basic_ncsa_auth(8)

💖 basic_ncsa_auth — the NCSA-style passwd whisperer 💖

okay bestie, we're talking about basic_ncsa_auth, and yes it lives in the System Manager's Manual section 8, where all the cool system-admin tools hang out. it's a Squid helper. it does auth. it's giving ✨gatekeeper but for passwords✨ and honestly? we stan.

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✨ NAME ✨

basic_ncsa_auth — an NCSA httpd-style password file authentication helper for Squid 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

basic_ncsa_auth passwd file

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so what does this little icon actually do? basic_ncsa_auth lets Squid read and authenticate user + password info out of an NCSA/Apache httpd-style password file whenever it's doing basic HTTP authentication. that's the whole job. it's a specialist. it's not doing too much, it's just doing that one thing flawlessly 💅

and guess what — that password file is totally manipulable with htpasswd. so you're not stuck hand-editing anything, bestie, you've got tooling.

now here's the tea on what this authenticator will actually accept:

• Blowfish — for passwords 72 characters or less in length 🐡
• SHA256 — with salting and magic strings 🧂
• SHA512 — with salting and magic strings 🧂
• MD5 — with optional salt and magic strings
• DES — for passwords 8 characters or less in length

NOTE: Blowfish and SHA algorithms require system-specific support. so like. vibe check your system first, okay? 🙈

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• the password file — and that's literally it. the only parameter. that's the whole list. one (1) option. periodt.

it must have permissions to be read by the user that Squid is running as. no exceptions, no loopholes, no "but it worked when I ran it as root" 😭

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🎀 CONFIGURATION 🎀

       basic_ncsa_auth /etc/squid/squid.pass

basic_ncsa_auth must have access to the password file to be executed. that's the requirement. it's not a suggestion, it's the price of entry 🫶

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💀 KNOWN ISSUES 💀

okay this is the part where we get real. DES functionality (which is what htpasswd uses by default, btw) silently truncates passwords to 8 characters. silently. it doesn't warn you. it doesn't text you back. it just cuts them off at 8 and moves on. 💀

which means it'll happily let someone log in with password values that are shorter than the one you actually wanted. not ideal!! and to be fair to it — this authenticator will reject login with long passwords when using DES. so it's not being sneaky about the rejection part, but the truncation part? yeah. that's the known issue. proceed accordingly bestie 🌸

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

this manual was written by Amos Jeffries <amosjeffries@squid-cache.org>

based on original documentation by Rodrigo Rubira Branco <rrbranco@br.ibm.com>

give them their flowers, they earned them 💐

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📜 COPYRIGHT 📜

 * Copyright (C) 1996-2026 The Squid Software Foundation and
contributors
 *
 * Squid software is distributed under GPLv2+ license and includes
 * contributions from numerous individuals and organizations.
 * Please see the COPYING and CONTRIBUTORS files for details.

this file is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. see the GNU General Public License for more details.

you should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this file; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

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🙋 QUESTIONS 🙋

got questions on the usage of this program? send them to the Squid Users mailing list <squid-users@lists.squid-cache.org> — they don't bite, promise 🫶

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🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

• bug reports need to be made in English. see https://wiki.squid-cache.org/SquidFaq/BugReporting for details of what you need to include with your bug report.
• report bugs or bug fixes using https://bugs.squid-cache.org/
• report serious security bugs to Squid Bugs <squid-bugs@lists.squid-cache.org>
• got ideas for new improvements? send those to the Squid Developers mailing list <squid-dev@lists.squid-cache.org>

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• squid(8)
• htpasswd(1)
• GPL(7)
• The Squid FAQ wiki https://wiki.squid-cache.org/SquidFaq
• The Squid Configuration Manual http://www.squid-cache.org/Doc/config/

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and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this one's dated May 16, 2006, part of the Squid distribution (GPLv2+ gang, contributors worldwide, check the COPYING and CONTRIBUTORS files for the receipts). go forth and authenticate responsibly, mwah 😘🦋✨