Authentication

Token Authentication

A token is valid for 24 hours. If a token is required, the system caches the token to avoid frequent calling.

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

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

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

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

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POST https://iam.cn-north-4.myhuaweicloud.com/v3/auth/projects
Content-Type: application/json
X-Auth-Token: ABCDEFJ....

AK/SK-based Authentication

AK/SK authentication supports API requests with a body not larger than 12 MB. For API requests with a larger body, token authentication is recommended.

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

• AK: is a unique identifier associated with the SK. It is a unique identifier associated with an SK and is used together with an SK to sign requests cryptographically.
• SK: secret access key used together with an AK to sign requests cryptographically. It identifies a request sender and prevents the request from being modified.

In AK/SK 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.

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