basic auth request

[Chris Angelico]

On Wed, Aug 18, 2021 at 3:04 AM Robin Becker <robin at reportlab.com> wrote:
>
> While porting an ap from python2.7 to python3 I see this
>
>         base64string = base64.b64encode('%s:%s' % (wsemail, wspassword))
>         request.add_header("Authorization", "Basic %s" % base64string)
>
> in python3.x I find this works
>
>         base64string = base64.b64encode(('%s:%s' % (wsemail, wspassword)).encode('ascii')).decode('ascii')
>         request.add_header("Authorization", "Basic %s" % base64string)
>
> but I find the conversion to and from ascii irksome. Is there a more direct way to create the basic auth value?
>
> As an additional issue I find I have no clear idea what encoding is allowed for the components of a basic auth input.

Hmm, I'm not sure what type your wsemail and wspassword are, but one
option would be to use bytes everywhere (assuming your text is all
ASCII).

wsemail = b"robin at becker.example"
wspassword = b"correct-battery-horse-staple"

base64string = base64.b64encode(b'%s:%s' % (wsemail, wspassword))

But otherwise, it's probably safest to keep using the encode and
decode. As to the appropriate encoding, that's unclear according to
the standard, but UTF-8 is probably acceptable. ASCII is also safe, as
it'll safely error out if it would be ambiguous.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7242316/what-encoding-should-i-use-for-http-basic-authentication

ChrisA