Generating Oauth authorization token using base64 encoding

Question

I am trying to follow the guide to generate Oauth authentication tokens for YAHOO DSP API.

Base64 encoding is a way of encoding binary data into text so that it can be easily transmitted across a network without error.

In this step, you will take the client ID and client secret that the YDN console generated for you and encode them using the base64 protocol. You can use an online encoding service like base64encode.org.

No matter which service you use, ensure that no spaces are appended to the CLIENT_ID and CLIENT_SECRET keys and separate the CLIENT_ID and CLIENT_SECRET with a colon, i.e. CLIENT_ID:CLIENT_SECRET.

The generated value will now be referenced as ENCODED(CLIENT_ID:CLIENT_SECRET) in this guide.

An example is given:

CLIENT_ID = dj0yJmk9N2pIazlsZk1iTzIxJmQ9WVdrOWVEUmpVMFpWTXpRbWNHbzlNQS0tJnM9Y29uc3VtZXJzZWNyZXQmeD00NA–

CLIENT_SECRET= a7e13ea3740b933496d88755ff341bfb824805a6

AUTHORIZATION = ZGoweUptazlOMnBJYXpsc1prMWlUekl4Sm1ROVdWZHJPV1ZFVW1wVk1GcFdUWHBSYldOSGJ6bE5RUzB0Sm5NOVkyOXVjM1Z0WlhKelpXTnlaWFFtZUQwME5BLS06YTdlMTNlYTM3NDBiOTMzNDk2ZDg4NzU1ZmYzNDFiZmI4MjQ4MDVhNg==

Using the recommended website I get the wrong AUTHORIZATION.

I have tried both encoding the whole thing at once ie. encode(CLIENT_ID:CLIENT_SECRET), and each element individually encode(CLIENT_ID):encode(CLIENT_SECRET).

Attempt encoding whole thing: ZGoweUptazlOMnBJYXpsc1prMWlUekl4Sm1ROVdWZHJPV1ZFVW1wVk1GcFdUWHBSYldOSGJ6bE5RUzB0Sm5NOVkyOXVjM1Z0WlhKelpXTnlaWFFtZUQwME5B4oCTOiBhN2UxM2VhMzc0MGI5MzM0OTZkODg3NTVmZjM0MWJmYjgyNDgwNWE2

Attempt encoding each element: ZGoweUptazlOMnBJYXpsc1prMWlUekl4Sm1ROVdWZHJPV1ZFVW1wVk1GcFdUWHBSYldOSGJ6bE5RUzB0Sm5NOVkyOXVjM1Z0WlhKelpXTnlaWFFtZUQwME5B4oCT:YTdlMTNlYTM3NDBiOTMzNDk2ZDg4NzU1ZmYzNDFiZmI4MjQ4MDVhNg==

Expected result: ZGoweUptazlOMnBJYXpsc1prMWlUekl4Sm1ROVdWZHJPV1ZFVW1wVk1GcFdUWHBSYldOSGJ6bE5RUzB0Sm5NOVkyOXVjM1Z0WlhKelpXTnlaWFFtZUQwME5BLS06YTdlMTNlYTM3NDBiOTMzNDk2ZDg4NzU1ZmYzNDFiZmI4MjQ4MDVhNg==

The difference between 'each element' and the expected result is only a few characters corresponding to the end of client_ID and the colon. B4oCT: should be BLS06.

Links to full documentation: https://developer.yahoo.com/dsp/api/docs/authentication/tokens.html https://developer.yahoo.com/dsp/api/docs/traffic/info/sandbox.html

Update:

The final character of Client_ID is '–' . This is some sort of non-standard character that is interpreted as two dashes i.e.'--' in utf-8 and windows 1258.

Mayank Maria Mayank Maria · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-29T11:02:22

One different, TO NOTE is, that when you decrypt the expected output you will get your client id as

dj0yJmk9N2pIazlsZk1iTzIxJmQ9WVdrOWVEUmpVMFpWTXpRbWNHbzlNQS0tJnM9Y29uc3VtZXJzZWNyZXQmeD00NA--

instead of

dj0yJmk9N2pIazlsZk1iTzIxJmQ9WVdrOWVEUmpVMFpWTXpRbWNHbzlNQS0tJnM9Y29uc3VtZXJzZWNyZXQmeD00NA–

NOTE, there are two "-" at the end.

OAuth client auth token is always generated using Base64 encoding with following format

Base64_Encoding(CLIENT_ID:CLIENT_SECRET)

Most of the usage perform this Base64 encoding with encoding type as "UTF-8".

It looks like, Yahoo requires this token with different encoding. On "https://www.base64encode.org/" if you try to encode your "CLIENT_ID:CLIENT_SECRET" with "Windows-1254" as destination charset, you will receive the expected result. So, it looks like both encoding and decoding here is done keeping "Windows-1254" charset in place.

Generating Oauth authorization token using base64 encoding

1 Answers