HTTP Basic Authentication with Express, without express.basicAuth.

basic-auth.js

var express = require("express");
var app = express();
  
app.get("/restricted", function(req, res, next){

  // Grab the "Authorization" header.
  var auth = req.get("authorization");

  // On the first request, the "Authorization" header won't exist, so we'll set a Response
  // header that prompts the browser to ask for a username and password.
  if (!auth) {
    res.set("WWW-Authenticate", "Basic realm=\"Authorization Required\"");
    // If the user cancels the dialog, or enters the password wrong too many times,
    // show the Access Restricted error message.
    return res.status(401).send("Authorization Required");
  } else {
    // If the user enters a username and password, the browser re-requests the route
    // and includes a Base64 string of those credentials.
    var credentials = new Buffer(auth.split(" ").pop(), "base64").toString("ascii").split(":");
    if (credentials[0] === "username" && credentials[1] === "password") {
      // The username and password are correct, so the user is authorized.
      return res.send("Access Granted!");
    } else {
      // The user typed in the username or password wrong.
      return res.status(403).send("Access Denied (incorrect credentials)");
    }
  }

});

app.listen(3000, function(){
  console.log("-> http://localhost:3000/");
});

change line 25 status code to 401