TinyAuth - Extremely light-weight web-based authentication manager


TinyAuth is currently currently feature-complete and undergoing polishing and testing. Part of this process focuses on naming ("TinyAuth" is just a working codename), reduction of dependencies, improvements to the installer, and other similar tasks.

Releases are provided "as is" for the curious, and installation is not recommended for production purposes at this time.


TinyAuth is a light-weight authentication management web application with a focus on usability.

It was initially created to assist in managing a subversion repository but also usable for anything where authentication can be run from a .htpasswd file.

It provides the basic functionality needed for adding and removing users, and handling password maintenance with as little code and fuss as possible, while still applying robust and correct security practices.

It is intended to be extremely easy to install and set up, even on shared hosting accounts. The interface is so simple and pages are so small (most under 1k) that it can be used on most limited-functionality browsers such as the text-mode browsers, and the strange micro-browsers found inside video games and mobile phones.

The goal is to allow users and be added, removed and fixed from anywhere, even without a computer or "regular" internet connection.

Installing TinyAuth

TinyAuth uses an installation module called Module::CGI::Install.

The process involves firstly installing the TinyAuth distribution to your (Unix, CGI-capable) system via the normal CPAN client, and then running a "CGI Installer" program, which will install a working instance of the application to a specific CGI path.

As well ensuring that the CGI setup is correct, this also means that TinyAuth can be installed multiple times on a single host, any each copy can be tweaked or modded as much as you like, without impacting any other users.

At the present time, you will need the ability to install modules from CPAN (which generally means root access) but once the application itself is finished, additional improvements are planned to the installer to allow for various alternative installation methods.

Step 1

Install TinyAuth with your CPAN client

  adam@svn:~/$ sudo cpan -i TinyAuth

Step 2

Run the CGI installation, following the prompts

  adam@svn:~/$ cgi_install TinyAuth
  CGI Directory: [default /home/adam/] cgi-bin

The installation is currently extremely crude, so once installed, you currently need to open the tinyauth.conf file created by the installer and edit it by hand (this will be fixed in a forthcoming release).

The config file is YAML and should look something like this:

  adam@svn:~/$ cat cgi-bin/tinyauth.conf
  email_driver: SMTP
  htpasswd: /home/adam/

(For the security concious amoungst you, yes I know that putting the .htpasswd there is a bad idea. No, no real service is actually using that file)

The email_driver value is linked to Email::Send. Use either "Sendmail" to send via local sendmail, or "SMTP" to send via an SMTP server on localhost.


For all issues, contact the author.


Adam Kennedy <>

SEE ALSO, CGI::Capture


Copyright 2007 Adam Kennedy.

