Question

I am getting Unauthorized error when accessing restful web services. My sample program looks like this.

public static void main(String[] args){
        // Use apache commons-httpclient to create the request/response
        HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
        Credentials defaultcreds = new UsernamePasswordCredentials("aaa", "cdefg");
        client.getState().setCredentials(AuthScope.ANY, defaultcreds);


        GetMethod method = new GetMethod(
                "http://localhost:8080/userService/usersByID/1234");
        try {
            client.executeMethod(method);
            InputStream in = method.getResponseBodyAsStream();
            // Use dom4j to parse the response and print nicely to the output stream
            BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(in));
            StringBuilder out = new StringBuilder();
            String line;
            while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                out.append(line);
            }
            System.out.println(out.toString());
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } 
    }

My credentials are correct. My web services will consume Basic Http Authentication.

I have doubt at scope of authentication.

client.getState().setCredentials(AuthScope.ANY, defaultcreds);

My credentials are correct.

Can any one help to resolve this issue.

Thanks.

Answer 1

First check your url via browser and verify ?? as mentioned here

Fixing 401 errors – general

Each Web Server manages user authentication in its own way. A security officer (e.g. a Web Master) at the site typically decides which users are allowed to access the URL. This person then uses Web server software to set up those users and their passwords. So if you need to access the URL (or you forgot your user ID or password), only the security officer at that site can help you. Refer any security issues direct to them.

If you think that the URL Web page *should* be accessible to all and sundry on the Internet, then a 401 message indicates a deeper problem. The first thing you can do is check your URL via a Web browser. This browser should be running on a computer to which you have never previously identified yourself in any way, and you should avoid authentication (passwords etc.) that you have used previously. Ideally all this should be done over a completely different Internet connection to any you have used before (e.g. a different ISP dial-up connection). In short, you are trying to get the same behaviour a total stranger would get if they surfed the Internet to the Web page.

If this type of browser check indicates no authority problems, then it is possible that the Web server (or surrounding systems) have been configured to disallow certain patterns of HTTP traffic. In other words, HTTP communication from a well-known Web browser is allowed, but automated communication from other systems is rejected with an 401 error code. This is unusual, but may indicate a very defensive security policy around the Web server.

Manual Fix

Hit the url from the browser and record the HTTP traffic (Headers,body)

Run the Java client code and record the HTTP traffic (Headers,body)

Analyze and fix the differences