Basic Authentication

Introduction

Basic authentication works by including credentials in each request sent to the service.

This is done by setting the "Authorization" header as follows:

CODE

Authorization: Basic X

The header value consists of two, space separated parts:

The authentication method, in this case "Basic"
The user credentials (X) in the format "username:password" as base-64 encoded text

If this header is set, the service checks whether that combination of username and password is configured in the HAKOM user store (a.k.a. the HAKOM ACL).

Example

Assuming the following user:

Username: Max
Password: Mustermann123

In order to use this user when accessing the service, each request should contain the following header:

CODE

Authorization: Basic TWF4Ok11c3Rlcm1hbm4xMjM=

The string used in the example "TWF4Ok11c3Rlcm1hbm4xMjM=" represents "Max:Mustermann123" in base64 encoding. This is not encrypted, and can thus be decoded and read quite easily. This header value should therefore not be stored anywhere

Notes Regarding Security

Because the credentials are sent in every request and are not in any way encrypted, an attacker monitoring network traffic can easily obtain and use these credentials. For this reason, Basic authentication should only be used

in conjunction with SSL so that individual requests cannot be intercepted or
in sandboxed development/testing environments where security is not a concern.