Updated on 2024-07-04 GMT+08:00

Authentication

API calling is authenticated using either of the following methods:

  • Token authentication: Common requests are authenticated using Tokens.
  • AK/SK authentication: Requests are encrypted using the access key ID and secret access key (AK/SK pair) to provide higher security. AK/SK authentication is recommended because it provides higher security than token authentication.

Token Authentication

A token specifies certain permissions in a computer system. Authentication using a token adds the token in a request as its header during API calling to obtain permissions to operate APIs through IAM.

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

When calling the API to obtain a user token, you must 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 obtaining the token, add the X-Auth-Token header in a request to specify the token when calling other APIs. For example, if the token is ABCDEFJ...., add X-Auth-Token: ABCDEFJ.... in a request as follows:

1
2
3
GET https://iam.ap-southeast-1.myhuaweicloud.com/v3/auth/projects
Content-Type: application/json
X-Auth-Token: ABCDEFJ....

AK/SK Authentication

In authentication using AK/SK, AK/SK is used to sign a request and add the signature in a request as its header for authentication.

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

  • AK: access key ID, which is a unique identifier associated with a secret access key and is 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 authentication using AK/SK, you can use AK/SK to sign requests based on the signature algorithm or use a dedicated signature SDK to sign the requests.

For details about how to sign requests and use the signing SDK, see API Request Signing Guide.

The signature SDK only supports signature, which is different from the SDKs provided by services.