# Passing password from Base.getpass\\Base.winprompt to HTTP.request

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/passing-password-from-base-getpass-base-winprompt-to-http-request/53579>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** https, http\
**Created:** [January 19, 2021, 3:06am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/passing-password-from-base-getpass-base-winprompt-to-http-request/53579 "2021-01-19T03:06:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dannofthursday](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dannofthursday/32/20596_2.png) [@dannofthursday](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dannofthursday)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 3:06am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/passing-password-from-base-getpass-base-winprompt-to-http-request/53579/1 "2021-01-19T03:06:26Z")

</div>

I am trying to convert a few python scripts to julia. I wrote a simple script, in Python, wherein it asks for the username and password and uses them with Basic Authentication to request data from our company website. The script looks something like

```python
user = getpass.getuser()
passwd = getpass.getpass(prompt='Please enter your password: ')

baseurl = 'https://www.notarealwebsite.com'
endpoint = 'rest/endpoint'
params_diction = {'some_fields':'abc'}
with requests.Session() as session:
    session.auth = HTTPBasicAuth(username, password)
    r = session.get(baseurl + endpoint, params=params_diction)
    r.json()

```

I tried the following in julia:

```julia
using Base, HTTP, JSON

user = "username" # Could not find anything like python's getpass.getuser. The ENV["USER"] was not set"
passwd = Base.getpass("Yo password")

baseurl = 'https://$user:$passwd@www.notarealwebsite.com'
endpoint = "rest/endpoint"
params_diction = {'some_fields' => 'abc'}
r = HTTP.request("GET", baseurl * endpoint, ["Content-Type" => "application/json"], JSON.json(params_diction))

```

I get the following error:

```julia
ERROR: HTTP.ExceptionRequest.StatusError(403, "GET", "/rest/endpoitn", HTTP.Messages.Response:
"""
HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
X-AREQUESTID: 1317x6490724x1
X-ANODEID: node2
X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Content-Security-Policy: frame-ancestors 'self'
X-ASEN: SEN-10264611
Set-Cookie: JSESSIONID=9A21CA721A0D249015E4B843DBDF6D6C; Path=/; Secure; HttpOnly
X-Seraph-LoginReason: AUTHENTICATION_DENIED
WWW-Authenticate: OAuth realm=" *************"
X-ASESSIONID: db0yvg
X-Authentication-Denied-Reason: CAPTCHA_CHALLENGE; login-url= *********
Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2021 02:57:27 GMT

```

However, when I use the plaintext password in the url directly, I get the following error:

```julia
ERROR: DNSError: username, unknown node or service (EAI_NONAME)

```

Questions:

1. How do I pass a user’s password as an input to the HTTP.request method for basic authentication without revealing the actual password?

2. Why am I getting a DNSError if I pass the password as plaintext?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dannofthursday](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dannofthursday/32/20596_2.png) [@dannofthursday](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dannofthursday)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 4:16am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/passing-password-from-base-getpass-base-winprompt-to-http-request/53579/2 "2021-01-19T04:16:45Z")

</div>

UPDATE:

From [here](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-use-getpass/13880), I found that I can use the:

```julia
x = read(secretbuffer_from_getpass, string)

```

to get the password string.

So this solves the 1st question.

However, now I am getting the following error:

```julia
ERROR: LoadError: HTTP.ExceptionRequest.StatusError(401, "GET", "/rest/api/2/search", HTTP.Messages.Response:
"""
HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
X-AREQUESTID: 1390x6515484x10
X-ANODEID: node2
X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Content-Security-Policy: frame-ancestors 'self'
X-ASEN: SEN-10264611
X-Seraph-LoginReason: AUTHENTICATED_FAILED
WWW-Authenticate: OAuth realm= **************
Content-Type: text/html;charset=UTF-8
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 2021 04:10:18 GMT

```

Equivalent script in python works without any issues.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dannofthursday](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dannofthursday/32/20596_2.png) [@dannofthursday](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dannofthursday)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 4:34am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/passing-password-from-base-getpass-base-winprompt-to-http-request/53579/3 "2021-01-19T04:34:40Z")

</div>

UPDATE:

From [here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47717932/julia-http-get-api-key-authorization), I found that I could do the following for the Basic Authorization.

```julia
using Base64

auth = Base64.base64encode(user * ":" * passwd)
r = HTTP.request("GET", baseurl * endpoint, ["Authorization" => "Basic $(auth)"], params_diction)

```

I get a 200 response!

