[SOLVED] What's the safest place for a .htpasswd file?

earthw0rmjim · 08-16-2012, 11:34 AM

Hey!

I'm running an apache webserver for my rtorrent webui, password protected via .htaccess, but i don't really know what's the safest place for .htpasswd.
It's in my home directory atm.
Where should i put it?

Thanks in advance!

dkm999 · 08-16-2012, 09:40 PM

Much more important than where you put is is the protections you assign to it. The best way I can think of is to make sure that you have a group defined that has only the web server in it, and then assign the file a protection mode (chmod) of 0640. This allows the owner (presumably you) to read and write the .htpasswd file, and allows the web server to read it, and no one else to do anything to it.

sundialsvcs · 08-16-2012, 09:45 PM

In general, just make sure that the file is not in any place that is reachable by a URL ... and be sure that Apache does not accept ".." relative directory addresses in any of those URLs.

earthw0rmjim · 08-17-2012, 07:48 AM

Thanks!

chrism01 · 08-22-2012, 07:57 PM

Generally, .htpasswd would be outside the Document area, typically in the same dir as httpd.conf or similar.
.htaccess (a different thing entirely) is best not used and instead put the directives inside the relevant Direcorty tags inside httpd.conf

Quote:

However, in general, use of .htaccess files should be avoided when possible. Any configuration that you would consider putting in a .htaccess file, can just as effectively be made in a <Directory> section in your main server configuration file.

https://httpd.apache.org/docs/curren.../htaccess.html