Preemptive Basic authentication with Apache HttpClient 4

Question

Is there an easier way to setup the http client for preemptive basic authentication than what described here?
In previous version (3.x) it used to be a simple method call (eg, httpClient.getParams().setAuthenticationPreemptive(true)).
The main thing I want to avoid is adding the BasicHttpContext to each method I execute.

Answer 1

It's difficult to do this without passing a context through every time, but you can probably do it by using a request interceptor. Here is some code that we use (found from their JIRA, iirc):

// Pre-emptive authentication to speed things up
BasicHttpContext localContext = new BasicHttpContext();

BasicScheme basicAuth = new BasicScheme();
localContext.setAttribute("preemptive-auth", basicAuth);

httpClient.addRequestInterceptor(new PreemptiveAuthInterceptor(), 0);

(...)

static class PreemptiveAuthInterceptor implements HttpRequestInterceptor {

    public void process(final HttpRequest request, final HttpContext context) throws HttpException, IOException {
        AuthState authState = (AuthState) context.getAttribute(ClientContext.TARGET_AUTH_STATE);

        // If no auth scheme avaialble yet, try to initialize it
        // preemptively
        if (authState.getAuthScheme() == null) {
            AuthScheme authScheme = (AuthScheme) context.getAttribute("preemptive-auth");
            CredentialsProvider credsProvider = (CredentialsProvider) context.getAttribute(ClientContext.CREDS_PROVIDER);
            HttpHost targetHost = (HttpHost) context.getAttribute(ExecutionContext.HTTP_TARGET_HOST);
            if (authScheme != null) {
                Credentials creds = credsProvider.getCredentials(new AuthScope(targetHost.getHostName(), targetHost.getPort()));
                if (creds == null) {
                    throw new HttpException("No credentials for preemptive authentication");
                }
                authState.setAuthScheme(authScheme);
                authState.setCredentials(creds);
            }
        }

    }

}

Answer 2

If you are looking to force HttpClient 4 to authenticate with a single request, the following will work:

String username = ...
String password = ...
UsernamePasswordCredentials creds = new UsernamePasswordCredentials(username, password);

HttpRequest request = ...
request.addHeader(new BasicScheme().authenticate(creds, request));

Answer 3

This is the same solution as Mat's Mannion's, but you don't have to put localContext to each request. It's simpler, but it adds authentication to ALL requests. Useful, if you don't have control over individual requests, as in my case when using Apache Solr, which uses HttpClient internally.

import org.apache.http.HttpException;
import org.apache.http.HttpHost;
import org.apache.http.HttpRequest;
import org.apache.http.HttpRequestInterceptor;
import org.apache.http.auth.AuthScope;
import org.apache.http.auth.AuthState;
import org.apache.http.auth.Credentials;
import org.apache.http.client.CredentialsProvider;
import org.apache.http.client.protocol.ClientContext;
import org.apache.http.impl.auth.BasicScheme;
import org.apache.http.protocol.ExecutionContext;
import org.apache.http.protocol.HttpContext;

httpClient.addRequestInterceptor(new PreemptiveAuthInterceptor(), 0);

(...)

static class PreemptiveAuthInterceptor implements HttpRequestInterceptor {

    public void process(final HttpRequest request, final HttpContext context) throws HttpException, IOException {
        AuthState authState = (AuthState) context.getAttribute(ClientContext.TARGET_AUTH_STATE);

        // If no auth scheme available yet, try to initialize it
        // preemptively
        if (authState.getAuthScheme() == null) {
            CredentialsProvider credsProvider = (CredentialsProvider) context.getAttribute(ClientContext.CREDS_PROVIDER);
            HttpHost targetHost = (HttpHost) context.getAttribute(ExecutionContext.HTTP_TARGET_HOST);
            Credentials creds = credsProvider.getCredentials(new AuthScope(targetHost.getHostName(), targetHost.getPort()));
            if (creds == null) {
                throw new HttpException("No credentials for preemptive authentication");
            }
            authState.setAuthScheme(new BasicScheme());
            authState.setCredentials(creds);
        }

    }

}

Of course, you have to set the credentials provider:

httpClient.getCredentialsProvider().setCredentials(
                new AuthScope(url.getHost(), url.getPort()),
                new UsernamePasswordCredentials(username, password))

The AuthScope must not contain realm, as it is not known in advance.

