This is a cache of https://docs.okd.io/4.6/authentication/identity_providers/configuring-htpasswd-identity-provider.html. It is a snapshot of the page at 2025-10-27T01:53:38.412+0000.
Configuring an <strong>htpasswd</strong> identity provider - Configuring identity providers | Authentication and authorization | OKD 4.6
  1. Documentation
×

Configuring an htpasswd identity provider

About identity providers in OKD

By default, only a kubeadmin user exists on your cluster. To specify an identity provider, you must create a Custom Resource (CR) that describes that identity provider and add it to the cluster.

OKD user names containing /, :, and % are not supported.

To define an htpasswd identity provider you must perform the following steps:

  1. Create an htpasswd file to store the user and password information. Instructions are provided for Linux and Windows.

  2. Create an OKD secret to represent the htpasswd file.

  3. Define the htpasswd identity provider resource.

  4. Apply the resource to the default OAuth configuration.

Creating an htpasswd file using Linux

To use the htpasswd identity provider, you must generate a flat file that contains the user names and passwords for your cluster by using htpasswd.

Prerequisites

  • Have access to the htpasswd utility. On Red Hat Enterprise Linux this is available by installing the httpd-tools package.

Procedure

  1. Create or update your flat file with a user name and hashed password:

    $ htpasswd -c -B -b </path/to/users.htpasswd> <user_name> <password>

    The command generates a hashed version of the password.

    For example:

    $ htpasswd -c -B -b users.htpasswd user1 MyPassword!
    Example output
    Adding password for user user1

  2. Continue to add or update credentials to the file:

    $ htpasswd -B -b </path/to/users.htpasswd> <user_name> <password>

Creating an htpasswd file using Windows

To use the htpasswd identity provider, you must generate a flat file that contains the user names and passwords for your cluster by using htpasswd.

Prerequisites

  • Have access to htpasswd.exe. This file is included in the \bin directory of many Apache httpd distributions.

Procedure

  1. Create or update your flat file with a user name and hashed password:

    > htpasswd.exe -c -B -b <\path\to\users.htpasswd> <user_name> <password>

    The command generates a hashed version of the password.

    For example:

    > htpasswd.exe -c -B -b users.htpasswd user1 MyPassword!
    Example output
    Adding password for user user1

  2. Continue to add or update credentials to the file:

    > htpasswd.exe -b <\path\to\users.htpasswd> <user_name> <password>

Creating the htpasswd Secret

To use the htpasswd identity provider, you must define a secret that contains the htpasswd user file.

Prerequisites

  • Create an htpasswd file.

Procedure

  • Create an OKD Secret object that contains the htpasswd users file.

    $ oc create secret generic htpass-secret --from-file=htpasswd=</path/to/users.htpasswd> -n openshift-config

    The secret key containing the users file for the --from-file argument must be named htpasswd, as shown in the above command.

Sample htpasswd CR

The following custom resource (CR) shows the parameters and acceptable values for an htpasswd identity provider.

htpasswd CR
apiVersion: config.openshift.io/v1
kind: OAuth
metadata:
  name: cluster
spec:
  identityProviders:
  - name: my_htpasswd_provider (1)
    mappingMethod: claim (2)
    type: htpasswd
    htpasswd:
      fileData:
        name: htpass-secret (3)
1 This provider name is prefixed to provider user names to form an identity name.
2 Controls how mappings are established between this provider’s identities and User objects.
3 An existing secret containing a file generated using htpasswd.
Additional resources

Adding an identity provider to your clusters

After you install your cluster, add an identity provider to it so your users can authenticate.

Prerequisites

  • Create an OKD cluster.

  • Create the custom resource (CR) for your identity providers.

  • You must be logged in as an administrator.

Procedure

  1. Apply the defined CR:

    $ oc apply -f </path/to/CR>

    If a CR does not exist, oc apply creates a new CR and might trigger the following warning: Warning: oc apply should be used on resources created by either oc create --save-config or oc apply. In this case you can safely ignore this warning.

  2. Log in to the cluster as a user from your identity provider, entering the password when prompted.

    $ oc login -u <username>

  3. Confirm that the user logged in successfully, and display the user name.

    $ oc whoami

Updating users for an htpasswd identity provider

You can add or remove users from an existing htpasswd identity provider.

Prerequisites

  • You have created a Secret object that contains the htpasswd user file. This procedure assumes that it is named htpass-secret.

  • You have configured an htpasswd identity provider. This procedure assumes that it is named my_htpasswd_provider.

  • You have access to the htpasswd utility. On Red Hat Enterprise Linux this is available by installing the httpd-tools package.

  • You have cluster administrator privileges.

Procedure

  1. Retrieve the htpasswd file from the htpass-secret Secret object and save the file to your file system:

    $ oc get secret htpass-secret -ojsonpath={.data.htpasswd} -n openshift-config | base64 --decode > users.htpasswd

  2. Add or remove users from the users.htpasswd file.

    • To add a new user:

      $ htpasswd -bB users.htpasswd <username> <password>
      Example output
      Adding password for user <username>

    • To remove an existing user:

      $ htpasswd -D users.htpasswd <username>
      Example output
      Deleting password for user <username>

  3. Replace the htpass-secret Secret object with the updated users in the users.htpasswd file:

    $ oc create secret generic htpass-secret --from-file=htpasswd=users.htpasswd --dry-run=client -o yaml -n openshift-config | oc replace -f -

  4. If you removed one or more users, you must additionally remove existing resources for each user.

    1. Delete the User object:

      $ oc delete user <username>
      Example output
      user.user.openshift.io "<username>" deleted

      Be sure to remove the user, otherwise the user can continue using their token as long as it has not expired.

    2. Delete the Identity object for the user:

      $ oc delete identity my_htpasswd_provider:<username>
      Example output
      identity.user.openshift.io "my_htpasswd_provider:<username>" deleted

Configuring identity providers using the web console

Configure your identity provider (IDP) through the web console instead of the CLI.

Prerequisites

  • You must be logged in to the web console as a cluster administrator.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to Administration → Cluster Settings.

  2. Under the Global Configuration tab, click OAuth.

  3. Under the Identity Providers section, select your identity provider from the Add drop-down menu.

You can specify multiple IDPs through the web console without overwriting existing IDPs.