Python: Encode Base64 to Basic connect to an API

Question

I’m trying to connect to an API and I’ve to encode64 the username and password. The ‘Authorisation’ value should look like this: Basic QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ

When I try to connect I get an error: ‘Unauthorized: Bad credentials’. The support says that my credentials are ok, but they are slow to respond to solve my issue.

I suspect the encoding part of the code, but I’m not sure. Could you please take a look at my code and tell me what could be wrong with it?

The direct link to the section about authentication in the documentation :
http://developer.outbrain.com/home-page/amplify-api/documentation/#/reference/authentications/via-api

m = str(base64.b64encode(b'xxxxx:xxxxxxx'))
headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Basic ' + m + ''
}
r = requests.get('https://api.outbrain.com/amplify/v0.1/login', headers=headers)
print(r.json())

Asked By: Creek Barbara

||

Source

Answer 1

You need to use decode to correctly get a string from the byte sequence:

Wrong (note the ‘b’ prefix and single quotes in the result):

>>> str(base64.b64encode(b'test'))
"b'dGVzdA=='"

Right:

>>> base64.b64encode(b'test').decode('utf-8')
'dGVzdA=='

Additionally, requests can do this for you:

from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth
r = requests.get('https://api.outbrain.com/amplify/v0.1/login', auth=HTTPBasicAuth('user', 'pass'))

Answered By: cody

Answer 2

Another way to do it:

import base64
    
message = "user:password"
message_bytes = message.encode('ascii')
base64_bytes = base64.b64encode(message_bytes)
base64_message = base64_bytes.decode('ascii')
        
print(base64_message)

Answered By: Luis Felipe

Python: Encode Base64 to Basic connect to an API

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