Answer 4

A lot of the answers above use deprecated code. I am using Apache SOLRJ version 5.0.0. My code consists of

private HttpSolrClient solrClient; 

private void initialiseSOLRClient() {
            URL solrURL = null;
            try {
                solrURL = new URL(urlString);
            } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
                LOG.error("Cannot parse the SOLR URL!!" + urlString);
                throw new SystemException("Cannot parse the SOLR URL!! " + urlString, e);
            }
            String host = solrURL.getHost();
            int port = solrURL.getPort();
            AuthScope authScope = new AuthScope(host, port);

    BasicTextEncryptor textEncryptor = new BasicTextEncryptor();
    textEncryptor.setPassword("red bananas in the spring");
    String decryptPass = textEncryptor.decrypt(pass);
    UsernamePasswordCredentials creds = new UsernamePasswordCredentials(userName, decryptPass);

    CredentialsProvider credsProvider = new BasicCredentialsProvider();
    credsProvider.setCredentials(
            authScope,
            creds);

    HttpClientBuilder builder = HttpClientBuilder.create();
    builder.addInterceptorFirst(new PreemptiveAuthInterceptor());
    builder.setDefaultCredentialsProvider(credsProvider);
    CloseableHttpClient httpClient = builder.build();

    solrClient = new HttpSolrClient(urlString, httpClient);
}

The PreemptiveAuthInterceptor is now as follows:-

static class PreemptiveAuthInterceptor implements HttpRequestInterceptor {

    public void process(final HttpRequest request, final HttpContext context) throws HttpException, IOException {
        AuthState authState = (AuthState) context.getAttribute(HttpClientContext.TARGET_AUTH_STATE);
        // If no auth scheme available yet, try to initialize it
        // preemptively
        if (authState.getAuthScheme() == null) {
            CredentialsProvider credsProvider = (CredentialsProvider) 
                        context.getAttribute(HttpClientContext.CREDS_PROVIDER);
            HttpHost targetHost = (HttpHost) context.getAttribute(HttpCoreContext.HTTP_TARGET_HOST);
            AuthScope authScope = new AuthScope(targetHost.getHostName(), targetHost.getPort());
            Credentials creds = credsProvider.getCredentials(authScope);
            if(creds == null){

            }
            authState.update(new BasicScheme(), creds);
        }

    }
}

Answer 5

A little late to the party but I came accross the thread trying to solve this for proxy pre-authorization of a post request. To add to Adam's response, I found the following worked for me:

HttpPost httppost = new HttpPost(url);
UsernamePasswordCredentials creds = new UsernamePasswordCredentials(username, password);
Header bs = new BasicScheme().authenticate(creds, httppost);
httppost.addHeader("Proxy-Authorization", bs.getValue());

Thought that might be helpful for anyone else who runs into this.

Answer 6

I think the best way may be to just do it manually. I added the following function

Classic Java:

import javax.xml.bind.DatatypeConverter;

...

private static void addAuthHeader(HttpRequestBase http, String username, String password) throws UnsupportedEncodingException {
        String encoded = DatatypeConverter.printBase64Binary((username + ":" + password).getBytes("UTF-8"));
        http.addHeader("AUTHORIZATION", "Basic " + encoded);
    }

HTTPRequestBase can be an instance of HttpGet or HttpPost

Android:

import android.util.Base64;

...

private static void addAuthHeader(HttpRequestBase http, String username, String password) throws UnsupportedEncodingException {
    String encoded = Base64.encodeToString((username + ":" + password).getBytes("UTF-8"), Base64.NO_WRAP);
    http.addHeader("AUTHORIZATION", "Basic " + encoded);
}

Answer 7

I'm using this code, based on my reading of the HTTPClient 4.5 docs:

HttpClientContext ctx = HttpClientContext.create()
ctx.setCredentialsProvider(new BasicCredentialsProvider())
ctx.setAuthCache(new BasicAuthCache())
UsernamePasswordCredentials creds = new UsernamePasswordCredentials(user, pass)
AuthScope authScope = new AuthScope(host, port)
ctx.getCredentialsProvider.setCredentials(authScope, credentials)

// This part makes authentication preemptive:
HttpHost targetHost = new HttpHost(host, port, scheme)
ctx.getAuthCache.put(targetHost, new BasicScheme())

...and make sure you always pass that context to HTTPClient.execute().

