Password Protect a Folder / Page (Personal Webpage)

Purpose 

This article provides instructions on password-protecting folders or pages once you set up your personal webpage.

Setting up Password Protection

• Connect to giant using these instructions.
• Move to your web directory using the "cd public_html" command.
• Move into the folder you wish to password protect by using "cd folder_name".
• Create a passwords text file named "pico password". This file is temporary, so do not worry about picking a special name for it.
• You are now in the PICO text editor.
• Enter a list of usernames and unique passwords in the following format:

username1 password1

username2 password2

username3 password3

• Press Control + X to save the passwords file.
• When prompted, press Y to confirm changes.
• When prompted, name the file passwords.
• Create the ".htaccess" and ".htpasswd" files to secure your folder/page.
• Enter "htcreate passwords". This creates the two files .htaccess (sets up authentication requirements) and .htpasswd (contains encrypted usernames and passwords).
• Set your .htaccess; you should use "Require user" with your NetID@utdallas.edu as the argument.

Example: .htaccess

AuthType shibboleth

ShibRequestSetting requireSession true

<RequireAny>

Require user NetID@utdallas.edu

#Require valid-user

</RequireAny>

• For security reasons, we want to now delete the temporary passwords file: Enter "rm passwords".
• When prompted, type yes to confirm you wish to remove the file passwords.
• If you would like to remove password protection from a folder in the future, delete the .htaccess and .htpasswd files using the same rm filename command.