How to set-up APIM Backend Authorization credentials Basic Authentication headers

Question

I have an Azure API Management service for which I have defined a Backend.

The Backend is a SOAP API that supports Basic authentication.

I have secured the Username and Password of the user for the Basic authentication in a Key Vault resource.

I am able to successfully invoke the Backend API using Basic authentication if I set the <authentication-basic username="username" password="password" /> policy within the policies section of my API definition.

But instead of doing this, I would prefer to specify the Basic authentication credentials in the Backend definition itself.

However, I'm not able to make it work.

As shown in the above screenshot, I have referenced the Username and Password secrets in the Key Vault, but I'm not sure how to use them there.

Like, what value should the "Parameter" field assume for the Basic authentication to work?

I tried to put base64(Username:Password) in there, but the Backend API is not receiving any Authentication header.

Answer 1

Hi @Lorenzo Righini Greetings! Welcome to Microsoft Q&A forum. Thank you for posting this question here.

You would need to use the authentication-basic policy to authenticate with a backend service using Basic authentication. This policy effectively sets the HTTP Authorization header to the value corresponding to the credentials provided in the policy

Here is a sample policy you can add to the inbound section of the policies to add the authentication header.

<authentication-basic username="username" password="password" />

Please refer the document Set or edit Azure API Management policies to get more information on how to set p this policy.

Hope this helps! If you need any additional assistance, please let us know and we would be happy to help you.

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