On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 12:33 PM, Ben Johnson <b...@indietorrent.org> wrote:

>
>
> On 4/30/2013 11:55 AM, Bo Berglund wrote:
> > On Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:36:47 -0400, Ben Johnson <b...@indietorrent.org>
> > wrote:
> >
> >>> Well,
> >>> I cannot easily change the authentication method at all because the
> >>> "real" website uses CRYPT passwords and we also have a lot of software
> >>> in-house that updates these .htpasswd files with new user logins when
> >>> new customers are granted access to the protected parts of the site.
> >>
> >> Ah, I see. Yes, then the only short-term solution seems to be to resolve
> >> the issue with .htpasswd files on Windows.
> >
> > What I can do is to replace the .htpasswd file with for example
> > passwords in the .htaccess file and then put a few known test users
> > into that using the htpasswd command, which generates md5 hashes.
> > Then I can use the test site on my PC and the only thing I must not do
> > is commit the changed .htaccess file to CVS....
>
> Sounds good to me.
>
> >> Nonetheless, you might suggest migrating the "live" server to some form
> >> of database authentication in the future. It would be much simpler for
> >> your in-house software to maintain and update a single database table,
> >> rather than potentially hundreds of .htpassword and .htaccess files.
> >
> > I guess so, but then I first have to get comfortable using databases
> > on the website...
>
> Understood.
>
> >>> I have no idea how I could generate MD5 passwords in my software so I
> >>> am stuck with CRYPT (which I can create).
> >>> Note that if this is changed I need to do the same on all of the
> >>> protected folders on the real site...
> >>
> >> Generating MD5 passwords should be trivial in any environment. If you
> >> have a specific scripting language or similar, I'd be happy to provide
> >> examples. However, based on what you say above, changing from CRYPT to
> >> MD5 sounds like as much or more work as getting CRYPT to work on
> Windows.
> >
> > I could probably call the Apache htpasswd program from within my own
> > program and supply it with parameter -c to create a new file and then
> > I read that back. Like this:
> > htpasswd.exe -cb passwordfile username password
> >
> >>
> >> I wouldn't go that far. There has to be a way to make CRYPT work on
> >> Windows. I'll do some more research (and attempt to get this working on
> >> my own machine) and provide an update.
> >>
> >
> > The problem is getting Apache on Win7 to recognize CRYPT:ed passwords.
> > Creating them is no big deal, I already have software components for
> > that. But getting Apache to read them is....
>
> Ah, right. Well, it seems that I stand corrected: it does *not* seem to
> be possible to make Apache read crypted passwords on Windows:
>
> http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/misc/password_encryptions.html#basic
>
> CRYPT
> Unix only. Uses the traditional Unix crypt(3) function with a
> randomly-generated 32-bit salt (only 12 bits used) and the first 8
> characters of the password.
>
> > I cannot understand why they left that out of Apache when compiling
> > for Windows....
> >
> >
>
> I'm sure there is a good reason. I have yet to see ASF do anything
> without one.
>

no comment ;)


>
> Maybe someone else can articulate the rationale.
>

* Windows doesn't come with a crypt()-equivalent API.  (Or didn't for a
long time??????)
* APR-Util doesn't support any third-party libraries for
crypt()-equivalence on Windows.
* Consumers of APR-Util like htpasswd don't think crypt()-equivalent is
available on Windows and would need to use some different construct to
detect availability of crypt()-equivalent passwords in APR-Util.
* Somehow we made it this long without [m]any people caring.

The work could be done, of course...  Whether crypt()-ed passwords are
important enough now to justify the effort from a volunteer as well as the
work of the related projects to review and test the code is unclear...



>
> Bummer!
>
> -Ben
>
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Born in Roswell... married an alien...
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