Client ID Request Signing

Important: The Google Maps Platform Premium Plan is no longer available for sign up or new customers.

Caution: This document is only provided as a reference for maintaining existing legacy applications that use client IDs. For new applications, always use API keys! See the Premium Plan Authentication Overview for further details.

Digital signatures

How digital signatures work

Digital signatures are generated using a URL signing secret, or cryptographic key, which is available on the Google Cloud console. This secret is essentially a private key, only shared between you and Google, and is unique to your client ID.

The signing process uses an encryption algorithm to combine the URL and your shared secret. The resulting unique signature allows our servers to verify that any site generating requests using your client ID is authorized to do so.

Signing your requests

Signing your requests comprises the following steps:

• Step 1: Get your URL signing secret
• Step 2: Construct an unsigned request
• Step 3: Generate the signed request

Step 1: Get your URL signing secret

Warning: Please keep your URL signing secret secure. Do not pass it in any requests, store it on any websites, or post it to any public forum. Anyone obtaining your URL signing secret could spoof requests using your identity.

Note: If you are unable to locate the project linked to your client ID, see Finding client ID project and Pausing your client ID.

To get your project URL signing secret:

1. Go to the Client ID page in the Cloud console.
2. The Key field contains your current Client ID URL signing secret.

If you need to regenerate your client ID URL signing secret, contact support.

Step 2: Construct your unsigned request

Warning: Requests containing both a client ID and an API key may result in unexpected API behavior or unintended billing behavior. To prevent this, make sure your requests use only one of these parameters.

Important: All Google services require UTF-8 character encoding (which implicitly includes ASCII). If your applications operate using non-ASCII character sets, make sure they construct URLs using UTF-8 and properly URL-encode them!

Characters not listed in the table below must be URL-encoded:

Set	characters	URL usage
Alphanumeric	a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9	Text strings, scheme usage (http), port (8080), etc.
Unreserved	- _ . ~	Text strings
Reserved	! * ' ( ) ; : @ & = + $ , / ? % # [ ]	Control characters and/or Text Strings

The same applies to any characters in the Reserved set, if they are passed inside a text string. For more info, see Special characters.

Construct your unsigned request URL without the signature.

Make sure to also include the client ID in the client parameter. For example:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?center=Z%C3%BCrich&size=400x400&client=YOUR_CLIENT_ID

Generate the signed request

For troubleshooting purposes, you can generate a digital signature automatically using the available Sign a URL now widget.

For dynamically generated requests, you need server-side signing, which requires a few additional intermediate steps

Either way, you should end up with a request URL that has a signature parameter appended to the end. For example:

https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?center=Z%C3%BCrich&size=400x400&client=YOUR_CLIENT_ID
&signature=BASE64_SIGNATURE

1. Strip off the protocol scheme and host portions of the URL, leaving only the path and the query:

/maps/api/staticmap?center=Z%C3%BCrich&size=400x400&client=YOUR_CLIENT_ID

2. The displayed URL signing secret is encoded in a modified Base64 for URLs.

   As most cryptographic libraries require the key to be in raw byte format, you will likely need to decode your URL signing secret into its original raw format before signing.

3. Sign the above stripped request using HMAC-SHA1.

4. As most cryptographic libraries generate a signature in raw byte format, you will need to convert the resulting binary signature using the modified Base64 for URLs to convert it into something that can be passed within the URL.

   Note: Modified Base64 for URLs replaces the + and / characters of standard Base64 with - and _ respectively, so that these Base64 no longer need to be URL-encoded.

5. Append the Base64-encoded signature to the original unsigned request URL in the signature parameter. For example:

   https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?center=Z%C3%BCrich&size=400x400&client=YOUR_CLIENT_ID
   &signature=BASE64_SIGNATURE

For samples showing ways to implement URL signing using server-side code, see Sample code for URL signing below.

Sample code for URL signing

The following sections show ways to implement URL signing using server-side code. URLs should always be signed server-side to avoid exposing your URL signing secret to users.

Python

The example below uses standard Python libraries to sign a URL. (Download the code.)

