Basic & Digest Negotiation Authentication

Question

I'm writing a WebDav implementation. I have implemented both basic and digest authentication.

My problem is that Digest Authentication isn't implemented by all clients. (In particular Dreamweaver) While Windows Web Folders doesn't work when sent a basic http challenge.

Is it possible to do client/server negotiation (Http Negotiation/SPNEGO)? What would the headers look like?

Answer 1

Microsoft Web Folders supports basic via HTTPS. To use basic via HTTP you have to set on a client machine: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters\BasicAuthLevel to 2.

Here is more info about this: http://www.webdavsystem.com/server/documentation/authentication/basic_auth_vista

Answer 2

The web folders dialogue is often broken on Windows (do not know by which update, but it affects certain WinXp constellations and both Vista and 7)

The net use * http://my-webdav-resource/ command line does mostly work in my experience, even when the wizard won't connect. But to use Basic-Auth on plain HTTP you will need to change the registry as described above for Vista/7.