Using CGI to authenticate users is no less secure than using basic HTTP authentication, credentials are passed as plain text in both cases. You can allow your users to login via an SSL connection if you want it more secure.

Your best bet is to create a cookie that contains certain information (IP address, username, time, expiry, for example) and an MD5 digest of that information and send that back to the client after a successful login. Each subsequent request just makes sure the cookie hasn't been tampered with by checking the data in the cookie against the MD5 hash, you need not check the username against the password each time. This has the added benefit that you're not sending a username and password on each request. For a great explanation of all things authentication/authorization, have a look at the Eagle book chapter 6, it's mod_perl specific but explains the concepts very well.

Steve.

In reply to Re: HTACCES & Cookies by stevenc
in thread htaccess and cookies by kidd

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