Authentication
--------------

The system controls access to its service through HTTP basic authentication.
The technique is defined in section 11.1 of RFC1945, which is simple to implement,
and uses standard HTTP headers.

The HTTP Basic Access Authentication requires authorization credentials in the form
of a user name and password before granting access to resources in the system.
The username and password are passed as Base64 encoded text in the header of API requests.

The HTTP header format for authentication is defined in the table below.

+---------------+------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
| Field Name    | Description                        | Value                                             |
+===============+====================================+===================================================+
| Authorization | Basic authentication is supported. |  Basic [Base64 encoded credentials]               |
+---------------+------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+

**Example**:

The Base64 encoded credentials for user name of joe and a password of bloggs.

For example, from a command line 
(note the removal of the new line in the ``echo`` command):

::

  $ echo -n "joe:bloggs" | base64
  am9lOmJsb2dncw==


the header will be:

``Authorization: Basic  am9lOmJsb2dncw==``


For example, using **curl**:

::

   curl -k -H "Authorization: Basic am9lOmJsb2dncw==" 
     'https://hostname/api/data/MyModel/'

It is required that all requests be conducted over a secure session, such as HTTPS or SSL.

A |VOSS Automate| self-signed certificate needs to be installed into a local trust store of the client application.


.. |VOSS Automate| replace:: VOSS Automate
.. |Unified CM| replace:: Unified CM