Cookbooks
PowerShell
Chapter 11. HTML and the Web
Sending an HTTP request with basic authentication

PowerShell:
Sending an HTTP request with basic authentication

How to:

Here’s how you ask a server nicely for data with a ‘please’ in the form of basic authentication:

# Prepping the credentials
$user = 'YourUsername'
$pass = 'YourPassword'
$pair = "$($user):$($pass)"
$encodedCreds = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes($pair))

# Setting up the headers
$headers = @{
    Authorization = "Basic $encodedCreds"
}

# The URL you're knocking on
$url = 'https://api.example.com/data'

# Now, let's make the call
$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -Method Get -Headers $headers

# Output the results
$response

Sample output might look like this, assuming the response is in JSON format:

{
    "name": "John Doe",
    "email": "[email protected]"
}

Deep Dive

Basic auth is old-school, tracing back to the early days of the internet where everyone knew everyone. While still used, it’s not super secure on its own - it’s like sending your secret club password on a postcard. Nowadays, we usually send it over HTTPS to encrypt it, which is like putting that postcard in a locked box.

Alternatives? Plenty. You’ve got API keys, OAuth, bearer tokens… the list goes on. Each comes with its own handshakes and secret words.

Implementation-wise, with PowerShell, you’re converting your username and password to a format that the HTTP protocol can understand – base64. But remember, base64 isn’t encryption; it’s just text toying with a disguise. Any snooper can reveal it unless it’s sent over HTTPS.

See Also

Sending an HTTP request