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
""" Signs a URL using a URL signing secret """

import hashlib
import hmac
import base64
import urllib.parse as urlparse


def sign_url(input_url=None, secret=None):
    """ Sign a request URL with a URL signing secret.
      Usage:
      from urlsigner import sign_url
      signed_url = sign_url(input_url=my_url, secret=SECRET)
      Args:
      input_url - The URL to sign
      secret    - Your URL signing secret
      Returns:
      The signed request URL
  """

    if not input_url or not secret:
        raise Exception("Both input_url and secret are required")

    url = urlparse.urlparse(input_url)

    # We only need to sign the path+query part of the string
    url_to_sign = url.path + "?" + url.query

    # Decode the private key into its binary format
    # We need to decode the URL-encoded private key
    decoded_key = base64.urlsafe_b64decode(secret)

    # Create a signature using the private key and the URL-encoded
    # string using HMAC SHA1. This signature will be binary.
    signature = hmac.new(decoded_key, str.encode(url_to_sign), hashlib.sha1)

    # Encode the binary signature into base64 for use within a URL
    encoded_signature = base64.urlsafe_b64encode(signature.digest())

    original_url = url.scheme + "://" + url.netloc + url.path + "?" + url.query

    # Return signed URL
    return original_url + "&signature=" + encoded_signature.decode()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    input_url = input("URL to Sign: ")
    secret = input("URL signing secret: ")
    print("Signed URL: " + sign_url(input_url, secret))

Java

The example below uses the java.util.Base64 class available since JDK 1.8 - older versions may need to use Apache Commons or similar. (Download the code.)

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
import java.net.URI;
import java.net.URISyntaxException;
import java.security.InvalidKeyException;
import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
import java.util.Base64;  // JDK 1.8 only - older versions may need to use Apache Commons or similar.
import javax.crypto.Mac;
import javax.crypto.spec.SecretKeySpec;
import java.net.URL;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;

public class UrlSigner {

  // Note: Generally, you should store your private key someplace safe
  // and read them into your code

  private static String keyString = "YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY";
  
  // The URL shown in these examples is a static URL which should already
  // be URL-encoded. In practice, you will likely have code
  // which assembles your URL from user or web service input
  // and plugs those values into its parameters.
  private static String urlString = "YOUR_URL_TO_SIGN";

  // This variable stores the binary key, which is computed from the string (Base64) key
  private static byte[] key;
  
  public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException,
    InvalidKeyException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, URISyntaxException {
    
    BufferedReader input = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
    
    String inputUrl, inputKey = null;

    // For testing purposes, allow user input for the URL.
    // If no input is entered, use the static URL defined above.    
    System.out.println("Enter the URL (must be URL-encoded) to sign: ");
    inputUrl = input.readLine();
    if (inputUrl.equals("")) {
      inputUrl = urlString;
    }
    
    // Convert the string to a URL so we can parse it
    URL url = new URL(inputUrl);
 
    // For testing purposes, allow user input for the private key.
    // If no input is entered, use the static key defined above.   
    System.out.println("Enter the Private key to sign the URL: ");
    inputKey = input.readLine();
    if (inputKey.equals("")) {
      inputKey = keyString;
    }
    
    UrlSigner signer = new UrlSigner(inputKey);
    String request = signer.signRequest(url.getPath(),url.getQuery());
    
    System.out.println("Signed URL :" + url.getProtocol() + "://" + url.getHost() + request);
  }
  
  public UrlSigner(String keyString) throws IOException {
    // Convert the key from 'web safe' base 64 to binary
    keyString = keyString.replace('-', '+');
    keyString = keyString.replace('_', '/');
    System.out.println("Key: " + keyString);
    // Base64 is JDK 1.8 only - older versions may need to use Apache Commons or similar.
    this.key = Base64.getDecoder().decode(keyString);
  }

  public String signRequest(String path, String query) throws NoSuchAlgorithmException,
    InvalidKeyException, UnsupportedEncodingException, URISyntaxException {
    
    // Retrieve the proper URL components to sign
    String resource = path + '?' + query;
    
    // Get an HMAC-SHA1 signing key from the raw key bytes
    SecretKeySpec sha1Key = new SecretKeySpec(key, "HmacSHA1");

    // Get an HMAC-SHA1 Mac instance and initialize it with the HMAC-SHA1 key
    Mac mac = Mac.getInstance("HmacSHA1");
    mac.init(sha1Key);

    // compute the binary signature for the request
    byte[] sigBytes = mac.doFinal(resource.getBytes());

    // base 64 encode the binary signature
    // Base64 is JDK 1.8 only - older versions may need to use Apache Commons or similar.
    String signature = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(sigBytes);
    
    // convert the signature to 'web safe' base 64
    signature = signature.replace('+', '-');
    signature = signature.replace('/', '_');
    
    return resource + "&signature=" + signature;
  }
}

Node JS

The example below uses native Node modules to sign a URL. (Download the code.)

