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<title>Password Formats - Apache HTTP Server Version 2.4</title>
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<p>Notes about the password encryption formats generated and understood by
    Apache.</p>
  </div>
<div id="quickview"><ul id="toc"><li><img alt="" src="../../images/down.gif"> <a href="#basic">Basic Authentication</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="../../images/down.gif"> <a href="#digest">Digest Authentication</a></li>
</ul></div>
<div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../../images/up.gif"></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2 id="basic">Basic Authentication <a title="Permanent link" href="#basic" class="permalink">&para;</a></h2>

<p>There are five formats that Apache recognizes for basic-authentication
    passwords. Note that not all formats work on every platform:</p>

<dl>
       <dt>bcrypt</dt>
       <dd>"$2y$" + the result of the crypt_blowfish algorithm.
       See the APR source file
       <a href="http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/apr/apr/trunk/crypto/crypt_blowfish.c?view=markup">crypt_blowfish.c</a>
       for the details of the algorithm.</dd>

<dt>MD5</dt>
       <dd>"$apr1$" + the result of an Apache-specific algorithm using an
       iterated (1,000 times) MD5 digest of various combinations of a
       random 32-bit salt and the password. See the APR source file
       <a href="http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/apr/apr/trunk/crypto/apr_md5.c?view=markup">apr_md5.c</a>
       for the details of the algorithm.</dd>

<dt>SHA1</dt>
       <dd>"{SHA}" + Base64-encoded SHA-1 digest of the password. Insecure.</dd>

<dt>CRYPT</dt>
       <dd>Unix only. Uses the traditional Unix <code>crypt(3)</code> function
       with a randomly-generated 32-bit salt (only 12 bits used) and the first 8
       characters of the password. Insecure.</dd>

<dt>PLAIN TEXT (i.e. <em>unencrypted</em>)</dt>
       <dd>Windows &amp; Netware only. Insecure.</dd>
    </dl>

<h3>Generating values with htpasswd</h3>

<div class="example"><h3>bcrypt</h3><p><code>
      $ htpasswd -nbB myName myPassword<br>
      myName:$2y$05$c4WoMPo3SXsafkva.HHa6uXQZWr7oboPiC2bT/r7q1BB8I2s0BRqC
      </code></p></div>

<div class="example"><h3>MD5</h3><p><code>
      $ htpasswd -nbm myName myPassword<br>
      myName:$apr1$r31.....$HqJZimcKQFAMYayBlzkrA/
      </code></p></div>

<div class="example"><h3>SHA1</h3><p><code>
      $ htpasswd -nbs myName myPassword<br>
      myName:{SHA}VBPuJHI7uixaa6LQGWx4s+5GKNE=
      </code></p></div>

<div class="example"><h3>CRYPT</h3><p><code>
      $ htpasswd -nbd myName myPassword<br>
      myName:rqXexS6ZhobKA
      </code></p></div>

<h3>Generating CRYPT and MD5 values with the OpenSSL
             command-line program</h3>

<p>OpenSSL knows the Apache-specific MD5 algorithm.</p>

<div class="example"><h3>MD5</h3><p><code>
      $ openssl passwd -apr1 myPassword<br>
      $apr1$qHDFfhPC$nITSVHgYbDAK1Y0acGRnY0
      </code></p></div>

<div class="example"><h3>CRYPT</h3><p><code>
      openssl passwd -crypt myPassword<br>
      qQ5vTYO3c8dsU
      </code></p></div>

<h3>Validating CRYPT or MD5 passwords with the OpenSSL command
             line program</h3>
      
      <p>The salt for a CRYPT password is the first two characters (converted to
      a binary value). To validate <code>myPassword</code> against
      <code>rqXexS6ZhobKA</code></p>

<div class="example"><h3>CRYPT</h3><p><code>
      $ openssl passwd -crypt -salt rq myPassword<br>
      Warning: truncating password to 8 characters<br>
      rqXexS6ZhobKA
      </code></p></div>

<p>Note that using <code>myPasswo</code> instead of
      <code>myPassword</code> will produce the same result because only the
      first 8 characters of CRYPT passwords are considered.</p>

