Basic authentication in Nginx - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Basic Authentication Setup with Nginx

📖 Scenario: You are setting up a simple web server using Nginx. To protect a specific area of your website, you want to add basic authentication so that only users with a username and password can access it.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to configure basic authentication in Nginx by creating a password file, setting the auth_basic_user_file directive, applying the authentication to a location block, and verifying the setup.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a password file with a user entry

Add the auth_basic_user_file directive for the password file path

Configure Nginx to use basic authentication for a location

Print the final Nginx configuration snippet

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Basic authentication is commonly used to protect admin pages or sensitive areas on websites without complex login systems.

💼 Career

Knowing how to configure basic authentication in Nginx is a key skill for DevOps engineers managing web servers and securing web applications.

1

Create the password file

Create a file called /etc/nginx/.htpasswd with the exact content user:$apr1$H6uskkkW$IgXLP6ewTrSuBkTrqE8wj/ which represents the username user and a hashed password.

Nginx

# Create the password file with the exact content
# Your code here

Need a hint?

This line is the content of the password file. It stores the username and hashed password for basic authentication.

2

Add the auth_basic_user_file directive

In your Nginx configuration, set the auth_basic_user_file directive to /etc/nginx/.htpasswd.

Nginx

user:$apr1$H6uskkkW$IgXLP6ewTrSuBkTrqE8wj/
# Define the auth_basic_user_file directive below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

This directive specifies the path to the password file for authentication.

3

Configure basic authentication in Nginx

Add a location /secure block in the Nginx configuration that enables basic authentication with the message "Restricted Area" and the auth_basic_user_file directive for the password file.

Nginx

user:$apr1$H6uskkkW$IgXLP6ewTrSuBkTrqE8wj/
auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/.htpasswd;
# Add location /secure block with basic authentication below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

The location block protects the /secure path with basic authentication.

4

Print the final Nginx configuration

Print the entire Nginx configuration snippet including the password file content, the variable, and the location block exactly as shown.

Nginx

user:$apr1$H6uskkkW$IgXLP6ewTrSuBkTrqE8wj/
auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/.htpasswd;

location /secure {
    auth_basic "Restricted Area";
    auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/.htpasswd;
}
# Print the full configuration below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a print statement to show the full configuration exactly as it is.