'use strict'

const crypto = require('crypto');
const url = require('url');

/**
 * Convert from 'web safe' base64 to true base64.
 *
 * @param  {string} safeEncodedString The code you want to translate
 *                                    from a web safe form.
 * @return {string}
 */
function removeWebSafe(safeEncodedString) {
  return safeEncodedString.replace(/-/g, '+').replace(/_/g, '/');
}

/**
 * Convert from true base64 to 'web safe' base64
 *
 * @param  {string} encodedString The code you want to translate to a
 *                                web safe form.
 * @return {string}
 */
function makeWebSafe(encodedString) {
  return encodedString.replace(/\+/g, '-').replace(/\//g, '_');
}

/**
 * Takes a base64 code and decodes it.
 *
 * @param  {string} code The encoded data.
 * @return {string}
 */
function decodeBase64Hash(code) {
  // "new Buffer(...)" is deprecated. Use Buffer.from if it exists.
  return Buffer.from ? Buffer.from(code, 'base64') : new Buffer(code, 'base64');
}

/**
 * Takes a key and signs the data with it.
 *
 * @param  {string} key  Your unique secret key.
 * @param  {string} data The url to sign.
 * @return {string}
 */
function encodeBase64Hash(key, data) {
  return crypto.createHmac('sha1', key).update(data).digest('base64');
}

/**
 * Sign a URL using a secret key.
 *
 * @param  {string} path   The url you want to sign.
 * @param  {string} secret Your unique secret key.
 * @return {string}
 */
function sign(path, secret) {
  const uri = url.parse(path);
  const safeSecret = decodeBase64Hash(removeWebSafe(secret));
  const hashedSignature = makeWebSafe(encodeBase64Hash(safeSecret, uri.path));
  return url.format(uri) + '&signature=' + hashedSignature;
}

C#

The example below uses the default System.Security.Cryptography library to sign a URL request. Note that we need to convert the default Base64 encoding to implement a URL-safe version. (Download the code.)

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Text;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using System.Web;

namespace SignUrl {

  public struct GoogleSignedUrl {

    public static string Sign(string url, string keyString) {
      ASCIIEncoding encoding = new ASCIIEncoding();

      // converting key to bytes will throw an exception, need to replace '-' and '_' characters first.
      string usablePrivateKey = keyString.Replace("-", "+").Replace("_", "/");
      byte[] privateKeyBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(usablePrivateKey);

      Uri uri = new Uri(url);
      byte[] encodedPathAndQueryBytes = encoding.GetBytes(uri.LocalPath + uri.Query);

      // compute the hash
      HMACSHA1 algorithm = new HMACSHA1(privateKeyBytes);
      byte[] hash = algorithm.ComputeHash(encodedPathAndQueryBytes);

      // convert the bytes to string and make url-safe by replacing '+' and '/' characters
      string signature = Convert.ToBase64String(hash).Replace("+", "-").Replace("/", "_");
            
      // Add the signature to the existing URI.
      return uri.Scheme+"://"+uri.Host+uri.LocalPath + uri.Query +"&signature=" + signature;
    }
  }

  class Program {

    static void Main() {
    
      // Note: Generally, you should store your private key someplace safe
      // and read them into your code

      const string keyString = "YOUR_PRIVATE_KEY";
  
      // The URL shown in these examples is a static URL which should already
      // be URL-encoded. In practice, you will likely have code
      // which assembles your URL from user or web service input
      // and plugs those values into its parameters.
      const  string urlString = "YOUR_URL_TO_SIGN";
      
      string inputUrl = null;
      string inputKey = null;
    
      Console.WriteLine("Enter the URL (must be URL-encoded) to sign: ");
      inputUrl = Console.ReadLine();
      if (inputUrl.Length == 0) {
        inputUrl = urlString;
      }     
    
      Console.WriteLine("Enter the Private key to sign the URL: ");
      inputKey = Console.ReadLine();
      if (inputKey.Length == 0) {
        inputKey = keyString;
      }
      
      Console.WriteLine(GoogleSignedUrl.Sign(inputUrl,inputKey));
    }
  }
}

Examples in additional languages

Examples that cover more languages are available in the url-signing project.

Troubleshooting

Important: Verify that the used URL signing secret corresponds to your client ID.

If the request includes an invalid signature, the API returns an HTTP 403 (Forbidden) error. This error most likely occurs if the used signing secret isn't linked to the passed client ID, or if non-ASCII input isn't URL-encoded before signing.

To troubleshoot the issue, copy the request URL, strip the signature query parameter, and regenerate a valid signature following the instructions below:

To generate a digital signature with your client ID using the Sign a URL now widget below:

1. Fetch your client ID URL signing secret, as described in Step 1: Get your URL signing secret.
2. In the URL field, paste your unsigned request URL from Step 2: Construct your unsigned request.
3. In the URL Signing Secret field, paste your URL signing secret from Step 2.
   A digital signature is generated, based on your unsigned request URL and signing secret, and appended to your original URL.
4. The Your Signed URL field that appears will contain your digitally signed URL.