htpasswd man page on Mandriva

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HTPASSWD(1)			   htpasswd			   HTPASSWD(1)

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)
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