AI engineering glossary · Web APIs HTTP
What is basic authentication?
Basic authentication: A simple scheme in which the client sends a username and password joined by a colon and encoded in Base64 inside the Authorization header. Encoding is not encryption, so it is safe only over HTTPS.
Basic authentication: an example
Authorization: Basic dXNlcjpwYXNz decodes to user:pass.
Related terms
More Web APIs HTTP terms
- Bearer token
- Cache-Control
- Caching
- Circuit breaker
- Client credentials grant
- Client library
- Content-Type
- Cookie
Where you learn it
Basic authentication is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.