Why do i get 401 unauthorised even though credentials are correct?

Question

I am trying to make a get request on an API, that has basic authentication, but even though I have the correct username and password, it won't work.

When I'm trying to reach the API with curl (Linux command) it works fine.

curl -u "user:password" -s https://dummy/link/1

Do I need to specify that the response must be enter code hereJSON?

I am using Maven: org.apache.httpcomponents:httpclient:4.5.13 dependency

CredentialsProvider provider = new BasicCredentialsProvider();
UsernamePasswordCredentials credentials = new UsernamePasswordCredentials("user","password");
provider.setCredentials(AuthScope.ANY, credentials);

HttpClient client = HttpClientBuilder.create()
    .setDefaultCredentialsProvider(provider)
    .build();

HttpResponse response = client.execute(
    new HttpGet("https://dummy/link/1");
int statusCode = response.getStatusLine()
    .getStatusCode();

if(statusCode != HttpStatus.SC_OK){
  System.out.println(statusCode);
}else{
  System.out.println(response);
}

Your code doesn't compile, which makes me wonder whether you are running the code in your question. — tgdavies, Jul 19 '21 at 08:19
the link from response and the username and password are an example. — radurbalau, Jul 19 '21 at 08:49
be sure to use Maven: org.apache.httpcomponents:httpclient:4.5.13 — radurbalau, Jul 19 '21 at 08:49

Sergio · Answer 1 · 2022-10-10T15:01:32.963

I stumbled on the same issue. I noticed my request with curl had the header

Authorization: Basic base64(username:password)

that my get request was missing, then i found this answer that solved the problem but with a deprecate use of BasicScheme.authenticate and finally removed the deprecated part using this other answer:

httpget.setHeader( new BasicScheme(StandardCharsets.UTF_8).authenticate(credentials , httpget, null) );

Now it works. Did not check the long way as specified in the first answer.

Why do i get 401 unauthorised even though credentials are correct?

1 Answers1