How can you store a log in using mod_auth_sspi on Apache?

Question

I have an Apache x86 2.2 server set up with mod_auth_sspi in order to authenticate users. I haven't had a problem with it until I noticed something recently.

Users normally log into my website when they are on the company's intranet and in this case the authentication is automatic but when they remote in they have to log in manually. I would like to avoid this step if possible and have it log them in automatically even if they are remotely connecting to the site.

Is it possible to store the authentication as a cookie on the user's machine so that it will remember their credentials for connecting to the server later? I am fairly new to Apache and was kind of lost in the documentation.

Answer 1

So it turns out that the session doesn't need to be stored as a cookie and that the authentication will work off the network but just requires browser settings to be changed. I tested these steps out and it worked for me.

• Firefox:
  1. Open a new tab
  2. Type 'about:config', minus the quotes, into the address bar
  3. Promise firefox that you'll be careful
  4. Search for 'network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris', minus the quotes
  5. Double click the item
  6. Add [insert server address here] to the string
• Chrome & IE:
  1. Open IE
  2. Go to Tools > Internet Options > Security Tab > Select Local Intranet > Click the Sites button > Advanced > Add https://[insert server address here] > Close > OK > OK
  3. Restart your browser
  Chrome uses the same settings that are applied to the IE browser, so in order to set up Chrome then just make sure that it is configured in the same way that IE is.

I did not test Safari though, so I am unsure if they follow the same settings as Chrome or if they also need special configuration. Anyways, this didn't answer my original question but did solve my problem.