PowerAuth

Features

PowerAuth is a lightweight yet robust PHP script that allows extremely secure password protection on web pages. By keeping track of the number of times the user has entered incorrect passwords, it will lock out the user upon reaching a certain maximum and force the user to wait for a specified number of seconds before re-allowing the login ability. PowerAuth is very simple to use. It consists of one file, PowerAuth.php, which is included on a page requiring password protection using the PHP include statement. PowerAuth uses PHP sessions and cookies, allowing a "keep me signed in" feature to remember the user's authorization for an extended period of time. Certain optional variables can also be defined to further customize the experience.

Demo

I have set up a simple example of PowerAuth in action. It is password-protecting this page. The correct password is "password".

Download

Direct download link: PowerAuth v1.0 (Released 9-8-2010)

FAQ

What kind of license comes with PowerAuth?

PowerAuth is freeware. You may use and modify it as much as you want, but you may not redistribute it. If you are interested in contributing to the project, contact me.

Where is the documentation?

All documentation is contained within the README included in the downloadable .zip file.

How does it work?

PowerAuth is a file included on any page that you want to password-protect. It displays a login box if the user is not authorized and displays your content if the user is authorized. The script keeps track of the number of times the user has inputted a password and failed. This running total is used to determine when to lock the user out and prevent any new attempts from being made for a specified number of seconds. This greatly helps in security when a brute-force attack is possible.

How do I use it?

Simply upload PowerAuth.php to your server and copy and paste a line of PHP code into whatever page you want password protection on.

Can I modify the way the login box looks?

PowerAuth includes intelligently-classed elements so you can modify the look and feel using your own CSS stylesheet.

Where can I request a feature?

Contact me.