What Is Authentication?
Authentication is a process for identifying and verifying who is sending a request. The following table
shows a simplified version of an authentication process.
General Process of Authentication
The sender obtains the necessary credential.
1
The sender sends a request with the credential to the recipient.
2
The recipient uses the credential to verify the sender truly sent the request.
3
If yes, the recipient processes the request. If no, the recipient rejects the request and
responds accordingly.
4
During authentication, Product Advertising API verifies the identity of the sender.
For further discussion of authentication, go to the TechEncylopedia.com entry for
authentication
. For
definitions of common industry terms related to authentication, go to the
RSA Laboratories Glossary
.
The subsequent sections describe how the Product Advertising API implements authentication to protect
your data.
Your Product Advertising API Account
To access the Product Advertising API, you must first create an account at
http://aws.amazon.com
. An
AWS account is simply an Amazon.com account that is enabled to use AWS products; you can use an
existing Amazon.com account login and password when creating the AWS account.
Alternately, you could create a new AWS-enabled Amazon.com account by using a new Amazon.com
login and password. The e-mail address you provide as the account login must be valid. You'll be asked
to provide a credit card or other payment method to cover the charges for any AWS products you use.
From your AWS account you can view your AWS account activity, view usage reports, and manage your
AWS account access identifiers.
Your AWS Identifiers
When you create an AWS account, AWS assigns you a pair of related identifiers:
• Access Key ID (a 20-character, alphanumeric sequence)
For example: 022QF06E7MXBSH9DHM02
• Secret Access Key (a 40-character sequence)
For example: kWcrlUX5JEDGM/LtmEENI/aVmYvd9+ct
These are your AWS access key identifiers. If you don't remember your identifiers, you can view them at
any time. For more information, see
Viewing Your AWS Identifiers (p. 55)
.
Caution
Your Secret Access Key is a secret and only you and AWS should know it. It is important to keep
it confidential to protect your account. Never include it in your requests to AWS, and never e-mail
it to anyone. Do not share it outside your organization, even if an inquiry appears to come from
API Version 2011-08-01
54
Product Advertising API Developer Guide
Request Authentication
