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Zend Framework 2 Documentation (Manual)

File: /_sources/modules/zend.authentication.adapter.digest.txt

.. _zend.authentication.adapter.digest:

Digest Authentication
=====================

.. _zend.authentication.adapter.digest.introduction:

Introduction
------------

`Digest authentication`_ is a method of *HTTP* authentication that improves upon `Basic authentication`_ by
providing a way to authenticate without having to transmit the password in clear text across the network.

This adapter allows authentication against text files containing lines having the basic elements of Digest
authentication:

- username, such as "**joe.user**"

- realm, such as "**Administrative Area**"

- *MD5* hash of the username, realm, and password, separated by colons

The above elements are separated by colons, as in the following example (in which the password is
"**somePassword**"):

.. code-block:: text
   :linenos:

   someUser:Some Realm:fde17b91c3a510ecbaf7dbd37f59d4f8

.. _zend.authentication.adapter.digest.specifics:

Specifics
---------

The digest authentication adapter, ``Zend\Authentication\Adapter\Digest``, requires several input parameters:

- filename - Filename against which authentication queries are performed

- realm - Digest authentication realm

- username - Digest authentication user

- password - Password for the user of the realm

These parameters must be set prior to calling ``authenticate()``.

.. _zend.authentication.adapter.digest.identity:

Identity
--------

The digest authentication adapter returns a ``Zend\Authentication\Result`` object, which has been populated with
the identity as an array having keys of **realm** and **username**. The respective array values associated with
these keys correspond to the values set before ``authenticate()`` is called.

.. code-block:: php
   :linenos:

   use Zend\Authentication\Adapter\Digest as AuthAdapter;

   $adapter = new AuthAdapter($filename,
                              $realm,
                              $username,
                              $password);

   $result = $adapter->authenticate();

   $identity = $result->getIdentity();

   print_r($identity);

   /*
   Array
   (
       [realm] => Some Realm
       [username] => someUser
   )
   */



.. _`Digest authentication`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digest_access_authentication
.. _`Basic authentication`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_authentication_scheme