Tomcat basic auth

Question

I've got an existing WAR file that is not developed by me. I deploy the application to the Tomcat server and after that it is accessible for everybody. Which is not good. I need to restrict the access to the context with HTTP Basic auth. What is the best way to do that? I do not need any sophisticated user management system I just need a single username and password. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Check O'Reilly's Top Ten Tomcat Tips. Should be sufficent for what you're up to. Tip No. 5 will probably work out for you.

HTH

Answer 2

Just for those too lazy to go and read. Insert these lines into web.xml:

<security-constraint>
    <web-resource-collection>
        <web-resource-name>
        </web-resource-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </web-resource-collection>
    <auth-constraint>
        <role-name>manager</role-name>
    </auth-constraint>
</security-constraint>
<login-config>
    <auth-method>BASIC</auth-method>
    <realm-name>Hudson</realm-name>
</login-config>

It will take roles and passwords from TOMCAT_HOME/conf/tomcat-users.xml by default (if no other realm is configured in server.xml) and allow only users having role "manager".