Manual:$wgWhitelistEdit

Details
If true, users must login to edit.
 * It's not 100% safe, there could be a security hole using that one. Use at your own risks.

Mediawiki Version 1.5 and onwards
This setting was deprecated in version 1.5.0, and replaced by $wgGroupPermissions, specifically the 'edit' permission.

To emulate the old effect of setting: set: If $wgWhitelistRead is set, you must also disable the 'read' permission for it to take effect on anonymous users: