title: Fast SHA-2 Authentication with Apache, is it even possible?
body: <p>Okay, I spent the last couple of days researching this, and I can't believe Apache's natively supported hashing functions are that outdated.</p>
  
  <p>I discovered a couple of ways to do this, which are mod_perl and mod_authnz_external, both of which are too slow, because apache runs that whenever any object inside a protected directory is called. That means that a user may have to be authenticated hundreds of times in a single session.</p>
  
  <p>Has anyone ever managed to get Apache to use something that's more secure than MD5 and SHA-1 without moving authentication away from Apache? Salted SHA-2 would be a real bonus.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks!</p>