Make sure your httpd.conf file supports User public_html directories. Look through the /etc/httpd/conf.d/userdir.conf file for a line:

  UserDir disable

Comment this line out (or delete it). Then look on a little further to find:

    #UserDir public_html

Delete (uncomment) the '#' comment character from the front of this line. As you have changed the configuration remember to reload the httpd service!

Make sure the apache service (httpd) is running, and it is running with the changes above.

Create a public_html directory in alice's home directory, and create a file p1.html in the public_html. The contents of this file should be:

<html>
<body>
<h1>ALICE</h1>
<p>
Document body goes here.
</p>
</body>
</html>

Change the appropriate permissions on the /home/alice and public_html directories and the files in public_html by the minimum amount possible to give apache the least permissions possible while still having access.

Finally, SELinux is enabled in enforcing mode by default. This means you need even more security to overcome (configure). You need to make sure that the SELinux boolean httpd_read_user_content is enabled. By default SELinux is forbidden from reading any file in /home. Check with

getsebool  httpd_read_user_content

and if needed set it with

setsebool -P httpd_read_user_content 1

"setsebool" may take a few seconds to run. It will finish, honest!

IN ALL CASES ENSURE alice owns ALL FILES AND DIRECTORIES in /home/alice AT ALL TIMES.

Create the following directories, each of which must be executable by others:

• /home/alice/public_html/richard
• /home/alice/public_html/harry

In each of these new directories create a file similar to p1.html, but called:

• /home/alice/public_html/richard/p2.html
• /home/alice/public_html/harry/p3.html

In "richard/p2.html" replace the word ALICE with RICHARD. In "harry/p3.html" replace the word ALICE with HARRY. Case is important.

Create a password file for basic authentication. Remember this has nothing to do with normal Linux users, and even less to do with /etc/passwd!

The htpasswd command allows you to create the file, and to add users to the file. Use it to create a basic authentication password file called "/home/alice/webpasswd". Put into this file two users with the following passwords:

User: richard              Password: pass1
User: harry                Password: pass2

Secure the public_html/richard directory so only a user with the basic authentication details of richard, password pass1, can access the files.

Secure the public_html/harry directory so only a user with the basic authentication details of group "magic" can access the contents.

To answer this question, create a group file "/home/alice/webgroup" with the following contents:

magic: richard harry

The file needs an SELinux context type of "httpd_user_content_t". Make sure in the .htaccess file in the harry directory you use only "Require group" and not some sort of "Require user" command. And make sure all files in /home/alice are owned by alice...

1. Add to your webpasswd file an extra user, "jim", with password "walton".
2. Create a directory in public_html for "jim", called "jim", and create a file "p4.html" which is a copy of "p1.html" except you need to replace the word "ALICE" with "JIM".
3. Protect this directory with basic authentication (similar to richard), but this time configure it so that that access is only permitted by either user "jim" from 10.200.0.1, or user "harry" from 127.0.0.1. Do not use any implicit requires (i.e. say RequireAny or RequireAll rather than relying on the defaults).