API Token authentication failing. What am I doing wrong?

[bmamlin]

I'm trying to use an API Token with Confluence Cloud and getting a 401 - Unauthorized error.

I created a scoped API token for Confluence, including all read scopes and the search scope. I'm trying to test this request:

curl -D- \
  -u <my-email>:<my-api-token> \
  -X GET \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  https://<my-domain>.atlassian.net/wiki/rest/api/space

I've triple-checked my API token and can see it listed as "Allowed" for my user in the Security > User API tokens admin screen. If I add a "-v" option to the curl command, I can see the authentication header and have verified the string following "Basic" exactly matches what I get with

echo -n <my-email>:my-api-token> | base64

It feels relatively straightforward, but I continue to get a "401 - Unauthorized" error with the text "The request has not been applied to the target resource because it lacks valid authentication credentials for that resource."

Our wiki is public and, if I remove the credentials, the REST call works properly. In fact, if I provide bogus credentials (e.g., "-u foo:bar") the request works. Why would adding username & API token fail as unauthorized?

We have a single identity provider using SAML SSO for our domain and I can see User API token access is allowed.

The fact that the very same REST call without credentials or with invalid credentials works and the request only fails as 401 Unauthorized when I use my API token suggests that I've got the correct credentials, but access is getting blocked by a missing scope or some policy I'm overlooking. I've included every single read + search scope for the API token and it sure looks like API tokens are enabled (the admin page literally tags the token as "allowed").

What am I doing wrong? I'm assuming it's something simple that's right in front of me that I'm missing. It wouldn't be the first time. :-)

[Oliver Siebenmarck _Polymetis Apps_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @bmamlin ,

So, you've created one of those new, scoped API tokens. These are a great addition from a security perspective, but unfortunately not very well documented. Which is why you're struggling here.

So far the un-scoped tokens used an endpoint like the one you tried, but the new scoped tokens need endpoints constructed like this:

https://api.atlassian.com/ex/confluence/{cloudid}/{api} 

That endpoint should be the only change you need to make this work.

Of course, you'll need to find out the cloudid of your instance, which you can do by simply putting this into curl/your browser:

 https://{your-domain}.atlassian.net/_edge/tenant_info

And that should be it! 

Best regards,
 Oliver

[bmamlin]

Thanks Oliver!

I got my cloudid by browsing to

https://{my-domain}.atlassian.net/_edge/tenant_info

That was easy! And then I used my scoped token with a Confluence URL like this:

curl -D- \
  -u <my-email>:<my-api-token> \
  -X GET \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  https://api.atlassian.com/ex/confluence/{cloudid}/rest/api/space

and it works!

[Jaime Escribano]

Hi @bmamlin this might be a dumb questions but does your user have the required permissions to do the API operation you are trying to achieve?

API token is only as powerful as the user it comes from 😊

Im not super familiar with curl but I've had success with Postman by using Basic Authentication and pasting as plain text the user and API token

Regards,

Jaime Escribano