mod_access.html revision 068871351cece7974846bbaad486fb41ba404cb1
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>Apache module mod_access</title>
</head>
<!-- Background white, links blue (unvisited), navy (visited), red (active) -->
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF"
vlink="#000080" alink="#FF0000">
<!--#include virtual="header.html" -->
<h1 align="CENTER">Module mod_access</h1>
<p>This module provides access control based on client
hostname, IP address, or other characteristics of the client
request.</p>
rel="Help"><strong>Status:</strong></a> Base<br />
<a href="module-dict.html#SourceFile"
<a href="module-dict.html#ModuleIdentifier"
rel="Help"><strong>Module Identifier:</strong></a>
access_module</p>
<h2>Summary</h2>
<p>The directives provided by mod_access are used in <code><a
as well as <code><a
control access to particular parts of the server. Access can be
controlled based on the client hostname, IP address, or other
characteristics of the client request, as captured in <a
href="/env.html">environment variables</a>. The
<code>Allow</code> and <code>Deny</code> directives are used to
specify which clients are or are not allowed access to the
server, while the <code>Order</code> directive sets the default
access state, and configures how the <code>Allow</code> and
<code>Deny</code> directives interact with each other.</p>
<p>Both host-based access restrictions and password-based
authentication may be implemented simultaneously. In that case,
to determine how the two sets of restrictions interact.</p>
<p>In general, access restriction directives apply to all
access methods (<code>GET</code>, <code>PUT</code>,
<code>POST</code>, etc). This is the desired behavior in most
cases. However, it is possible to restrict some methods, while
leaving other methods unrestricted, by enclosing the directives
<h2>Directives</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="#allow">Allow</a></li>
<li><a href="#deny">Deny</a></li>
<li><a href="#order">Order</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2><a id="allow" name="allow">Allow</a> <a id="allowfromenv"
name="allowfromenv">directive</a></h2>
<p><!--%plaintext <?INDEX {\tt Allow} directive> -->
<a href="directive-dict.html#Syntax"
rel="Help"><strong>Syntax:</strong></a> Allow from
all|<em>host</em>|env=<em>env-variable</em>
[<em>host</em>|env=<em>env-variable</em>] ...<br />
<a href="directive-dict.html#Context"
rel="Help"><strong>Context:</strong></a> directory,
.htaccess<br />
<a href="directive-dict.html#Override"
rel="Help"><strong>Override:</strong></a> Limit<br />
<a href="directive-dict.html#Status"
rel="Help"><strong>Status:</strong></a> Base<br />
<a href="directive-dict.html#Module"
rel="Help"><strong>Module:</strong></a> mod_access</p>
<p>The <code>Allow</code> directive affects which hosts can
access an area of the server. Access can be controlled by
hostname, IP Address, IP Address range, or by other
characteristics of the client request captured in environment
variables.</p>
<p>The first argument to this directive is always
<code>from</code>. The subsequent arguments can take three
different forms. If <code>Allow from all</code> is specified,
then all hosts are allowed access, subject to the configuration
of the <code>Deny</code> and <code>Order</code> directives as
discussed below. To allow only particular hosts or groups of
hosts to access the server, the <em>host</em> can be specified
in any of the following formats:</p>
<dl>
<dt>A (partial) domain-name</dt>
Hosts whose names match, or end in, this string are allowed
access. Only complete components are matched, so the above
cause the server to perform a reverse DNS lookup on the
client IP address, regardless of the setting of the <a
href="core.html#hostnamelookups">HostnameLookups</a>
directive.</dd>
<dt>A full IP address</dt>
<dd>Example: <code>Allow from 10.1.2.3</code><br />
An IP address of a host allowed access</dd>
<dt>A partial IP address</dt>
<dd>Example: <code>Allow from 10.1</code><br />
The first 1 to 3 bytes of an IP address, for subnet
restriction.</dd>
<dd>Example: <code>Allow from
fine-grained subnet restriction.</dd>
Similar to the previous case, except the netmask consists of
nnn high-order 1 bits.</dd>
</dl>
<p>Note that the last three examples above match exactly the
same set of hosts.</p>
<p>The third format of the arguments to the <code>Allow</code>
directive allows access to the server to be controlled based on
the existence of an <a href="/env.html">environment
variable</a>. When <code>Allow from
env=</code><em>env-variable</em> is specified, then the request
is allowed access if the environment variable
<em>env-variable</em> exists. The server provides the ability
to set environment variables in a flexible way based on
characteristics of the client request using the directives
Therefore, this directive can be used to allow access based on
such factors as the clients <code>User-Agent</code> (browser
type), <code>Referer</code>, or other HTTP request header
fields.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<blockquote>
<pre>
SetEnvIf User-Agent ^KnockKnock/2.0 let_me_in
<Directory /docroot>
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
Allow from env=let_me_in
</Directory>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<p>In this case, browsers with a user-agent string beginning
