You must sign all HTTP or HTTPS API requests to ensure security. Alibaba Cloud uses the request signature to verify the identity of a request sender. Alibaba Cloud Domains implements symmetric encryption with an AccessKey pair to verify the identity of a request sender. An AccessKey pair consists of an AccessKey ID and an AccessKey secret.
- An AccessKey pair serves as logon credentials that are used to call API operations, and the username and password are used to log on to the Elastic Compute Service (ECS) console. The AccessKey ID is used to verify the identity of the user, while the AccessKey secret is used to encrypt and verify the signature string. You must keep your AccessKey secret strictly confidential. For more information, see Obtain an AccessKey pair.
- ECS provides SDKs for multiple programming languages and third-party SDKs to facilitate complex signature calculation. For more information, download SDKs.
Step 1: Create a canonicalized query string
- Arrange the request parameters (including Common request parameters and operation-specific parameters except
Signature
) in alphabetical order.Note For example, if you make a request by using the GET method, these parameters are in the section of the URL followed by a question mark?
and connected by ampersands&
. - Encode the request parameters and parameter values in UTF-8 based on RFC 3986. The following rules apply in the encoding process:
- Uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and digits do not need to be encoded. Hyphens
(
-
), underscores (_
), periods (.
), and tildes (~
) do not need to be encoded. - Other characters must be percent encoded in the
%XY
format. In this format,XY
represents the ASCII code of the characters in hexadecimal notation. For example, double quotation marks ("
) are encoded as%22
. - Extended UTF-8 characters are encoded in the
%XY%ZA…
format. - Spaces are encoded as
%20
instead of plus signs (+
).The preceding encoding method is similar to but slightly different from the
application/x-www-form-urlencoded
MIME-type encoding algorithm.If you use
java.net.URLEncoder
in the Java standard library, usepercentEncode
to encode request parameters and their values. In the encoded query string, replace plus signs (+
) with%20
, asterisks (*
) with%2A
, and%7E
with tildes (~
). In this way, you can obtain an encoded string that matches the preceding encoding rules.private static final String ENCODING = "UTF-8"; private static String percentEncode(String value) throws UnsupportedEncodingException { return value != null ? URLEncoder.encode(value, ENCODING).replace("+", "%20").replace("*", "%2A").replace("%7E", "~") : null; }
- Uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and digits do not need to be encoded. Hyphens
(
- Connect the encoded parameters and their values with the equal signs (
=
). - Use an ampersand (
&
) to connect the encoded request parameters. These parameters must be sorted in the same order as those in Step 1.
Then, you obtain a canonicalized query string (CanonicalizedQueryString) that follows the request structure. For more information, see Request structure.
Step 2: Create a string-to-sign from the encoded canonicalized query string
- Create a variable
StringToSign
by using the canonicalized query string. You can use the aforementionedpercentEncode
to handle the standardization request string that was constructed by the previous steps, with the following rules:StringToSign= HTTPMethod + "&" + //HTTPMethod: HTTP method used for making request, for example GET. percentEncode("/") + "&" + //percentEncode("/"): Encode backslash (/) to %2F. percentEncode(CanonicalizedQueryString) //Encode the canonicalized query string created in the Step 1.
- Create a variable Signature by calculating the HMAC-SHA1 value of the
StringToSign
according to the RFC2104 rules. Here we use the Java Base64 encoding method.Signature = Base64( HMAC-SHA1( AccessSecret, UTF-8-Encoding-Of(StringToSign) ) )
Note RFC2104 when calculating signaturesAccessKeySecret
followed by the ampersand (&
), and the hexadecimal ASCII value of an ampersand is 38. - Encode the value of
Signature
according to the RFC3986 rules to the canonicalized query string URL.
Example 1: Concatenate parameters
Take calling DescribeRegions as an example. You have the AccessKeyID=testid and AccessKeySecret=testsecret created in the console.
- Create a canonicalized query string.
http://ecs.aliyuncs.com/?Timestamp=2016-02-23T12%3A46%3A24Z&Format=XML&AccessKeyId=testid&Action=DescribeRegions&SignatureMethod=HMAC-SHA1&SignatureNonce=3ee8c1b8-83d3-44af-a94f-4e0ad82fd6cf&Version=2014-05-26&SignatureVersion=1.0
- Create StringToSign.
