Password Formats

Available Languages: en

+ +

Notes about the password encryption formats generated and understood by + Apache.

Basic Authentication
Digest Authentication

Basic Authentication

+ +

There are four formats that Apache recognizes for basic-authentication + passwords. Note that not all formats work on every platform:

+ +

PLAIN TEXT (i.e. unencrypted): Windows, BEOS, & Netware only.
CRYPT: Unix only. Calls the Unix crypt(3) function with a randomly-generated + 32-bit salt and the password.
SHA1: "{SHA}" + Base64-encoded SHA-1 digest of the password.
MD5: "$apr1$" + the result of an Apache-specific algorithm using an + iterated (1,000 times) MD5 digest of various combinations of a + randomly-generated 32-bit salt and the password. See the APR source file + apr_md5.c + for the details of the algorithm.

+ +

Generating values with htpasswd

+ +

MD5

+ $ htpasswd -nbm myName myPassword + myName:$apr1$r31.....$HqJZimcKQFAMYayBlzkrA/ +

+ +

SHA1

+ $ htpasswd -nbs myName myPassword + myName:{SHA}VBPuJHI7uixaa6LQGWx4s+5GKNE= +

+ +

CRYPT

+ $ htpasswd -nbd myName myPassword + myName:rqXexS6ZhobKA +

+ + + +

Generating CRYPT and MD5 values with the OpenSSL + command-line program

+ + +

OpenSSL knows the Apache-specific MD5 algorithm.

+ +

MD5

+ $ openssl passwd -apr1 myPassword + $apr1$qHDFfhPC$nITSVHgYbDAK1Y0acGRnY0 +

+ +

CRYPT

+ openssl passwd -crypt myPassword + qQ5vTYO3c8dsU +

+ + +

Validating CRYPT or MD5 passwords with the OpenSSL command + line program

+ +

The salt for a CRYPT password is the first two characters (as a + Base64-encoded binary value). To validate myPassword against + rqXexS6ZhobKA

+ +

CRYPT

+ $ openssl passwd -crypt -salt rq myPassword + Warning: truncating password to 8 characters + rqXexS6ZhobKA +

+ +

Note that using myPasswo instead of + myPassword will produce the same result because only the + first 8 characters of CRYPT passwords are considered.

+ +

The salt for an MD5 password is between $apr1$ and the + following $ (as a Base64-encoded binary value - max 8 chars) + To validate myPassword against + $apr1$r31.....$HqJZimcKQFAMYayBlzkrA/

+ +

MD5

+ $ openssl passwd -apr1 -salt r31..... myPassword + $apr1$r31.....$HqJZimcKQFAMYayBlzkrA/ +

+ + +

Database password fields for mod_dbd

The SHA1 variant is probably the most useful format for DBD + authentication. Since the SHA1-hash and Base64-encoding functions are + commonly available, other software can populate a database with encrypted + passwords which are usable by Apache basic authentication.

+ +

To create Apache SHA1-variant basic-authentication passwords in various + languages:

+ +

PHP

+ '{SHA}' . base64_encode(sha1($password, TRUE)) +

+ +

Java

+ "{SHA}" + new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder().encode(java.security.MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA1").digest(password.getBytes())) +

+ +

ColdFusion

+ "{SHA}" & ToBase64(BinaryDecode(Hash(password, "SHA1"), "Hex")) +

+ +

Ruby

+ require 'digest/sha1' + require 'base64' + '{SHA}' + Base64.encode64(Digest::SHA1.digest(password)) +

+ +

C or C++

+ Use the APR function: apr_sha1_base64 +

+ +

PostgreSQL (with the contrib/pgcrypto functions + installed)

+ + '{SHA}'||encode(digest(password,'sha1'),'base64') +

+ + +

Digest Authentication

There is only one format which Apache recognizes for + digest-authentication passwords. This format is the MD5 hash of the string + user:realm:password as a 32-character string of hexadecimal + digits. realm is the Authorization Realm argument to the + AuthName directive in + httpd.conf.

+ +

Database password fields for mod_dbd

+ +

Since the MD5-hash function is commonly available, other software can + populate a database with encrypted passwords which are usable by Apache + digest authentication.

+ +

To create Apache digest-authentication passwords in various + languages:

+ +

PHP

+ md5($user . ':' . $realm . ':' .$password) +

+ +

Java

+ byte b[] = java.security.MessageDigest.getInstance("MD5").digest( (user + ":" + realm + ":" + password ).getBytes()); + java.math.BigInteger bi = new java.math.BigInteger(b); + String s = bi.toString(16); + if (s.length() % 2 != 0) + + s = "0" + s; + + // String s is the digest hash +

+ +

ColdFusion

+ LCase(Hash( (user & ":" & realm & ":" & password) , "MD5")) +

+ +

Ruby

+ require 'digest/md5' + Digest::MD5.hexdigest(user + ':' + realm + ':' + password) +

+ + +