diff --git a/.env.sample b/.env.sample
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ccfd6cf46
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.env.sample
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+SDAPI_USERNAME=admin
+SDAPI_PASSWORD=test123
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.github/workflows/on_merge_to_master.yaml b/.github/workflows/on_merge_to_master.yaml
index b221540c0..d09fcb6d5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/on_merge_to_master.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/on_merge_to_master.yaml
@@ -21,6 +21,16 @@ jobs:
         with:
           ssh-private-key: ${{ secrets.MOONLITE_AWS_EC2_SSH_KEY }}
 
+      - name: Create .env file
+        working-directory: ./
+        run: |
+          echo "SDAPI_USERNAME=${{ secrets.MOONLITE_SDAPI_USERNAME }}" >> .env
+          echo "SDAPI_PASSWORD=${{ secrets.MOONLITE_SDAPI_PASSWORD }}" >> .env
+
+      - name: Copy .env file to EC2 instance
+        run: |
+          scp -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -i ${{ secrets.MOONLITE_AWS_EC2_SSH_KEY }} .env ${{ secrets.MOONLITE_AWS_EC2_SSH_USER }}@${{ secrets.MOONLITE_AWS_EC2_SSH_HOST }}:/home/ec2-user/apps/stable-diffusion/
+
       - name: SSH into EC2 and deploy the app
         run: |
           ssh -o ServerAliveInterval=60 -o ServerAliveCountMax=60 -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no ${{ secrets.MOONLITE_AWS_EC2_SSH_USER }}@${{ secrets.MOONLITE_AWS_EC2_SSH_HOST }} << 'EOF'
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8c119e3db..d4eda3bd2 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ __pycache__
 /venv
 /tmp
 /model.ckpt
+.env
 # /models/**/*
 /GFPGANv1.3.pth
 /gfpgan/weights/*.pth
diff --git a/basic_auth_middleware.py b/basic_auth_middleware.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..55c818b43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/basic_auth_middleware.py
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+import base64
+from starlette.middleware.base import BaseHTTPMiddleware
+from starlette.responses import Response
+from fastapi import FastAPI
+
+class BasicAuthMiddleware(BaseHTTPMiddleware):
+    def __init__(self, app, username: str, password: str):
+        super().__init__(app)
+        self.username = username
+        self.password = password
+
+    async def dispatch(self, request, call_next):
+        # Extract the Authorization header
+        auth_header = request.headers.get("Authorization")
+        if not auth_header or not auth_header.startswith("Basic "):
+            return self._unauthorized_response()
+
+        try:
+            # Decode and split the credentials
+            encoded_credentials = auth_header.split(" ")[1]
+            # We should add a step to santize the input here
+            decoded_credentials = base64.b64decode(encoded_credentials).decode("utf-8")
+            provided_username, provided_password = decoded_credentials.split(":")
+
+            # Check credentials
+            if provided_username == self.username and provided_password == self.password:
+                response = await call_next(request)
+                return response
+            else:
+                return self._unauthorized_response()
+        except Exception:
+            return self._unauthorized_response()
+
+    def _unauthorized_response(self):
+        return Response(
+            content="Unauthorized",
+            status_code=401,
+            headers={"WWW-Authenticate": "Basic realm='api'"}
+        )
diff --git a/extensions/sd-webui-controlnet b/extensions/sd-webui-controlnet
index 8bbbd0e55..56cec5b29 160000
--- a/extensions/sd-webui-controlnet
+++ b/extensions/sd-webui-controlnet
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 8bbbd0e55ef6e5d71b09c2de2727b36e7bc825b0
+Subproject commit 56cec5b2958edf3b1807b7e7b2b1b5186dbd2f81
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 9e2ecfe4d..44bcf09e0 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ open-clip-torch
 piexif
 psutil
 pytorch_lightning
+python-dotenv
 requests
 resize-right
 
diff --git a/webui.py b/webui.py
index 2c417168a..73d370a8b 100644
--- a/webui.py
+++ b/webui.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
+from dotenv import load_dotenv
 import os
 import time
 
@@ -9,6 +10,7 @@ from modules import initialize
 
 startup_timer = timer.startup_timer
 startup_timer.record("launcher")
+load_dotenv()
 
 initialize.imports()
 
@@ -30,6 +32,13 @@ def api_only():
     initialize.initialize()
 
     app = FastAPI()
+
+    # Initialize the Basic Authentication middleware
+    from basic_auth_middleware import BasicAuthMiddleware
+    USERNAME = os.getenv('SDAPI_USERNAME')
+    PASSWORD = os.getenv('SDAPI_PASSWORD')
+    app.add_middleware(BasicAuthMiddleware, username=USERNAME, password=PASSWORD)
+
     initialize_util.setup_middleware(app)
     api = create_api(app)