apichallenges > solutions > post-secret-note-401-403

How to complete the Unauthorised POST secret note challenges

When unauthorized, the API Challenge API will return status codes of 401 and 403 and fail to amend the secret note.

POST Amend Secret Note Challenge

Most of the challenges simply require the correct payload, and an X-Challenger header to track the session. The authentication challenges require an extra header, the value for which can only be obtained with a username and password. This value is obtained when completing challenge post secret 201.

The X-CHALLENGER header authenticates you to access a specific set of secret notes, and the X-AUTH-TOKEN authorizes you to gain access.

• Authentication is "are you who you say you are" (X-CHALLENGER)
• Authorization is "do you have the right permissions" (X-AUTH-TOKEN)

Both Challenge 35 and 36 are so similar that we have covered them in one post.

Following on from challenge 35 were we successfully amended a post. Now we try to repeat the same requests but

• Challenge POST Amend no AUTH TOKEN - remove the X-AUTH-TOKEN header
• Challenge POST Amend Invalid AUTH TOKEN - the X-AUTH-TOKEN header has the wrong value

Challenge - POST Amend no AUTH TOKEN

Issue a POST request on the /secret/note end point with a note payload {"note":"my note"} and receive 401 when no X-AUTH-TOKEN present

• POST request means use the HTTP Verb POST
  • e.g. POST /secret/note sends to the secret note endpoint
• with a note payload include a JSON formatted object as the payload
• no X-AUTH-TOKEN present means do not inlude a custom header named X-AUTH-TOKEN
• add the X-CHALLENGER header to track progress and authenticate the request
• Receive a 401 response because the X-AUTH-TOKEN is missing.

Example Request

> POST /secret/note HTTP/1.1
> Host: apichallenges.herokuapp.com
> User-Agent: insomnia/2021.2.2
> X-CHALLENGER: x-challenger-guid
> Content-Type: application/json
> Accept: */*
> Content-Length: 23

| {
|   "note": "my note"
| }

Example Response

< HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
< Connection: close
< Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2021 12:53:51 GMT
< X-Challenger: x-challenger-guid
< Content-Type: application/json
< Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
< Access-Control-Allow-Headers: *
< Server: Jetty(9.4.z-SNAPSHOT)
< Via: 1.1 vegur

Challenge POST Amend Invalid AUTH TOKEN

Issue a POST request on the /secret/note end point with a note payload {"note":"my note"} and receive 403 when X-AUTH-TOKEN does not match a valid token

• same basic message as previous challenge but the X-AUTH-TOKEN header is included, but the value does not match the value returned from challenge /secret/token request.

Example Request

> POST /secret/note HTTP/1.1
> Host: apichallenges.herokuapp.com
> User-Agent: insomnia/2021.2.2
> X-CHALLENGER: x-challenger-guid
> X-AUTH-TOKEN: bob
> Content-Type: application/json
> Accept: */*
> Content-Length: 23

| {
|   "note": "my note"
| }

Example Response

< Connection: close
< Date: Sun, 25 Jul 2021 12:57:42 GMT
< X-Challenger: x-challenger-guid
< Content-Type: application/json
< Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
< Access-Control-Allow-Headers: *
< Server: Jetty(9.4.z-SNAPSHOT)
< Via: 1.1 vegur

Overview Video

Patreon ad free version