Module ngx_http_auth_request_module

The ngx_http_auth_request_module module (1.5.4+) implements client authorization based on the result of a subrequest. If the subrequest returns a 2xx response code, the access is allowed. If it returns 401 or 403, the access is denied with the corresponding error code. Any other response code returned by the subrequest is considered an error.

For the 401 error, the client also receives the “WWW-Authenticate” header from the subrequest response.

This module is not built by default, it should be enabled with the --with-http_auth_request_module configuration parameter.

The module may be combined with other access modules, such as ngx_http_access_module and ngx_http_auth_basic_module, via the satisfy directive.

Before version 1.7.3, responses to authorization subrequests could not be cached (using proxy_cache, proxy_store, etc.).

location /private/ {
    auth_request /auth;
    ...
}

location = /auth {
    proxy_pass ...
    proxy_pass_request_body off;
    proxy_set_header Content-Length "";
    proxy_set_header X-Original-URI $request_uri;
}

auth_request off;

Enables authorization based on the result of a subrequest and sets the URI to which the subrequest will be sent.

Sets the request variable to the given value after the authorization request completes. The value may contain variables from the authorization request, such as $upstream_http_*.