Authentication

Updated on 2024-09-04 GMT+08:00

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Requests for calling an API can be authenticated using either of the following methods:

AK/SK-based authentication: Requests are authenticated by encrypting the request body using an AK/SK pair. AK/SK-based authentication is recommended because it is more secure than token-based authentication.
Token-based authentication: Requests are authenticated using a token.

AK/SK-based Authentication

NOTE:

AK/SK-based authentication supports API requests with a body not larger than 12 MB. For API requests with a larger body, token-based authentication is recommended.
The AK/SK can be a permanent or temporary access key. If it is a temporary access key, the X-Security-Token field must be added to the request. The value is the security_token of the temporary access key.

In AK/SK-based authentication, AK/SK is used to sign requests and the signature is then added to the requests for authentication.

AK: access key ID, which is a unique identifier used in conjunction with a secret access key to sign requests cryptographically.
SK: secret access key used in conjunction with an AK to sign requests cryptographically. It identifies a request sender and prevents the request from being modified.

In AK/SK-based authentication, you can use an AK/SK to sign requests based on the signature algorithm or using the signing SDK. For details about how to sign requests and use the signing SDK, see API Request Signing Guide.

NOTE:

The signing SDK is only used for signing requests and is different from the SDKs provided by services.

Token-based Authentication

NOTE:

The validity period of a token is 24 hours. When using a token for authentication, cache it to prevent frequently calling the IAM API used to obtain a user token.

A token specifies temporary permissions in a computer system. During API authentication using a token, the token is added to requests to get permissions for calling the API.

You can obtain a token by calling the Obtaining User Token API. When you call the API, set auth.scope in the request body to domain.

{
    "auth": {
        "identity": {
            "methods": [
                "password"
            ],
            "password": {
                "user": {
                    "name": "username",
                    "password": "********",
                    "domain": {
                        "name": "domainname"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "scope":{
             "domain":{
                 "name":"xxxxxxxx"
            }
        }
    }
}

After a token is obtained, the X-Auth-Token header field must be added to requests to specify the token when calling other APIs. For example, if the token is ABCDEFJ...., X-Auth-Token: ABCDEFJ.... can be added to a request as follows:

    
       POST https://iam.myhuaweicloud.eu/v3.0/OS-USER/users
Content-Type: application/json
X-Auth-Token: ABCDEFJ....

Parent topic: Calling APIs

Previous topic: Making an API Request

Next topic: Response

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