Password-protect access to an application with Apache

To configure Apache to request a username and password when accessing your application, follow these steps:

• At the console, type the following commands. Remember to replace APPNAME, USERNAME and PASSWORD with the application name (for example, wordpress), and desired username and password, respectively.

    $ sudo /opt/bitnami/apache/bin/htpasswd -cb /opt/bitnami/apache/APPNAME_users USERNAME PASSWORD
  

• Edit the /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/vhosts/APPNAME-vhost.conf file to add the following lines:

    <VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:443 _default_:443>
      ...
      <Directory "/opt/bitnami/APPNAME">
        ...
        AuthType Basic
        AuthName MyAuthName
        AuthUserFile "/opt/bitnami/apache/APPNAME_users"
        Require valid-user
  

  In addition, find the line containing Require all granted in the same file and comment it by placing a hash (#) symbol before it, as shown below:

    # Require all granted
  

  If your application has a proxy, add the following lines at the end of the file:

      ...
      <Location />
        AuthType Basic
        AuthName "Authentication required"
        Require valid-user
        AuthUserFile "/opt/bitnami/apache/APPNAME_users"
      </Location>
    </VirtualHost>
  

• Edit the /opt/bitnami/apache/conf/vhosts/APPNAME-https-vhost.conf file to add the following lines:

    <VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:443 _default_:443>
      ...
      <Directory "/opt/bitnami/APPNAME">
        ...
        AuthType Basic
        AuthName MyAuthName
        AuthUserFile "/opt/bitnami/apache/APPNAME_users"
        Require valid-user
  

  In addition, find the line containing Require all granted in the same file and comment it by placing a hash (#) symbol before it, as shown below:

    # Require all granted
  

  If your application has a proxy, add the following lines at the end of the file:

      ...
      <Location />
        AuthType Basic
        AuthName "Authentication required"
        Require valid-user
        AuthUserFile "/opt/bitnami/apache/APPNAME_users"
      </Location>
    </VirtualHost>
  

• Restart the Apache server:

    $ sudo service bitnami restart apache
  

When accessing the application, you will see the following authentication popup window. Enter the username and password that you have defined in the first step:

To change the password later, run the htpasswd utility without the -c switch and replace the USERNAME placeholder with the username of the account you wish to modify:

$ sudo /opt/bitnami/apache/bin/htpasswd /opt/bitnami/apache/APPNAME_users USERNAME

To add another user to the same file, run the htpasswd utility without the -c switch and replace the USERNAME and PASSWORD placeholders with the new username and password you wish to add.

$ sudo /opt/bitnami/apache/bin/htpasswd -b /opt/bitnami/apache/APPNAME_users USERNAME PASSWORD