Basic Authentication in Swift 3 does't work

Question

I am struggling with basic authentication in Swift.

I have a Rest back end service over SSL and with basic authentication. My objective-c client code works well but the corresponding Swift one doesn't work because the authentication fails.

This is the Swift code:

let sUrl = "HTTPS://localhost:8443/Test_1/rest/Service/returnInfo"
let url: URL = URL(string: sUrl)!
let request: URLRequest = URLRequest(url: url);
let session: URLSession = URLSession(configuration: URLSessionConfiguration.default, delegate: self, delegateQueue: OperationQueue())
let task: URLSessionDataTask = session.dataTask(with: request) { (data, response, inError) in {

   ...
   let httpResponse = response as! HTTPURLResponse
   if (httpResponse.statusCode != 200) {
        let details = [NSLocalizedDescriptionKey: "HTTP Error"]
        let error = NSError(domain:"WS", code:httpResponse.statusCode, userInfo:details)
        completionHandler(nil, error);
        return
   }
   ...
}
task.resume()

The delegate method is quite similar to the corresponding method in Objective-c:

func urlSession(_ session: URLSession, didReceive challenge: URLAuthenticationChallenge, completionHandler: @escaping (URLSession.AuthChallengeDisposition, URLCredential?) -> Void) {

    guard challenge.previousFailureCount == 0 else {
        challenge.sender?.cancel(challenge)
        // Inform the user that the user name and password are incorrect
        completionHandler(.cancelAuthenticationChallenge, nil)
        return
    }

    let proposedCredential = URLCredential(user: user!, password: password!, persistence: .none)
    completionHandler(Foundation.URLSession.AuthChallengeDisposition.useCredential, proposedCredential)
}

The httpResponse.statusCode is always 401.

The delegate method is called only once, instead the corresponding method in Objective-c is called two times.

Where am I wrong?

UPDATE The corresponding Objective-c code:

NSString *sUrl = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"HTTPS://localhost:8443/Test_1/rest/Service/returnInfo"];
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:sUrl];
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
NSURLSessionConfiguration *defaultConfigObject = [NSURLSessionConfiguration defaultSessionConfiguration];
NSURLSession *session = [NSURLSession sessionWithConfiguration: defaultConfigObject delegate:self delegateQueue:[NSOperationQueue mainQueue]];
NSURLSessionDataTask *task = [session dataTaskWithRequest:request completionHandler:^(NSData *data, NSURLResponse *response, NSError *inError) {
    if (inError != nil) {
        completionHandler(0, inError);
        return;
    }
    NSHTTPURLResponse *httpResponse = (NSHTTPURLResponse *)response;
    if (httpResponse.statusCode != 200) {
        NSDictionary *details = @{NSLocalizedDescriptionKey:@"HTTP Error"};
        NSError *error = [NSError errorWithDomain:@"WS" code:httpResponse.statusCode userInfo:details];
        completionHandler(0, error);
        return;
    }
    NSError *jsonError;
    NSDictionary *valueAsDictionary = [NSJSONSerialization JSONObjectWithData:data options:NSJSONReadingMutableContainers error:&jsonError];
    if (jsonError != nil) {
        completionHandler(0, jsonError);
        return;
    }
    if (![valueAsDictionary[@"ret"] boolValue]) {
        NSInteger code = [valueAsDictionary[@"code"] integerValue];
        NSDictionary *details = @{NSLocalizedDescriptionKey:(valueAsDictionary[@"message"]!=nil) ? valueAsDictionary[@"message"] : @""};
        NSError *error = [NSError errorWithDomain:@"WS" code:code userInfo:details];
        completionHandler(0, error);
        return;
    }
    completionHandler(valueAsDictionary[@"value"], nil);
}];
[task resume];

This is the delegate function:

