Authentication

Every request to maxmind-api-proxy must include a valid API key. The proxy uses a single shared secret configured in the api_key field of the config file.

---

How to authenticate

Include the API key in the API_KEY HTTP request header:

API_KEY: your-secret-key

curl

curl -H 'API_KEY: your-secret-key' https://yourproxy.example.com:8443/8.8.8.8

Python (requests)

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://yourproxy.example.com:8443/8.8.8.8",
    headers={"API_KEY": "your-secret-key"}
)
print(response.json())

Go

req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://yourproxy.example.com:8443/8.8.8.8", nil)
req.Header.Set("API_KEY", "your-secret-key")
resp, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

---

Authentication failure

If the API_KEY header is missing or the value does not match, the proxy returns:

HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized
Content-Type: application/json

{"error": "api authentication failed"}

The request is rejected immediately and does not reach MaxMind or Redis.

---

Choosing a strong API key

The api_key is a shared secret. Use a randomly generated value of at least 32 characters:

# Generate a suitable key
openssl rand -hex 32

Store the key only in the config file (protected with chmod 600) and in your clients' secret management system (e.g. Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, Kubernetes Secrets). Do not hard-code it in application source code.