Answer 8

I don't quite get your closing comment. It's the HttpClient that has all of that machinery for doing preemptive auth, and you only have to do that once (when you construct and configure your HttpClient). Once you've done that, you construct your method instances the same way as always. You don't "add the BasicHttpContext" to the method.

Your best bet, I'd think, is to have your own object that sets up all of the junk required for preemptive auth, and has a simple method or methods for executing requests on given HTTPMethod objects.

Answer 9

in android,Mat Mannion's answer can't resolve https,still send two requests,you can do like below,the trick is append authHeader with user-agent：

    public static DefaultHttpClient createProxyHttpClient() {
        try {
            final DefaultHttpClient client = createPlaintHttpClient();
            client.setRoutePlanner(new HttpRoutePlanner() {
                @Override
                public HttpRoute determineRoute(HttpHost target, HttpRequest request, HttpContext context) throws HttpException {
                    boolean isSecure = "https".equalsIgnoreCase(target.getSchemeName());
                    if (needProxy) {
                        Header header = isSecure ? ProxyUtils.createHttpsAuthHeader() : ProxyUtils.createAuthHeader();
                        if (isSecure) {
                            client.getParams().setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.USER_AGENT, com.netease.cloudmusic.utils.HttpRequest.USER_AGENT + "\r\n" + header.getName() + ":" + header.getValue());
                        } else {
                            client.getParams().setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.USER_AGENT, com.netease.cloudmusic.utils.HttpRequest.USER_AGENT);
                            if (request instanceof RequestWrapper) {
                                request = ((RequestWrapper) request).getOriginal();
                            }
                            request.setHeader(header);
                        }
                        String host = isSecure ? ProxyUtils.SECURE_HOST : ProxyUtils.HOST;
                        int port = isSecure ? ProxyUtils.SECURE_PORT : ProxyUtils.PORT;
                        return new HttpRoute(target, null,  new HttpHost(host, port), isSecure);
                    } else {
                        client.getParams().setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.USER_AGENT, com.netease.cloudmusic.utils.HttpRequest.USER_AGENT);
                        return new HttpRoute(target, null, isSecure);
                    }
                }
            });
            return client;
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return new DefaultHttpClient();
        }
    }

public static DefaultHttpClient createPlaintHttpClient() {
       try {
            KeyStore trustStore = KeyStore.getInstance(KeyStore.getDefaultType());
            trustStore.load(null, null);
            PlainSSLSocketFactory socketFactory = new PlainSSLSocketFactory(trustStore);
            socketFactory.setHostnameVerifier(SSLSocketFactory.ALLOW_ALL_HOSTNAME_VERIFIER);
            BasicHttpParams params = new BasicHttpParams();
            HttpConnectionParams.setConnectionTimeout(params, 30000);
            HttpConnectionParams.setSoTimeout(params, 30000);
            HttpProtocolParams.setVersion(params, HttpVersion.HTTP_1_1);
            HttpProtocolParams.setContentCharset(params, HTTP.UTF_8);
            SchemeRegistry registry = new SchemeRegistry();
            registry.register(new Scheme("http", PlainSocketFactory.getSocketFactory(), 80));
            registry.register(new Scheme("https", socketFactory, 443));
            ThreadSafeClientConnManager ccm = new ThreadSafeClientConnManager(params, registry);
            HttpClientParams.setCookiePolicy(params, CookiePolicy.BROWSER_COMPATIBILITY);
            final DefaultHttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient(ccm, params);
            client.setRoutePlanner(new HttpRoutePlanner() {
        @Override
        public HttpRoute determineRoute(HttpHost target, HttpRequest arg1, HttpContext arg2) throws HttpException {
               client.getParams().setParameter(CoreProtocolPNames.USER_AGENT, com.netease.cloudmusic.utils.HttpRequest.USER_AGENT);
            return new HttpRoute(target, null, "https".equalsIgnoreCase(target.getSchemeName()));
        }
        });
            return client;
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return new DefaultHttpClient();
        }
}