- (void)URLSession:(NSURLSession *)session task:(NSURLSessionTask *)task didReceiveChallenge:(NSURLAuthenticationChallenge *)challenge completionHandler:(void (^)(NSURLSessionAuthChallengeDisposition disposition, NSURLCredential *credential))completionHandler {

if ([challenge previousFailureCount] == 0) {
    NSURLCredential *newCredential = [NSURLCredential credentialWithUser:_user password:_password persistence:NSURLCredentialPersistenceNone];
        completionHandler(NSURLSessionAuthChallengeUseCredential, newCredential);
} else {
    completionHandler(NSURLSessionAuthChallengeCancelAuthenticationChallenge, nil);
}

}

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 01 '17 at 12:45

I eventually managed to make it working in Swift, even if I don't know because it was not working before. Apparently, user and password have to be explicitly added to the HTTP headers.

let sUrl = "HTTPS://localhost:8443/Test_1/rest/Service/returnInfo"
let url: URL = URL(string: sUrl)!
let request: URLRequest = URLRequest(url: url);

// Changes from here ...

let config = URLSessionConfiguration.default
let userPasswordData = "\(user!):\(password!)".data(using: .utf8)
let base64EncodedCredential = userPasswordData!.base64EncodedString(options: Data.Base64EncodingOptions.init(rawValue: 0))
let authString = "Basic \(base64EncodedCredential)"
config.httpAdditionalHeaders = ["Authorization" : authString]
let session: URLSession = URLSession(configuration: config, delegate: self, delegateQueue: OperationQueue())

// ... to here

let task: URLSessionDataTask = session.dataTask(with: request) { (data, response, inError) in {

   ...
   let httpResponse = response as! HTTPURLResponse
   if (httpResponse.statusCode != 200) {
      let details = [NSLocalizedDescriptionKey: "HTTP Error"]
      let error = NSError(domain:"WS", code:httpResponse.statusCode, userInfo:details)
      completionHandler(nil, error);
      return
   }
   ...
}
task.resume()

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 09 '18 at 22:21

This code is worked for me in Swift 3.0.1:

    let login = "username"
    let password = "password"

    let sUrl = NSURL(string: (urlString as NSString) as String)
    let request: URLRequest = URLRequest(url: sUrl as! URL);

    let config = URLSessionConfiguration.default
    let userPasswordData = "\(login):\(password)".data(using: .utf8)
    let base64EncodedCredential = userPasswordData!.base64EncodedString(options: Data.Base64EncodingOptions.init(rawValue: 0))
    let authString = "Basic \(base64EncodedCredential)"
    config.httpAdditionalHeaders = ["Authorization" : authString]
    let session: URLSession = URLSession(configuration: config, delegate: self, delegateQueue: OperationQueue())

    let task = session.dataTask(with: request as URLRequest) { (data, response, error) -> Void in
         print("response \(data)")

        let httpResponse = response as! HTTPURLResponse
        if (httpResponse.statusCode != 200) {
            print(error?.localizedDescription as Any)
            print("Handle Error")
        }
        else{
            do {
                if let jsonResult = try JSONSerialization.jsonObject(with: data!, options: []) as? NSDictionary {
                    print("Synchronous\(jsonResult)")
                }
            } catch let error as NSError {
                print(error.localizedDescription)
            }
        }
    }
        task.resume()
  }

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 28 '17 at 13:05

0

According to your question, this is your request (line) instance.

let request: URLRequest = URLRequest(url: url);

You have not set any header parameters for your request instance, here. Please compare request header and body parameters with you objective C client.

Header params may include - content type as well as other useful confidential param like API keys also.

Check your objective C client request and set same params here in your swift code

answered Feb 28 '17 at 13:05

They are exactly the same. I have stripped out some code to make the question simple. Moreover, disabling basic authentication on the server, everything works fine in Swift too. – Fab Feb 28 '17 at 13:17
Please share/update missing information for your request params here, if it is not confidential. So I can guide you in proper direction. As per my knowledge this is not sufficient code to generate web server request. Can you share objective source here. – Feb 28 '17 at 13:20
No missing information, anyway I updated my question with service URL and the corresponding objective-c code – Fab Feb 28 '17 at 13:47

Basic Authentication in Swift 3 does't work

3 Answers3

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