others will be denied.</p>
<p>See also <a href="#deny">Deny</a>, <a
href="#order">Order</a> and <a
<hr />
<h2><a id="deny" name="deny">Deny</a> <a id="denyfromenv"
name="denyfromenv">directive</a></h2>
<p><!--%plaintext <?INDEX {\tt Deny} directive> -->
<a href="directive-dict.html#Syntax"
rel="Help"><strong>Syntax:</strong></a> Deny from
all|<em>host</em>|env=<em>env-variable</em>
[<em>host</em>|env=<em>env-variable</em>] ...<br />
<a href="directive-dict.html#Context"
rel="Help"><strong>Context:</strong></a> directory,
.htaccess<br />
<a href="directive-dict.html#Override"
rel="Help"><strong>Override:</strong></a> Limit<br />
<a href="directive-dict.html#Status"
rel="Help"><strong>Status:</strong></a> Base<br />
<a href="directive-dict.html#Module"
rel="Help"><strong>Module:</strong></a> mod_access</p>
<p>This directive allows access to the server to be restricted
based on hostname, IP address, or environment variables. The
arguments for the <code>Deny</code> directive are identical to
the arguments for the <a href="#allow">Allow</a> directive.</p>
<p>See also <a href="#allow">Allow</a>, <a
href="#order">Order</a> and <a
<hr />
<h2><a id="order" name="order">Order directive</a></h2>
<p><!--%plaintext <?INDEX {\tt Order} directive> -->
<a href="directive-dict.html#Syntax"
rel="Help"><strong>Syntax:</strong></a> Order
<em>ordering</em><br />
<a href="directive-dict.html#Default"
rel="Help"><strong>Default:</strong></a> <code>Order
Deny,Allow</code><br />
<a href="directive-dict.html#Context"
rel="Help"><strong>Context:</strong></a> directory,
.htaccess<br />
<a href="directive-dict.html#Override"
rel="Help"><strong>Override:</strong></a> Limit<br />
<a href="directive-dict.html#Status"
rel="Help"><strong>Status:</strong></a> Base<br />
<a href="directive-dict.html#Module"
rel="Help"><strong>Module:</strong></a> mod_access</p>
<p>The <code>Order</code> directive controls the default access
state and the order in which <a href="#allow">Allow</a> and <a
href="#deny">Deny</a> directives are evaluated.
<em>Ordering</em> is one of</p>
<dl>
<dt>Deny,Allow</dt>
<dd>The <code>Deny</code> directives are evaluated before the
<code>Allow</code> directives. Access is allowed by default.
Any client which does not match a <code>Deny</code> directive
or does match an <code>Allow</code> directive will be allowed
access to the server.</dd>
<dt>Allow,Deny</dt>
<dd>The <code>Allow</code> directives are evaluated before
the <code>Deny</code> directives. Access is denied by
default. Any client which does not match an
<code>Allow</code> directive or does match a
<code>Deny</code> directive will be denied access to the
server.</dd>
<dt>Mutual-failure</dt>
<dd>Only those hosts which appear on the <code>Allow</code>
list and do not appear on the <code>Deny</code> list are
granted access. This ordering has the same effect as
<code>Order Allow,Deny</code> and is deprecated in favor of
that configuration.</dd>
</dl>
<p>Keywords may only be separated by a comma; no whitespace is
allowed between them. Note that in all cases every
<code>Allow</code> and <code>Deny</code> statement is
evaluated.</p>
<p>In the following example, all hosts in the apache.org domain
are allowed access; all other hosts are denied access.</p>
<blockquote>
<code>Order Deny,Allow<br />
Deny from all<br />
Allow from apache.org<br />
</code>
</blockquote>
<p>In the next example, all hosts in the apache.org domain are
allowed access, except for the hosts which are in the
foo.apache.org subdomain, who are denied access. All hosts not
in the apache.org domain are denied access because the default
state is to deny access to the server.</p>
<blockquote>
<code>Order Allow,Deny<br />
Allow from apache.org<br />
Deny from foo.apache.org<br />
</code>
</blockquote>
<p>On the other hand, if the <code>Order</code> in the last
example is changed to <code>Deny,Allow</code>, all hosts will
be allowed access. This happens because, regardless of the
actual ordering of the directives in the configuration file,
be allowed access because the default state will change to
<em>allow</em>.</p>
<p>The presence of an <code>Order</code> directive can affect
access to a part of the server even in the absence of
accompanying <code>Allow</code> and <code>Deny</code>
directives because of its effect on the default access state.
For example,</p>
<blockquote>
<code><Directory /www><br />
Order Allow,Deny<br />
</Directory></code>
</blockquote>
<p>will deny all access to the <code>/www</code> directory
because the default access state will be set to
<em>deny</em>.</p>
<p>The <code>Order</code> directive controls the order of
access directive processing only within each phase of the
server's configuration processing. This implies, for example,
that an <code>Allow</code> or <code>Deny</code> directive
occurring in a <Location> section will always be
evaluated after an <code>Allow</code> or <code>Deny</code>
directive occurring in a <Directory> section or
<code>.htaccess</code> file, regardless of the setting of the
<code>Order</code> directive. For details on the merging of
configuration sections, see the documentation on <a
href="/sections.html">How Directory, Location and Files
sections work</a>.</p>
<p>See also: <a href="#deny">Deny</a> and <a
</p>
</body>
</html>