My focus right now is to just grant access.

A way to add some security is with an IP filtering PerlAccessHandler. A simple demo follows. I don't think this is truly secure though unless you're on a VPN or something where you can trust the calling IP's validity. Someone will correct me if that's not right.

package Apache::IPfilter;
use Apache::Constants qw(:common);

sub handler {
    my $r = shift;

    return DECLINED unless $r->is_initial_req();

    my $calling_ip = $r->get_remote_host();

    for my $ip ( $r->dir_config->get('allowed_ip') ) {
        return OK if $ip eq $calling_ip;
    }

    warn(
         'Denied access to, ',
         $r->uri(),
         ', by caller ',
         $calling_ip,
         " not in access list.\n"
         );
    return FORBIDDEN;
}
1;
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Then in your httpd.conf something like this containing the IPs your trusted admins use to visit your server:

  PerlAccessHandler Apache::IPfilter

  PerlSetVar allowed_ip 127.0.0.1
  PerlAddVar allowed_ip 205.196.208.198
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