How to handle HTTP authentication using HttpURLConnection?

Question

I'm writing a Java client that POSTs to a HTTP server that requires authentication.
I have to support at least the following three authentication methods: Basic, Digest or Negotiate. Additionally the POST may be very large (over 2MB), so I need to use streaming. As is documented for HttpURLConnection

When output streaming is enabled, authentication and redirection cannot be handled automatically. A HttpRetryException will be thrown when reading the response if authentication or redirection are required.

So, I need to handle authentication myself. I searched, and searched again, for a way to employ the, already coded, classes - but found no way...

I could just pluck the needed sources from here (as they are GPLv2 with Classpath exception). Is this the right way?

Thanks.

what sort of authentication? HTTP BASIC Auth? Or something more complex? — Tim
– Tim, Commented Feb 3, 2011 at 6:58
Either Basic, Digest or Negotiate. Basic is easy. The other two are not :) — Opher
– Opher, Commented Feb 3, 2011 at 12:00

Denilson Sá Maia · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-14 13:32:53Z

49

Do you need output streaming? The HttpURLConnection most definitely supports authentication with the Authenticator class, see: Http Authentication.

Update: In case the Authenticator is not an option, you can manually do HTTP basic authentication by adding an extra header to your HTTP request. Try the following code (untested):

String userPassword = username + ":" + password;
String encoding = new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder().encode(userPassword.getBytes());
URLConnection uc = url.openConnection();
uc.setRequestProperty("Authorization", "Basic " + encoding);
uc.connect();

edited Oct 14, 2014 at 13:32

Denilson Sá Maia

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answered Feb 3, 2011 at 8:36

Bruno De Fraine

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6 Comments

Opher Over a year ago

Yes. My POST includes a file which may well be over 2MB in size.

Mat Over a year ago

sun.misc.BASE64Encoder is JVM dependant. A better option would probably be using org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64 from Apache.

Jonik Over a year ago

Related to @Mat's comment: on Android, you'll want to use Base64.encodeToString() (code example).

DevilCode Over a year ago

What is the process with Https will this also work ?

Koss Over a year ago

I have error: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Illegal character(s) in message header value: Basic YTFkOWY2ZjkzMzE2NDA2OTljYzA3ZjJkYzkyYTQ0Yjk6azF3bjFFelJ1RkdPeGdicnVtTk83b0Ft0pjVW1BV0ljVTFmK2pNbmpLcz0= at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.checkMessageHeader(HttpURLConnection.java:482) at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.isExternalMessageHeaderAllowed(HttpURLConnection.java:434) at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.setRequestProperty(HttpURLConnection.java:2753) Why?

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Lucien Boix · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-05 22:18:11Z

4

Related to @Mat's comment :

Here is an example used by my team and I :

import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;

HttpGet getRequest = new HttpGet(endpoint);
getRequest.addHeader("Authorization", "Basic " + getBasicAuthenticationEncoding());

private String getBasicAuthenticationEncoding() {

        String userPassword = username + ":" + password;
        return new String(Base64.encodeBase64(userPassword.getBytes()));
    }

Hope it helps!

answered Jun 5, 2014 at 22:18

Lucien Boix

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1 Comment

Tyron Over a year ago

My Eclipse didn't find the codec package, but you can directly download it from commons.apache.org/proper/commons-codec/download_codec.cgi and add the jar as reference!

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