Introduction

• HTTP Security
• Using HTTPS
• Using HTTP Authentication
• Understanding Base-64

    The HTTP protocol, as it was originally designed, is completely unencrypted. Everything transmitted by the HTTP protocol is transmitted in plain text. There is no way for a web server to be sure who is requesting data. Likewise, there is no way for a web browser to be sure what web server it is requesting data from. This presents a security risk because a third party could intercept packets that are being exchanged between your browser and the web server. If these packets are encrypted then it is less of a problem if they are intercepted.

    Several mechanisms were added to HTTP to create security. Many web sites make use of these secure mechanisms of HTTP. If your bot program is to access data on a site using the secure mechanisms of HTTP, you will need to know how to support them.

    There are two primary mechanisms that provide HTTP with security. These two mechanisms, which will be discussed in this chapter, are listed here:

• HTTPS
• HTTP Authentication

    This chapter will show you how to support both secure mechanisms of HTTP in your Java programs.