8.4. Limiting Access To the Piranha Configuration Tool

The Piranha Configuration Tool prompts for a valid username and password combination. However, because all of the data passed to the Piranha Configuration Tool is in plain text, it is recommended that you restrict access only to trusted networks or to the local machine.

The easiest way to restrict access is to use the Apache HTTP Server's built in access control mechanisms by editing /etc/sysconfig/ha/web/secure/.htaccess. After altering the file you do not have to restart the piranha-gui service because the server checks the .htaccess file each time it accesses the directory.

By default, the access controls for this directory allow anyone to view the contents of the directory. Here is what the default access looks like:

Order deny,allow
Allow from all

To limit access of the Piranha Configuration Tool to only the localhost change the .htaccess file to allow access from only the loopback device (127.0.0.1). For more information on the loopback device, see the chapter titled Network Scripts in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Reference Guide.

Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 127.0.0.1

You can also allow specific hosts or subnets as seen in this example:

Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 192.168.1.100
Allow from 172.16.57

In this example, only Web browsers from the machine with the IP address of 192.168.1.100 and machines on the 172.16.57/24 network can access the Piranha Configuration Tool.

	Caution
	Editing the Piranha Configuration Tool .htaccess file limits access to the configuration pages in the /etc/sysconfig/ha/web/secure/ directory but not to the login and the help pages in /etc/sysconfig/ha/web/. To limit access to this directory, create a .htaccess file in the /etc/sysconfig/ha/web/ directory with order, allow, and deny lines identical to /etc/sysconfig/ha/web/secure/.htaccess.