment:
I think you do not understand my scenario. My .htpasswd IS in a non-web
directory, but this issue has nothing to do with .htpasswd files or
.htaccess files. Let me clarify a little more.
I have a php page which I would like to users to access both without
authenticating. If the users choose to authenticate, they may, and if
they do so successfully, then the page will display additional content.
If I use the default .htaccess directive "Require user", then the users
will be forced to authenticate to view the page. Also, if this were the
case, I would not need to use the: header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic
realm="My Realm"') command, as the web server would force
authentication.
In my scenario the authentication is invoked by some action the user
takes. This action calls a script which has the
header('WWW-Authenticate: ...') command in it. However, this command
does not authenticate a user against anything -- it simply collects a
username and password. It is then up to the remainder of the script to
do the authentication.
What needs to be done is after the header() function collects the
username and password, run some logic to authenticate the user. If this
logic fails, then the user is NOT authenticated. The problem is the
PHP_AUTH variables are already set, and there is no way to unset or
clear them.
Take for example, I have a page that I would like to conditionally
secure with a username of "foo" and a password of "fighters". I could
use the following script:
<?php
if (!isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'])) {
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="My Realm"');
header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
echo 'Text to send if user hits Cancel button';
exit;
} else {
if ($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'] == "foo" &&
$_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'] == "fighters")
{
//the user is authenticated, continue processing
} else {
// user authentication has failed and PHP_AUTH
// variables should not be set
}
}
?>
Of course, this is a very oversimplified logic for authenticating a
user, but hopefully it illustrates my point.
Previous Comments:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2003-07-23 10:12:32] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not
a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at
http://www.php.net/manual/ and the instructions on how to report
a bug at http://bugs.php.net/how-to-report.php
If that is your intend you should keep .htpasswd is some unaccessible,
non-web directory then AUTH variable will not be populated. Usage of
.htpasswd without an appropriate .htaccess is wrong.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2003-07-23 09:04:06] tgourrier at hotmail dot com
I think you have run this script in a directory which is protected with
a .htaccess file. That is not the scenario I am referring to. If you
run the script you provided as an unprotected file, there is no
checking to see if the credentials provided are correct. It just takes
whatever the user enters, prints that out, and sets the PHP_AUTH_USER
and PHP_AUTH_PW fields.
This is my point. In a real script, instead of just echoing out the
userid and password in the else clause, you would validate it against
some logic. If the provided username/password do not meet the criteria
specified in your logic then at that point the authentication has
failed -- but the PHP_AUTH variables are already set and there is no
way to clear them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2003-07-23 08:33:24] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Try the script below with an .htpasswd/.htaccess protection. On my test
server unless correct credentials are specified PHP_AUTH variables are
not populated.
<?php
if (!isset($_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>";
}
?>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[2003-07-23 08:09:25] tgourrier at hotmail dot com
Description:
------------
When using the:
header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="My Realm"');
mechanism, the PHP_AUTH_* variables are set and there is no way to
clear or unset these variables if the authentication fails.
This is in contrast to the way that external authentication works (with
Apache at least). If external authentication fails, the PHP_AUTH
variables are not set (or at least they are cleared).
There should be some way within PHP to clear these variables if the
authentication is not successful.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
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