Restrict access to apache2 web root but allow it to subfolders

Question

I need to restrict access by password to my web root apache test server (ie http://localhost) but allow access to subfolders (ie: http://localhost/testsite)

I did create the .htpasswd and .htaccess, and put the .htaccess to web root (http://localhost) so when trying to access web root, it asks for user and pass, but so does in subfolders (ie: trying to access http://localhost/testite)

I want to be asked for password on web root, but not on subfolders.

Is that possible?

Answer 1

seems like you told Apache to require a password for your web-root, but did you dell Apache to not require it for all other directories?

Inside your .htaccess (or in httpd.conf, they do the same job) you likely have something like what is below (add a pastebin link to your .htaccess file and I can make this exact):

<Directory "/www/private">
   Order allow,deny
   Allow from all

   Options Indexes
   AuthType Basic
   AuthName "Private Access"
   AuthUserFile "/www/private/.htpasswd"
   Require valid-user
</Directory>

But that will apply to all directories under that path as well. You'll need to explicitly tell Apache otherwise.

<Directory "/var/private/subdir">
    Satisfy any
</Directory>

You can use regular expressions with <DirectoryMatch "regex"> to generalize this, just don't forget to guard against asdf.com/subdir/../ expressions.

UPDATE: Also worth mentioning that although much of the documentation already has <Directory[Match]> directives there are also <Location[Match]> directives that are helpful in the case of symlinks on the underlying filesystem.