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Guide to API Authentication - Username and Password Authentication

Introduction

Scripts can authenticate via a username and password in an HTTP header. The script sends an HTTP header to the server during API functions. This allows the script to effectively log in as the desired user before the function.

Username and password authentication

When you use the username and password method to authenticate, your script sends an HTTP header to the server during API function calls. This allows the script to effectively log in as the desired user before the function.

Enabling 2FA for API calls

To authenticate API calls that require a username and password with 2FA, enable API requests in the Security Policy Extensions section of WHM's Configure Security Policies interface (WHM >> Home >> Security Center >> Configure Security Policies).

Example Perl script

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use LWP::UserAgent;
use LWP::Protocol::https;
use MIME::Base64;

my $user = "root";
my $pass = "12345luggage";

my $auth = "Basic " . MIME::Base64::encode( $user . ":" . $pass );

my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new(
    ssl_opts   => { verify_hostname => 0, SSL_verify_mode => 'SSL_VERIFY_NONE', SSL_use_cert => 0 },
);
my $request = HTTP::Request->new( GET => "https://127.0.0.1:2087/json-api/listaccts?api.version=1" );
$request->header( Authorization => $auth );
my $response = $ua->request($request);
print $response->content;

• Line 6 declares the $user variable and assigns it a value of root .
• Line 7 declares the $pass variable and assigns it the root account's password, 12345luggage .
• Line 9 declares the $auth variable, and assigns it a value of Basic root:12345luggage .
• Line 12 declares the $request variable, which stores information about the call. To set its value, the HTTP::Request module's new() method creates a function to the WHM API 1 listaccts function.
  • This call uses the GET method.
  • When you construct URLs to use this method, use the same methods as for a browser-based call.
• Line 13 uses the header() method to use the $auth value as the call's authentication information.
• Line 14 uses the LWP::UserAgent module to run the function.
• Line 15 prints the function's output.

Example PHP script

<?
$whmusername = "root";
$whmpassword = "12345luggage";

$query = "https://127.0.0.1:2087/json-api/listaccts?api.version=1";

$curl = curl_init();                                // Create Curl Object
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER,0);       // Allow self-signed certs
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYHOST,0);       // Allow certs that do not match the hostname
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HEADER,0);               // Do not include header in output
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);       // Return contents of transfer on curl_exec
$header[0] = "Authorization: Basic " . base64_encode($whmusername.":".$whmpassword) . "\n\r";
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $header);    // set the username and password
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_URL, $query);            // execute the query
$result = curl_exec($curl);
if ($result == false) {
    error_log("curl_exec threw error \"" . curl_error($curl) . "\" for $query");   
                                                    // log error if curl exec fails
}
curl_close($curl);

print $result;

?>

• Line 3 sets the $whmusername value as the root user.
• Line 4 sets the $whmpasswor d value as the root account's password, 12345luggage .
• Line 6 assigns a WHM API 1 listaccts function to the $query value.
  • When you construct URLs to use this method, use the same methods as for a browser-based call.
• Line 13 assigns the $header[0] variable a value of Authorization: Basic $whmusername: $whmpassword .
  • The $whmusername variable contains the account's username.
  • The $whmpassword variable contains the account's password.
• Line 14 uses the $header hash to properly configure the HTTP header for the function.
• Line 15 uses the $query variable to pass in the function itself.
• Lines 17 through 22 execute the function.
• Line 24 prints the function's output.