Help Center/ CodeArts PerfTest/ API Reference/ Calling APIs/ Authentication
Updated on 2026-02-09 GMT+08:00
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Authentication

Requests for calling an API can be authenticated using either of the following methods. AK/SK-based authentication is recommended because it provides higher security than token-based authentication.

  • Token-based authentication: Requests are authenticated using a token.
  • AK/SK-based authentication. Requests are encrypted using an AK/SK pair.

Token-based Authentication

  • 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.
  • Ensure that the token is valid when you use it. Using a token that will soon expire may cause API calling failures.

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.

When calling an IAM API to obtain a user token, 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 calling other APIs. For example, if the token is ABCDEFG...., X-Auth-Token: ABCDEFG.... can be added to a request as follows:

POST https://iam.ap-southeast-1.myhuaweicloud.com/v3.0/OS-USER/users 
Content-Type: application/json
X-Auth-Token: ABCDEFG....

AK/SK-based Authentication

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.

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 use the signing SDK to sign requests. For details about how to sign requests and use the signing SDK, see AK/SK Signing and Authentication Guide.

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

Parent topic: Calling APIs