Help Center/ Domain Name Service/ API Reference/ Calling APIs/ Authentication and Authorization
Updated on 2024-12-20 GMT+08:00
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Authentication and Authorization

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

  • AK/SK-based authentication: Requests are encrypted using AK/SK pairs.
  • Token authentication: Requests are authenticated using tokens.

AK/SK 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.
  • The AK/SK can be either a permanent access key or a 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 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 with a secret access key to sign requests cryptographically.
  • SK: secret access key, which is 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 AK/SK Signing and Authentication Guide.

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

Token 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.
  • To avoid token expiration during an API call, ensure that the time taken to complete a call is shorter than the time left before a token expires.

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 the API for obtaining 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...., add X-Auth-Token: ABCDEFG.... 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....
Parent Topic: Calling APIs