Amazon Simple Storage Service
Developer Guide (API Version 2006-03-01)
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Using Query String Authentication

Query string authentication is useful for giving HTTP or browser access to resources that would normally require authentication. The signature in the query string secures the request. Query string authentication requests require an expiration date. You can specify any future expiration time in epoch or UNIX time (number of seconds since January 1, 1970).

Using Query String Authentication

1Create a query.
2Specify an expiration time for the query.
3Sign it with your signature.
4Place the data in an HTTP request.
5Distribute the request to a user or embed the request in a web page


For example, a query URL is similar to the following example.

http://quotes.s3.amazonaws.com/nelson?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE&Expires=1177363698&Signature=vjSAMPLENmGa%2ByT272YEAiv4%3D

For information on how to sign requests, see Query String Request Authentication Alternative