Thread: About Logoff button help???

I have website that is authenticated using Active directory (no form authentication-simple password protected folder that prompts for credentials).

Once the user enters his/her credentials, they have access to the password protected section. I need to have a logoff button that once the user click on it, the cookie that stores their credentials, gets modified or deleted, so if the user goes back to the link, the credentials are asked again. All this without closing the browser.

As far as I know with simple password protected folders (done through .htaccess) there isn't a way to "log out" as such unless the user closes the browser.

It is impossible to make a browser "forget" the password. You can always write over the stored password with a fake one though.

It isn't a very good solution, but it works.

Short answer: I am afraid there is no easy way to "log out" from Basic HTTP authentication.

Long answer (from Apache FAQ page):

Since browsers first started implementing basic authentication, website administrators have wanted to know how to let the user log out. Since the browser caches the username and password with the authentication realm, as described earlier in this tutorial, this is not a function of the server configuration, but is a question of getting the browser to forget the credential information, so that the next time the resource is requested, the username and password must be supplied again. There are numerous situations in which this is desirable, such as when using a browser in a public location, and not wishing to leave the browser logged in, so that the next person can get into your bank account.

However, although this is perhaps the most frequently asked question about basic authentication, thus far none of the major browser manufacturers have seen this as being a desirable feature to put into their products.

Consequently, the answer to this question is, you can't. Sorry.

Clearing the private data in the browser seems like the only way, regardless of the server's operating system.