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apachemod-proxybasic-authentication

Remove basic authentication header with apache mod proxy


I have a HTTP Basic secured website. I hide a Tomcat application server with mod_proxy. Can I remove the HTTP Basic header? The Tomcat application reads the header and returns 401 not authorized. Basic auth isn't needed because the application uses cookie sessions. So I think just removing the headers would be fine.


Solution

  • Make sure mod_headers is enabled. An example config:

    <VirtualHost *:80>
            ServerName something.example.com
            ServerAdmin [email protected]
    
            ProxyRequests Off
            ProxyPreserveHost Off
            AllowEncodedSlashes On
            KeepAlive Off
    
            <Proxy *>
                Order deny,allow
                Allow from all
            </Proxy>
    
            <Location />
                    AuthType Basic
                    AuthName "Authorized Users Only"
                    AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/passwd
                    Require valid-user
            </Location>
    
            RequestHeader unset Authorization
            ProxyPass / http://localhost:5984/ example
            ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:5984/
    
            ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/something.example.com-error_log
            CustomLog /var/log/apache2/something.example.com-access_log common
    </VirtualHost>