Help Center/ Cloud Application Engine/ API Reference/ Calling APIs/ Authentication
Updated on 2025-02-14 GMT+08:00
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Authentication

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

  • Token-based authentication: Requests are authenticated using a token.
  • AK/SK-based authentication. Requests are encrypted using an access key ID (AK)/secret access key (SK) pair.

Token-based Authentication

The validity period of a token is 24 hours. If a token is used for authentication, cache it to prevent frequent API calling.

Ensure that the token is valid while 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 a request 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, add X-Auth-Token to the request header 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:

GET https://iam.ap-southeast-3.myhuaweicloud.com/v3/auth/projects 
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 request headers for authentication.

  • AK: a unique identifier used in conjunction with an SK to sign requests cryptographically.
  • SK: used 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 sign requests using an AK/SK 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.

Parent topic: Calling APIs