Documentation

HTTP Basic Auth

HTTP Basic Auth¶

Authentication
HTTP Basic Auth

What is HTTP Basic Auth?¶

HTTP Basic Auth (or Basic access authentication) is a widely used protocol for simple username/password authentication, for example, when your web browsers prompts you for credentials:

Example of Basic auth in Safari

Paw natively supports HTTP Basic Auth via the HTTP Basic Auth Dynamic Value, which generates the Authorization header from the credentials you provide.

Warning! Please note that when using Basic auth, your password is being sent to the server, and therefore this should be considered safe only over HTTPS.

Use HTTP Basic Auth¶

Set the authorization type

Set the authorization type¶

Go to the Auth tab and choose Basic Auth.

Enter your credentials

Enter your credentials¶

Your password will be encrypted and stored in the document file. Alternatively, you can access a password from the Keychain: toggle the password field into a “Regular Field” by clicking the lock icon, then click on the Secure dynamic value to get more options.

../../_images/basic-auth-new-credentials.png

Done

Done¶

Paw will add the Authorization header automatically. You can check it in the Headers tab. You’re ready to send the request!

Under the hood¶

HTTP Basic access authentication is one of the easiest authentication methods and it’s only safe with a secure SSL/HTTPS connection. The header generated is:

Basic {TOKEN}

where the {TOKEN} is the base 64 of the username and password separated by a colon. In pseudo-code, it would be:

base64(username + ':' + password)