So the [https://username:password@www.someurl.com](https://username:password@www.someurl.com) schema is not working.

But the response is wrong. I am supposed to get a single answer to my query. In the python requests module documentation we have:  
" You often want to send some sort of data in the URL’s query string. If you were constructing the URL by hand, this data would be given as key/value pairs in the URL after a question mark, e.g. `httpbin.org/get?key=val` . Requests allows you to provide these arguments as a dictionary of strings, using the `params` keyword argument. As an example, if you wanted to pass `key1=value1` and `key2=value2` to `httpbin.org/get` , you would use the following code:"

```julia
>>> payload = {'key1': 'value1', 'key2': 'value2'}
>>> r = requests.get('https://httpbin.org/get', params=payload)

```

What is the equivalent of params=payload in HTTP.jl?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dannofthursday](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dannofthursday/32/20596_2.png) [@dannofthursday](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dannofthursday)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 4:49am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/passing-password-from-base-getpass-base-winprompt-to-http-request/53579/5 "2021-01-19T04:49:51Z")

</div>

Per the (document)[[https://juliaweb.github.io/HTTP.jl/stable/public\_interface/#URIs](https://juliaweb.github.io/HTTP.jl/stable/public_interface/#URIs)]  
" Basic Authentication options

- Basic authentication is detected automatically from the provided url’s `userinfo` (in the form `scheme://user:password@host` ) and adds the `Authorization: Basic` header"

Would help if there was an example with this option.

Would like to know what I was doing wrong when I tried the [https://username:password@www.someurl.com](https://username:password@www.someurl.com) schema.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fredrikekre](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/fredrikekre/32/1688_2.png) [@fredrikekre](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/fredrikekre)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 8:19am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/passing-password-from-base-getpass-base-winprompt-to-http-request/53579/6 "2021-01-19T08:19:09Z")

</div>

Seems to work just fine:

```julia
julia> import HTTP, Base64

julia> @async HTTP.listen("0.0.0.0", 8123) do http
           auth_header = HTTP.header(http, "Authorization")
           user_pass = match(r"^Basic\s+(.*)$", auth_header)
           if user_pass === nothing
               HTTP.setstatus(http, 401)
               HTTP.startwrite(http)
           else
               user_pass = Base64.base64decode(user_pass[1])
               HTTP.setstatus(http, 200)
               HTTP.startwrite(http)
               HTTP.write(http, "Basic auth: ", user_pass)
           end
       end
Task (runnable) @0x00007f03b2bd79d0

julia> HTTP.get("http://user:password@localhost:8123")
HTTP.Messages.Response:
"""
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Transfer-Encoding: chunked

Basic auth: user:password"""

julia> HTTP.get("http://localhost:8123")
ERROR: HTTP.ExceptionRequest.StatusError(401, "GET", "/", HTTP.Messages.Response:
"""
HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
Transfer-Encoding: chunked

"""

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dannofthursday](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dannofthursday/32/20596_2.png) [@dannofthursday](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dannofthursday)\
**Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 3:14am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/passing-password-from-base-getpass-base-winprompt-to-http-request/53579/7 "2021-01-20T03:14:55Z")

</div>

@fredrikekre Thank you for the reply!

I expected for the header for basic auth to be set automatically, but according to documentation for the website whose REST APIs I am trying to use ([here](https://developer.atlassian.com/server/jira/platform/jira-rest-api-example-basic-authentication-6291732/)), I will have to set the header myself.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dannofthursday](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/dannofthursday/32/20596_2.png) [@dannofthursday](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dannofthursday)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2021, 1:36am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/passing-password-from-base-getpass-base-winprompt-to-http-request/53579/8 "2021-01-31T01:36:38Z")

</div>

FINAL UPDATE:

I believe, I have this figured out. The HTTP.jl documentation had the final answer for me. Here is what the final code looks like:

```julia
user = "username"
x = Base.getpass("Enter the password")
passwd = read(x, String)
auth = Base64.base64encode(user * ":" * passwd)

baseurl = "https://user:passwd@www.notawebsite.com/"
endpoint = "rest/endpoint"
params_diction = Dict("fields"=>fields)

r = HTTP.request("GET", baseurl * endpoint, ["Authorization" => "Basic $(auth)"], query = params_diction)
json_resp = JSON.parse(String(r.body))
println(json_resp)

```