What is this?
This is a moodle plugin which enables you to authenticate via HTTP basic auth.
This is more for development and backend purposes and allows easier testing with tools such as webpage test, page speed, link checkers etc which often can use basic auth out of the box, but you don't want to attempt to customize them in order to handle moodle specific authentication, or try to, where Moodle API access is inappropriate.
You would almost never want to use this for real human users as basic auth is a fairly terrible user experience. It is designed to work side by side with your real moodle authentication but doesn't impact on normal authentication.
Even in production this has value for use cases such as performance regression testing using a real user and a real page which does a full bootstrap.
Unlike the core 'no authentication' plugin, this still requires real users and does proper password checks. It can be set to ignore the auth type against the account, eg manual, ldap, smtp so can be used side by side with other auth plugins, as long as those plugins store or cache the password, ie prevent_local_passwords() returns false for those plugins. So it can only be used with existing accounts and doesn't create accounts.
There is a bonus features which is a 'master password' mode. This is definitely not for production use and you have to jump through some tiny hoops to turn it on so it can't be used accidentally. But when it's set up it enables you to not only log in as anyone with the same password, but also to randomly select who to log in as well. This makes it trivial to run things like simple 1-liner load tests using Apache Bench. See below for details.
From a security perspective this auth plugin is exactly as secure as the manual auth plugin, so this should only be used in conjuntion with https.
Branches
| Moodle version | Branch | PHP |
| ----------------- | -------------------| ---- |
| Moodle 3.10+ | MOODLE_310_STABLE | 7.0+ |
| Moodle 3.5 to 3.9 | master | 7.0+ |
| Totara 12+ | master | 7.0+ |
Installation
Install the plugin the same as any standard moodle plugin either via the
Moodle plugin directory, or you can use git to clone it into your source:
git clone git@github.com:catalyst/moodle-auth_basic.git auth/basic
Or install via the Moodle plugin directory:
https://moodle.org/plugins/auth_basic
Then run the Moodle upgrade
If you have issues please log them in github here:
https://github.com/catalyst/moodle-auth_basic/issues
Or if you want paid support please contact Catalyst IT Australia:
https://www.catalyst-au.net/contact-us
Logging out
Note that most browsers store basic auth credentials that have worked forever, so you may try to logout, then click somewhere else and find yourself immediately logged back in without being prompted. As a general rule only services will use basic auth, not humans in browsers.
Curl example
Example usage on the command line:
curl -c /tmp/cookies -v -L --user user:password http://my.moodle.local/course/view.php?id=123
- -c file - keep and re-use cookies
- -v show request and response headers
- -L follow redirects
- --user credentials
Master password feature
NOT for production use
This enables you to:
- log in as anyone with the same fixed master password
- also randomly select who to log in as well
This makes it trivial to run things like simple 1-liner load tests using Apache Bench.
First add these settings to config.php to protect against accidental use:
$CFG->auth_basic_enabled_master_password = true;
You can also optionally also lock it down to any ip or subnet:
$CFG->auth_basic_whitelist_ips = 'x.x.x.x';
Go to "Site Administration > Plugins > Authentication > Basic Authentication > Master Password" to generate Master Password
Click on "Regenerate Password" button with you want to choose another password.
Click on "Save Password" button to create new master password.
Template to use with curl:
- random-user: Select a random non-suspended user
curl --user random-user:masterpassword http://my.moodle.local/course/view.php?id=123
- random-role-{roleid}: Select a random non-suspended user with roleid at site level
curl --user random-role-1:masterpassword http://my.moodle.local/course/view.php?id=123
- random-course-{courseid}: Select a random non-suspended user who is enrolled in the course
curl --user random-course-10:masterpassword http://my.moodle.local/course/view.php?id=123
- random-course-{courseid}-role-{roleid}: Select a random non-suspended user who is enrolled in the course with roleid
curl --user random-course-10-role-1:masterpassword http://my.moodle.local/course/view.php?id=123
Feedback and issues
Please raise any issues in github:
https://github.com/catalyst/moodle-auth_basic/issues
If you need anything urgently and would like to sponsor its implementation please email me: Brendan Heywood brendan@catalyst-au.net
