Use basic authentication with jQuery and Ajax

Question

I am trying to create a basic authentication through the browser, but I can\'t really get there.

If this script won\'t be here the browser authentication will take o

Answer 1

Use the jQuery ajaxSetup function, that can set up default values for all ajax requests.

$.ajaxSetup({
  headers: {
    'Authorization': "Basic XXXXX"
  }
});

Answer 2

According to SharkAlley answer it works with nginx too.

I was search for a solution to get data by jQuery from a server behind nginx and restricted by Base Auth. This works for me:

server {
    server_name example.com;

    location / {
        if ($request_method = OPTIONS ) {
            add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*";
            add_header Access-Control-Allow-Methods "GET, OPTIONS";
            add_header Access-Control-Allow-Headers "Authorization";

            # Not necessary
            #            add_header Access-Control-Allow-Credentials "true";
            #            add_header Content-Length 0;
            #            add_header Content-Type text/plain;

            return 200;
        }

        auth_basic "Restricted";
        auth_basic_user_file /var/.htpasswd;

        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8100;
    }
}

And the JavaScript code is:

var auth = btoa('username:password');
$.ajax({
    type: 'GET',
    url: 'http://example.com',
    headers: {
        "Authorization": "Basic " + auth
    },
    success : function(data) {
    },
});

Article that I find useful:

1. This topic's answers
2. http://enable-cors.org/server_nginx.html
3. http://blog.rogeriopvl.com/archives/nginx-and-the-http-options-method/

Answer 3

Use the beforeSend callback to add a HTTP header with the authentication information like so:

var username = $("input#username").val();
var password = $("input#password").val();  

function make_base_auth(user, password) {
  var tok = user + ':' + password;
  var hash = btoa(tok);
  return "Basic " + hash;
}
$.ajax
  ({
    type: "GET",
    url: "index1.php",
    dataType: 'json',
    async: false,
    data: '{}',
    beforeSend: function (xhr){ 
        xhr.setRequestHeader('Authorization', make_base_auth(username, password)); 
    },
    success: function (){
        alert('Thanks for your comment!'); 
    }
});

Answer 4

As others have suggested, you can set the username and password directly in the Ajax call:

$.ajax({
  username: username,
  password: password,
  // ... other parameters.
});

OR use the headers property if you would rather not store your credentials in plain text:

$.ajax({
  headers: {"Authorization": "Basic xxxx"},
  // ... other parameters.
});

Whichever way you send it, the server has to be very polite. For Apache, your .htaccess file should look something like this:

<LimitExcept OPTIONS>
    AuthUserFile /path/to/.htpasswd
    AuthType Basic
    AuthName "Whatever"
    Require valid-user
</LimitExcept>

Header always set Access-Control-Allow-Headers Authorization
Header always set Access-Control-Allow-Credentials true

SetEnvIf Origin "^(.*?)$" origin_is=$0
Header always set Access-Control-Allow-Origin %{origin_is}e env=origin_is

Explanation:

For some cross domain requests, the browser sends a preflight OPTIONS request that is missing your authentication headers. Wrap your authentication directives inside the LimitExcept tag to respond properly to the preflight.

Then send a few headers to tell the browser that it is allowed to authenticate, and the Access-Control-Allow-Origin to grant permission for the cross-site request.

In some cases, the * wildcard doesn't work as a value for Access-Control-Allow-Origin: You need to return the exact domain of the callee. Use SetEnvIf to capture this value.