Basic HTTP authentication in Node.JS?

Question

I\'m trying to write a REST-API server with NodeJS like the one used by Joyent, and everything is ok except I can\'t verify a normal user\'s authentication. If I jump to a t

Answer 1

It can be implemented easily in pure node.js with no dependency, this is my version which is based on this answer for express.js but simplified so you can see the basic idea easily:

var http = require('http');

http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    var userpass = new Buffer((req.headers.authorization || '').split(' ')[1] || '', 'base64').toString();
    if (userpass !== 'username:password') {
        res.writeHead(401, { 'WWW-Authenticate': 'Basic realm="nope"' });
        res.end('HTTP Error 401 Unauthorized: Access is denied');
        return;
    }
    res.end('You are in! Yay!');
}).listen(1337, '127.0.0.1');