Basic authentication in IE

Question

A URL such as http://username:[email protected]/ does not work in Internet Explorer, as explained at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/834489. I can't find a proper workaround for this. I want just a simple link in a HTML document which works.

Edit to add the purpose of the exercise:

We have a website, with fairly secure cookie-based login. We have standard stats packages (Webalizer and AWStats) which use HTTP authentication. I want to give the administrator of the site a quick link to the stats. The link, which includes the password, will be available only to a logged in administrator. It's no great security risk.

Answer 1

The username:[email protected] construct was removed as a security feature. Storing passwords in plain text is a bad idea to start with, and this form of the url was a frequently used attack vector for phishing attacks. The article you link to lists some work-arounds... can you not just prompt the user to enter a password?

If you give a little more details about what you're doing, it's possible a better solution may be found.