Password protecting directories with Nginx

On an Apache server, it's possible to password protect a directory using .htaccess and .htpasswd files. However, .htaccess files are not supported on Nginx.

You can still password protect your directories, but you need to use a basic_auth.conf file instead.

1. Log into your server via SSH.
2. Navigate to your user's directory.
3. Make sure you have a /home/username/nginx/example.com directory. This doesn't exist by default; you must create it by running the following:

   [server]$ mkdir -p nginx/example.com
   

4. In this /home/username/nginx/example.com directory, add a file named basic_auth.conf with the following:

   location / {
     auth_basic "Restricted";
     auth_basic_user_file /home/username/nginx/example.com/.htpasswd;
   }
   

   • The auth_basic parameter is just the title of the prompt the user sees when visiting this directory.
   • The auth_basic_user_file parameter specifies where the password file is. Note how its path is set to the /nginx directory.
   • In this example, the location directive password protects the entire domain since it's pointing to /.
   • If you want a subdirectory to be password protected, change the location directive as follows:

   location /subdirectory/
   

5. Run the following to create the .htpasswd file:

   [server]$ htpasswd -c /home/username/nginx/example.com/.htpasswd LOGIN
   

   • LOGIN is the username you want to be used to authenticate in the login prompt.
6. After typing that command, enter a password and confirm it when prompted:

   New password: 
   Re-type new password: 
   Adding password for user LOGIN
   

7. Reload the nginx config file.
8. In your browser, load the directory your /home/username/nginx/example.com/basic_auth.conf points to.

   In the example above, this would be your domain's root directory since the location directive points to /.

9. Enter a user/password when prompted to log in.

   In this example, your username is LOGIN and the password is the one you created above.