Can Reqwest handle HTTP authentication?

Yes, Reqwest, a popular HTTP client library in Rust, can handle HTTP authentication. It provides support for both basic and bearer authentication methods, which are common for securing HTTP requests.

Here's how you can use Reqwest to handle HTTP Basic Authentication:

use reqwest;
use std::error::Error;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn Error>> {
    let client = reqwest::Client::new();
    let res = client
        .get("https://example.com/protected-page")
        .basic_auth("username", Some("password"))
        .send()
        .await?;

    println!("Status: {}", res.status());
    println!("Headers:\n{:?}", res.headers());

    Ok(())
}

In this example, the basic_auth method is used to set the username and password for HTTP Basic Authentication. The Some("password") argument is used to specify the password; you can pass None if you only need to set the username.

For Bearer Authentication (often used with OAuth2), you can set the Authorization header directly, like this:

use reqwest;
use std::error::Error;

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn Error>> {
    let client = reqwest::Client::new();
    let res = client
        .get("https://example.com/protected-page")
        .bearer_auth("your_bearer_token_here")
        .send()
        .await?;

    println!("Status: {}", res.status());
    println!("Headers:\n{:?}", res.headers());

    Ok(())
}

In this case, the bearer_auth method is used to set the bearer token for the Authorization header.

Remember that in real-world applications, you should handle errors properly and avoid hardcoding credentials directly into your source code. Instead, consider using environment variables or a secure credentials storage solution. Additionally, be aware of the security implications of handling sensitive data such as passwords and tokens.