What is the best way to password protect folder/page using php without a db or username

Edit: SHA1 is no longer considered secure. Stored password hashes should also be salted. There are now much better solutions to this problem.


You could use something like this:

//access.php

<?php
//put sha1() encrypted password here - example is 'hello'
$password = 'aaf4c61ddcc5e8a2dabede0f3b482cd9aea9434d';

session_start();
if (!isset($_SESSION['loggedIn'])) {
    $_SESSION['loggedIn'] = false;
}

if (isset($_POST['password'])) {
    if (sha1($_POST['password']) == $password) {
        $_SESSION['loggedIn'] = true;
    } else {
        die ('Incorrect password');
    }
} 

if (!$_SESSION['loggedIn']): ?>

<html><head><title>Login</title></head>
  <body>
    <p>You need to login</p>
    <form method="post">
      Password: <input type="password" name="password"> <br />
      <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Login">
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

<?php
exit();
endif;
?>

Then on each file you want to protect, put at the top:

<?php
require('access.php');
?>
secret text

It isn’t a very nice solution, but it might do what you want

Edit

You could add a logout.php page like:

<?php
    session_start();
    $_SESSION['loggedIn'] = false;
?>
You have logged out   

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