> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://motivlabs.gitbook.io/janus/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://motivlabs.gitbook.io/janus/plugins/basic.md).

# Basic

Add Basic Authentication to your APIs, with username and password protection. The plugin will check for valid credentials in the `Authorization` header.

## Configuration

The plain basic auth config:

```javascript
"basic_auth": {
    "enabled": true
}
```

Here is a simple definition of the available configurations.

| Configuration | Description                                          |
| ------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| name          | Name of the plugin to use, in this case: basic\_auth |
| enabled       | Is the plugin enabled?                               |

## Usage

In order to use the plugin, you first need to create some users first. By enabling this plugins in any endpoint There is a simple API that you can use to create new users.

## Create an User

You need to create an user that will be used to authenticate. To create an user you can execute the following request:

http -v POST <http://localhost:8081/credentials/basic_auth> "Authorization:Bearer yourToken" username=lanister password=pay-your-debt

curl -X POST <http://localhost:8081/credentials/basic_auth> -H 'authorization: Bearer yourToken' -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"username": "lanister", "password": "pay-your-debt"}'

| FORM PARAMETER | Description                                     |
| -------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| username       | The username to use in the Basic Authentication |
| password       | The password to use in the Basic Authentication |

## Using the Credential

The authorization header must be base64 encoded. For example, if the credential uses `lanister` as the username and `pay-your-debt` as the password, then the field's value is the base64-encoding of lanister:pay-your-debt, or bGFuaXN0ZXI6cGF5LXlvdXItZGVidA==.

Then the `Authorization` header must appear as:

Authorization: Basic bGFuaXN0ZXI6cGF5LXlvdXItZGVidA== Simply make a request with the header:

http -v <http://localhost:8080/example> "Authorization:Basic bGFuaXN0ZXI6cGF5LXlvdXItZGVidA=="

curl -v <http://localhost:8080/example> -H 'Authorization:Basic bGFuaXN0ZXI6cGF5LXlvdXItZGVidA=='