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Apache External Authentication
Apache External Authentication
Apache external authentication for proxy requests.

I have created a web application which is a middleware situated between the mobile app and the webservice provider. Some requests should be handled by the middleware and some other requests should be forwarded to the webservice provider.

We can add apache proxy to forward the requests to the webservice provider. But before forwarding the requests it should be validated. If we are validating from the application then we can’t use the apache proxy, so the validation has to be implemented within apache.

There is a custom module for apache to do this kind of external authentication called mod-auth-external. Where you can mention the path of an external authentication file. Whenever apache gets a request it will execute the validation file and based on the response (true/false) from validation file apache either continue with the request or return unauthorized.

Sample virtual_host.conf file:

LoadModule authnz_external_module modules/mod_authnz_external.so
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot "/var/www/application_name"
ServerName application_name.com
AddExternalAuth auth /var/www/application_name/validate.php
SetExternalAuthMethod auth environment
<Directory "/var/www/application_name">
   Options Indexes +FollowSymLinks MultiViews +ExecCGI
   AllowOverride None
   Order allow,deny
   Allow from all
</Directory>
<Location ~ "^/api/(.*)$">
   AuthName "AppName"
   AuthType Basic
   AuthBasicProvider external
   AuthExternal auth
   require valid-user
</Location>
ProxyRequests Off
ProxyPreserveHost On
ProxyPass /api/ https://192.168.1.200/Webserver/
ProxyPassReverse /api/ https://192.168.1.200/Webserver/
<Proxy *>
   Order deny,allow
   Allow from all
</Proxy>
</VirtualHost>

Sample external authentication file (validate.php):

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
$host = "127.0.0.1";
$user = "user";
$password = "password";
$database = "database";
$link = mysql_connect($host, $user, $password);
$selected = mysql_select_db($database, $link);
$username = getenv('USER');
$password = getenv("PASS");
$sql = "SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE username= '$username' AND password = '$password' AND status = 1";
$result = mysql_query($sql, $link);
$count = mysql_num_rows($result);
if ($count > 0) {
  exit(0);
} else {
  exit(1);
}  
?>