Re: the "correct" way to login.

I use this solution too, in order to authenticate my users....

My users/password table is into a PostgreSQL database.

Cassio.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Hammond" <drew@waugh.econ.queensu.ca>
To: "[PHP] PostgreSQL" <pgsql-php@postgresql.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 7:37 AM
Subject: [PHP] the "correct" way to login.


> On Wed, Mar 14, 2001 at 02:39:28AM +0100, Christian Marschalek wrote:
> > > Horrible idea!! Even with an encrypted password. Use PHP
> > > sessions, and save
> > > any info on the session (this is saved on a temp file on the
> > > server, and only
> > > the session handle is passed to the browser).
>
> The HTTP protocol provides userid/password based authentication.
> Using cookies or hidden variables in a form while a popular
> approach is not the correct way to do this.  Furthermore, a lot
> of people out there surf through a junk filter which will
> probably not let your cookie through.  Mine certainly won't.
>
> The solution is to use the HTTP auth stuff.  You can do this
> either using apache's Require dirrective at the server layer or
> dirrectly in your scripts.
>
> To do it using apache, you need to edit your httpd.conf or
> appropriate configuration file and put in something like the
> following:
>
> <Dirrectory /foo>
> AuthType Digest
> AuthName "realm foo"
> AuthUserFile /web/users
> AuthGroupFile /web/groups
> Require group admin
> </Dirrectory>
>
> Or you could just put the stuff contained in the Dirrectory
> stanza into a .htaccess file in the dirrectory you want to
> restrict access too, however that is inefficient since the
> .htaccess file needs to be stat'd ever time a page is accessed.
> It also only allows dirrectory level granularity and it's a pain
> in the ass to make the 401 message meaningfull.  But it's
> sufficient for many jobs and very fast.  The apache approach also
> supports the digest method giving some transportation security,
> while the dirrect php approach does not.
>
> To do it in your script, dirrectly you need to pay attention
> to $PHP_AUTH_USER and $PHP_AUTH_PW.  For example:
>
> if(!isset($PHP_AUTH_USER)) {
>   Header("WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm=\"sis_access\"");
>   Header("HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized");
>   include ( 'denied.html' );  // or you could redirrect
>   exit;
> }
>
> Then test the password the same way.  Passwords should (obviously)
> be stored in an encrypted format (MD5 is suitable, or you can just
> use good old DES crypt).  This will provide you with localized
> security.  For transport level security you can either use the
> digest method for authentication, or if you're really serious, an
> SSL connection.  Of course if you're _really_ serious you're going
> to be using x509 cert's and public key crypto, not some rinky dink
> password based system.
>
> > > System Administration: It's a dirty job,
>
> Then you're doing it wrong.
>
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