CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH(3)

NAME
CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH - HTTP server authentication methods to try

SYNOPSIS
#include <curl/curl.h>
CURLcode curl_easy_setopt(CURL *handle, CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH, long bitmask);

DESCRIPTION
Pass a long as parameter, which is set to a bitmask, to tell libcurl which authentication method(s) you want it to use speaking to the remote server. The available bits are listed below. If more than one bit is set, libcurl first queries the host to see which authentication methods it supports and then picks the best one you allow it to use. For some methods, this induces an extra network round-trip. Set the actual name and password with the CURLOPT_USERPWD(3) option or with the CURLOPT_USERNAME(3) and the CURLOPT_PASSWORD(3) options. Custom Authorization: headers set with CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER(3) may interfere with and cause unintended side-effects if combined with authentication set with CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH(3). For authentication with a proxy, see CURLOPT_PROXYAUTH(3).

CURLAUTH_BASIC
    HTTP Basic authentication. This is the default choice, and the only method that is in wide-spread use and supported virtually everywhere. This sends the username and password over the network in plain text, easily captured by others.

CURLAUTH_DIGEST
    HTTP Digest authentication. Digest authentication is defined in RFC 2617 and is a more secure way to do authentication over public networks than the regular old-fashioned Basic method.

CURLAUTH_DIGEST_IE
    The IE-specific Digest authentication behavior is no longer supported. This bit is kept for compatibility and is treated as CURLAUTH_DIGEST.

CURLAUTH_BEARER
    HTTP Bearer token authentication, used primarily in OAuth 2.0 protocol. You can set the Bearer token to use with CURLOPT_XOAUTH2_BEARER(3).

CURLAUTH_NEGOTIATE
    HTTP Negotiate (SPNEGO) authentication. Negotiate authentication is defined in RFC 4559 and is the most secure way to perform authentication over HTTP. You need to build libcurl with a suitable GSS-API library or SSPI on Windows for this to work.

CURLAUTH_NTLM
    HTTP NTLM authentication. A proprietary protocol invented and used by Microsoft. It uses a challenge-response and hash concept similar to Digest, to prevent the password from being eavesdropped. NTLM uses weak cryptographic algorithms and is not considered secure.

CURLAUTH_NTLM_WB
    Support for this is removed since libcurl 8.8.0. NTLM delegating to winbind helper. Authentication is performed by a separate binary application that is executed when needed. The name of the application is specified at compile time but is typically /usr/bin/ntlm_auth. Note that libcurl forks when necessary to run the winbind application and kill it when complete, calling waitpid() to await its exit when done. On POSIX operating systems, killing the process causes a SIGCHLD signal to be raised (regardless of whether CURLOPT_NOSIGNAL(3) is set), which must be handled intelligently by the application. In particular, the application must not unconditionally call wait() in its SIGCHLD signal handler to avoid being subject to a race condition. This behavior is subject to change in future versions of libcurl.

CURLAUTH_ANY
    This is a convenience macro that sets all bits and thus makes libcurl pick any it finds suitable. libcurl automatically selects the one it finds most secure.

CURLAUTH_ANYSAFE
    This is a convenience macro that sets all bits except Basic and thus makes libcurl pick any it finds suitable. libcurl automatically selects the one it finds most secure.

CURLAUTH_ONLY
    This is a meta symbol. OR this value together with a single specific auth value to force libcurl to probe for unrestricted auth and if not, only that single auth algorithm is acceptable.

CURLAUTH_AWS_SIGV4
    provides AWS V4 signature authentication on HTTPS header see CURLOPT_AWS_SIGV4(3).

CURLAUTH_HTTPSIG
    provides RFC 9421 HTTP Message Signatures on outgoing requests, see CURLOPT_HTTPSIG_ALGORITHM(3).

DEFAULT
CURLAUTH_BASIC

PROTOCOLS
This functionality affects http only

EXAMPLE
int main(void)
{
  CURL *curl = curl_easy_init();
  if(curl) {
    CURLcode result;
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_URL, "https://example.com/");
    /* allow whatever auth the server speaks */
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH, CURLAUTH_ANY);
    curl_easy_setopt(curl, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "james:bond");
    result = curl_easy_perform(curl);
  }
}

HISTORY
CURLAUTH_DIGEST_IE was added in 7.19.3 CURLAUTH_ONLY was added in 7.21.3 CURLAUTH_NTLM_WB was added in 7.22.0 CURLAUTH_* macros became long types in 7.26.0, prior to this version a long cast was necessary when passed to curl_easy_setopt(3). CURLAUTH_BEARER was added in 7.61.0 CURLAUTH_AWS_SIGV4 was added in 7.74.0 CURLAUTH_DIGEST_IE does nothing since 8.21.0 CURLAUTH_HTTPSIG was added in 8.22.0

AVAILABILITY
Added in curl 7.10.6

RETURN VALUE
curl_easy_setopt(3) returns a CURLcode indicating success or error. CURLE_OK (0) means everything was OK, non-zero means an error occurred, see libcurl-errors(3).

SEE ALSO
CURLOPT_PASSWORD(3), CURLOPT_PROXYAUTH(3), CURLOPT_USERNAME(3)