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

<div class="example"><h3>MD5</h3><p><code>
      $ openssl passwd -apr1 -salt r31..... myPassword<br>
      $apr1$r31.....$HqJZimcKQFAMYayBlzkrA/
      </code></p></div>

<h3>Database password fields for mod_dbd</h3>
      <p>The SHA1 variant is probably the most useful format for DBD
      authentication. Since the SHA1 and Base64 functions are commonly
      available, other software can populate a database with encrypted passwords
      that are usable by Apache basic authentication.</p>

<p>To create Apache SHA1-variant basic-authentication passwords in various
      languages:</p>

<div class="example"><h3>PHP</h3><p><code>
      '{SHA}' . base64_encode(sha1($password, TRUE))
      </code></p></div>

<div class="example"><h3>Java</h3><p><code>
      "{SHA}" + new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder().encode(java.security.MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA1").digest(password.getBytes()))
      </code></p></div>

<div class="example"><h3>ColdFusion</h3><p><code>
      "{SHA}" &amp; ToBase64(BinaryDecode(Hash(password, "SHA1"), "Hex"))
      </code></p></div>

<div class="example"><h3>Ruby</h3><p><code>
      require 'digest/sha1'<br>
      require 'base64'<br>
      '{SHA}' + Base64.encode64(Digest::SHA1.digest(password))
      </code></p></div>

<div class="example"><h3>C or C++</h3><p><code>
      Use the APR function: apr_sha1_base64
      </code></p></div>

<div class="example"><h3>Python</h3><p><code>
      import base64<br>
      import hashlib<br>
      "{SHA}" + format(base64.b64encode(hashlib.sha1(password).digest()))
      </code></p></div>

<div class="example"><h3>PostgreSQL (with the contrib/pgcrypto functions
               installed)</h3><p><code>
        
        '{SHA}'||encode(digest(password,'sha1'),'base64')
      </code></p></div>

</div><div class="top"><a href="#page-header"><img alt="top" src="../../images/up.gif"></a></div>
<div class="section">
<h2 id="digest">Digest Authentication <a title="Permanent link" href="#digest" class="permalink">&para;</a></h2>
    <p>Apache recognizes one format for
    digest-authentication passwords - the MD5 hash of the string
    <code>user:realm:password</code> as a 32-character string of hexadecimal
    digits. <code>realm</code> is the Authorization Realm argument to the
    <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_authn_core.html#authname">AuthName</a></code> directive in
    apache2.conf.</p>

<h3>Database password fields for mod_dbd</h3>

<p>Since the MD5 function is commonly available, other software can
      populate a database with encrypted passwords that are usable by Apache
      digest authentication.</p>

<p>To create Apache digest-authentication passwords in various
      languages:</p>

<div class="example"><h3>PHP</h3><p><code>
      md5($user . ':' . $realm . ':' .$password)
      </code></p></div>

<div class="example"><h3>Java</h3><p><code>
      byte b[] = java.security.MessageDigest.getInstance("MD5").digest( (user + ":" + realm + ":" + password ).getBytes());<br>
      java.math.BigInteger bi = new java.math.BigInteger(1, b);<br>
      String s = bi.toString(16);<br>
      while (s.length() &lt; 32)<br>
      <span class="indent">
        s = "0" + s;
      </span>
      // String s is the encrypted password
      </code></p></div>

<div class="example"><h3>ColdFusion</h3><p><code>
      LCase(Hash( (user &amp; ":" &amp; realm &amp; ":" &amp; password) , "MD5"))
      </code></p></div>

<div class="example"><h3>Ruby</h3><p><code>
      require 'digest/md5'<br>
      Digest::MD5.hexdigest(user + ':' + realm + ':' + password)
      </code></p></div>

<div class="example"><h3>PostgreSQL (with the contrib/pgcrypto functions installed)</h3><p><code>
        
        encode(digest( user || ':' || realm || ':' || password , 'md5'), 'hex')
      </code></p></div>

</div></div>
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