Using Apache variable

apache-2.2http-headersmod-authreverse-proxy

I'm trying to use Apache's OpenID authentication module. According to this page, I should be able to use the REMOTE_USER Apache variable to identify the user. I'd like to pass this as a header to an upstream application (I'm using Apache to authenticate and reverse-proxy).

My Apache site config is as follows:

<VirtualHost *:80>

  ProxyPass / http://localhost:3000/
  ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:3000/

  <Location />
    AuthType OpenID
    require valid-user
    AuthOpenIDAXRequire email http://axschema.org/contact/email @muller\.io$
    AuthOpenIDAXUsername email
    RequestHeader set x-username $REMOTE_USER
  </Location>
</VirtualHost>

I've searched and searched, but the most I can find is how to use an environment variable in this context. I've verified that a hard-coded string works (actually the above passes the string "$REMOTE_USER" to my application).

If mod_auth_openid is setting the REMOTE_USER variable within Apache, how can I then pass that upstream to my app?

Best Answer

After digging some more, I found this page with the following code:

 RewriteEngine On
 RewriteCond %{REMOTE_USER} (.+)
 RewriteRule . - [E=RU:%1]
 RequestHeader set REMOTE_USER %{RU}e

This was the magic bullet that fixed it for me. I read some pages that suggest this may be incorrect (and indeed it looks kludgy), so please feel free to recommend something better.

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