Basic authentication is the process through which a web server authenticates an entity with a user name and password received by the user by using the client's built in authentication mechanism. In java programming language authentication relies on the Web server for authentication to protected areas. Most of the sites uses the basic authentication mechanism to protect the user from browsing unprotected areas without requiring the user to enter a password. However, the browser automatically prompts for a password and username in the form of a dialog box.
These username and password combination is then encoded (base 64) and passed in an unencrypted form to the Web server. The Web server compares the encoded value against values stored in a flat file, a database, or a directory server.
Encode these username and password combination and then send to the Web server in an unencrypted form. The Web server matches these encoded value against values stored in a flat file, a database, or a directory server.
After the user is authenticated, the server verifies whether the has privileges to access the requested page against a file, such as httpd.conf or not. If the user has access rights then the server serves the page. If access is denied to the user then the server either requests the username/password combination again or sends an error message on through the browser window.
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