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python requests two-factor authentication

Narkw Brahma

Narkw Brahma

• 1 min read

Python Requests Two-Factor Authentication

If you are developing a Python application that communicates with a web service that requires two-factor authentication, you can use the requests library to make authenticated requests.

Method 1: Using OAuth2 for Two-Factor Authentication

One way to handle two-factor authentication with Python requests is to use OAuth2. OAuth2 allows you to authenticate with a web service using an access token. With two-factor authentication, the token is not enough, so you'll need to add a second factor to your authentication, such as a one-time password (OTP).

To use OAuth2 with Python requests, you'll need to install the requests-oauthlib library. Once you have this installed, you can use the OAuth2Session class to authenticate with the web service. Here's an example:


from requests_oauthlib import OAuth2Session
from oauthlib.oauth2 import BackendApplicationClient

client_id = 'your_client_id'
client_secret = 'your_client_secret'
scope = 'your_scope'
token_url = 'https://your_auth_server/token'

client = BackendApplicationClient(client_id=client_id)
oauth = OAuth2Session(client=client)
token = oauth.fetch_token(token_url=token_url, client_id=client_id, client_secret=client_secret, scope=scope)

In this example, we're using the BackendApplicationClient to authenticate with the token endpoint. We pass in our client ID and secret, as well as the scope we want to access. Once we have our token, we can use it to make authenticated requests.

Method 2: Using One-Time Passwords (OTP)

Another way to handle two-factor authentication with Python requests is to use one-time passwords (OTP). This is a common method used by many services to provide an extra layer of security beyond the standard username and password.

To use OTP with Python requests, you'll need to install the pyotp library. Once you have this installed, you can use the TOTP class to generate one-time passwords. Here's an example:


import requests
import pyotp

base_url = 'https://your_api_endpoint'
username = 'your_username'
password = 'your_password'
otp_secret = 'your_otp_secret'

# Generate OTP
totp = pyotp.TOTP(otp_secret)
otp = totp.now()

# Make authenticated request
auth = (username, password + otp)
response = requests.get(base_url, auth=auth)

print(response.content)

In this example, we're generating a one-time password using the TOTP class from pyotp. We then append the OTP to our password and pass this as our authentication for the request.

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