GET&%2F&AccessKeyId%3Dtestid%26Action%3DDescribeRegions%26Format%3DXML%26SignatureMethod%3DHMAC-SHA1%26SignatureNonce%3D3ee8c1b8-83d3-44af-a94f-4e0ad82fd6cf%26SignatureVersion%3D1.0%26Timestamp%3D2016-02-23T12%253A46%253A24Z%26Version%3D2014-05-26
- Calculate the HMAC-SHA1 value. Because you have the AccessKeySecret=testsecret, the
Key used in the RFC2104 rules is
testsecret&
, and the HMAC-SHA1 value isOLeaidS1JvxuMvnyHOwuJ+uX5qY=
. Here we use the Java Base64 encoding method.Signature = Base64( HMAC-SHA1( AccessSecret, UTF-8-Encoding-Of(StringToSign) ) )
- Add the
Signature=OLeaidS1JvxuMvnyHOwuJ%2BuX5qY%3D
string that has been encoded by using RFC 3986 to the URL in Step 1.http://ecs.aliyuncs.com/?SignatureVersion=1.0&Action=DescribeRegions&Format=XML&SignatureNonce=3ee8c1b8-83d3-44af-a94f-4e0ad82fd6cf&Version=2014-05-26&AccessKeyId=testid&Signature=OLeaidS1JvxuMvnyHOwuJ%2BuX5qY%3D&SignatureMethod=HMAC-SHA1&Timestamp=2016-02-23T12%253A46%253A24Z
Example 2: Use the standard library of the programming language
In this example, the DescribeRegions operation is called. The following example shows the signature process when AccessKeyID
is set to testid and AccessKeySecret
is set to testsecret, and all request parameters are placed in a Java Map<String, String>
object:
- Predefine the encoding method.
private static final String ENCODING = "UTF-8"; private static String percentEncode(String value) throws UnsupportedEncodingException { return value != null ? URLEncoder.encode(value, ENCODING).replace("+", "%20").replace("*", "%2A").replace("%7E", "~") : null; }
- Predefine the time format for the
Timestamp
parameter. The value of theTimestamp
parameter must be specified in the ISO 8601 standard. The time must be in UTC.private static final String ISO8601_DATE_FORMAT = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'"; private static String formatIso8601Date(Date date) { SimpleDateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat(ISO8601_DATE_FORMAT); df.setTimeZone(new SimpleTimeZone(0, "GMT")); return df.format(date); }
- Create a query string.
final String HTTP_METHOD = "GET"; Map parameters = new HashMap(); // Specify request parameters. parameters.put("Action", "DescribeRegions"); parameters.put("Version", "2014-05-26"); parameters.put("AccessKeyId", "testid"); parameters.put("Timestamp", formatIso8601Date(new Date())); parameters.put("SignatureMethod", "HMAC-SHA1"); parameters.put("SignatureVersion", "1.0"); parameters.put("SignatureNonce", UUID.randomUUID().toString()); parameters.put("Format", "XML"); // Arrange request parameters. String[] sortedKeys = parameters.keySet().toArray(new String[]{}); Arrays.sort(sortedKeys); final String SEPARATOR = "&"; // Create a string-to-sign. StringBuilder stringToSign = new StringBuilder(); stringToSign.append(HTTP_METHOD).append(SEPARATOR); stringToSign.append(percentEncode("/")).append(SEPARATOR); StringBuilder canonicalizedQueryString = new StringBuilder(); for(String key : sortedKeys) { // Encode the key and the value. canonicalizedQueryString.append("&") .append(percentEncode(key)).append("=") .append(percentEncode(parameters.get(key))); } // Encode the canonicalized query string. stringToSign.append(percentEncode( canonicalizedQueryString.toString().substring(1)));
- Calculate the signature. If
AccessKeySecret
is set to testsecret, the key used for calculation istestsecret&
. The calculated signature isOLeaidS1JvxuMvnyHOwuJ%2BuX5qY%3D
.// The following code describes how to calculate the signature: final String ALGORITHM = "HmacSHA1"; final String ENCODING = "UTF-8"; key = "testsecret&"; Mac mac = Mac.getInstance(ALGORITHM); mac.init(new SecretKeySpec(key.getBytes(ENCODING), ALGORITHM)); byte[] signData = mac.doFinal(stringToSign.getBytes(ENCODING)); String signature = new String(Base64.encodeBase64(signData));
Encode the Signature parameter based on RFC 3986 and add the parameter to the URL. The following section shows the new URL:
http://ecs.aliyuncs.com/?SignatureVersion=1.0&Action=DescribeRegions&Format=XML&SignatureNonce=3ee8c1b8-83d3-44af-a94f-4e0ad82fd6cf&Version=2014-05-26&AccessKeyId=testid&Signature=OLeaidS1JvxuMvnyHOwuJ%2BuX5qY%3D&SignatureMethod=HMAC-SHA1&Timestamp=2016-02-23T12%253A46%253A24Z
- Send HTTP requests by using a browser or a tool such as cURL and Wget.
<DescribeRegionsResponse> <Regions> <Region> <LocalName>China (Qingdao)</LocalName> <RegionId>cn-qingdao</RegionId> </Region> <Region> <LocalName>China (Hangzhou)</LocalName> <RegionId>cn-hangzhou</RegionId> </Region> </Regions> <RequestId>833C6B2C-E309-45D4-A5C3-03A7A7A48ACF</RequestId> </DescribeRegionsResponse>
The response lists the regions and region IDs. If you set Format
to JSON when you submit a request, the response is returned in the JSON format instead
of the XML format. For more information, see Responses.