Authentication

The authentication is tied to the auth plugin you are using. The package restrictions are also handled by the Package Access.

The client authentication is handled by the npm client itself. Once you log in to the application:

npm adduser --registry http://localhost:4873

A token is generated in the npm configuration file hosted in your user home folder. For more information about .npmrc read the official documentation.

cat .npmrc
registry=http://localhost:5555/
//localhost:5555/:_authToken="secretVerdaccioToken"
//registry.npmjs.org/:_authToken=secretNpmjsToken

Anonymous publish

verdaccio allows you to enable anonymous publish. To achieve that you will need to correctly set up your packages access.

Eg:

'my-company-*':
  access: $anonymous
  publish: $anonymous
  proxy: npmjs

As is described on issue #212 until npm@5.3.0 and all minor releases won't allow you publish without a token.

Understanding Groups

The meaning of $all and $anonymous

As you know Verdaccio uses htpasswd by default. That plugin does not implement the methods allow_access, allow_publish and allow_unpublish. Thus, Verdaccio will handle that in the following way:

• If you are not logged in (you are anonymous), $all and $anonymous means exactly the same.
• If you are logged in, $anonymous won't be part of your groups and $all will match any logged user. A new group $authenticated will be added to your group list.

Please note: $all will match all users, whether logged in or not.

The previous behavior only applies to the default authentication plugin. If you are using a custom plugin and such plugin implements allow_access, allow_publish or allow_unpublish, the resolution of the access depends on the plugin itself. Verdaccio will only set the default groups.

Let's recap:

• logged in: $all and $authenticated + groups added by the plugin.
• logged out (anonymous): $all and $anonymous.

Default htpasswd

In order to simplify the setup, verdaccio uses a plugin based on htpasswd. Since version v3.0.x the verdaccio-htpasswd plugin is used by default.

auth:
  htpasswd:
    file: ./htpasswd
    # Maximum amount of users allowed to register, defaults to "+inf".
    # You can set this to -1 to disable registration.
    # max_users: 1000
    # Hash algorithm, possible options are: "bcrypt", "md5", "sha1", "crypt".
    algorithm: bcrypt # by default is crypt, but is recommended use bcrypt for new installations
    # Rounds number for "bcrypt", will be ignored for other algorithms.
    rounds: 10

The default algorithm is crypt, considered not secure for production environments, it's recommended for new installations use bcrypt instead. Note after verdaccio 6.x the default will be bcrypt.

Property	Type	Required	Example	Support	Description
file	string	Yes	./htpasswd	all	file that host the encrypted credentials
max_users	number	No	1000	all	set limit of users
algorithm	string	No	bcrypt/md5/sha1/crypt	>=5.13.0	set hasing password algorithm
rounds	number	No	10	>=5.13.0	Rounds number for "bcrypt", will be ignored for other algorithms

In case you decide to prevent users from signing up themselves, you can set max_users: -1.