summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/doc/plugins/passwordauth/discussion.mdwn
blob: 672970c2166a19bddf94a4970b98983c2b325a77 (plain)

It's a bit inconvenient that one also has to type in the Login - Confirm Password if one only wants to change the Preferences -- Subscriptions. --[[tschwinge]]

You don't. The password fields on the preferences fields are only needed if you want to change your password and should otherwise be left blank. --[[Joey]]

Aha, then the problem is Firefox, which is automatically filling the Password field with its previous value, but not filling the Confirm Password one. --[[tschwinge]]

easy access to the userdb for apache auth?

My use case is:

  • restricted ikiwiki
  • read/edit only allowed from the local network (done with apache restrictions)
  • edit only for people authenticated (done with vanilla ikiwiki passwordauth)

I would like to allow people to read/edit the wiki from outside of the local network, if and only if they already have an ikiwiki account.

[[httpauth]] doesn't fit since it doesn't allow anonymous local users to create their own account. I want a single, local, simple auth database.

My (naïve?) idea would be:

  • keep the [[passwordauth]] system
  • provide a way for Apache to use the userdb for authentication if people want to connect from outside

I looked at the various auth modules for apache2. It seems that none can use a "perl Storable data" file. So, I think some solutions could be:

  • use a sqlite database instead of a perl Storable file
    • can be used with mod_auth_dbd
    • requires a change in ikiwiki module [[passwordauth]]
  • use an external program to read the userdb and talk with mod_auth_external
    • requires the maintainance of this external auth proxy over ikiwiki userdb format changes
    • (I don't know perl)
  • include this wrapper in ikiwiki
    • something like ikiwiki --auth user:pass:userdb check the user:pass pair in userdb and returns an Accept/Reject flag to Apache
    • requires a change in ikiwiki core
    • still requires mod_auth_external
  • do it with Apache perl sections
    • (I don't know perl)

Any opinion/suggestion/solution to this is welcome and appreciated.

-- [[NicolasLimare]]

For a similar use case, I've been intending to implement [[todo/httpauth_feature_parity_with_passwordauth]], but your idea may actually be the way to go. IMHO, the Perl sections idea is the easiest to setup, but on the long run, I'd prefer ikiwiki to optionnally use a userdb storage backend supported at least by Apache and lighttpd. --[[intrigeri]]

Tons of CPAN modules may help, but most of them are specific to mod_perl, and AFAIK, ikiwiki is generally not run with mod_perl. It's not clear to me wether these modules depend on the webapp to be run with mod_perl set as the script handler, or only on mod_perl to be installed and loaded.

  • CPAN's Apache::AuthenHook allows to plug arbitrary Perl handlers as Apache authentication providers.
  • CPAN's Apache::Authen::Program (mod_perl)
  • http://www.openfusion.com.au/labs/mod_auth_tkt/ along with CPAN's Apache::AuthTkt --[[intrigeri]]