JIRA and Confluence Cloud os_username and os_password embedded in URL no longer available

Summary

Previously it was possible to authenticate with JIRA and Confluence directly by entering a clear text username and password in the URL with the parameters os_username and os_password. For example the URL http://jira.atlassian.com/browse/TST-1?os_username=tester&os_password=tstpassword would attempt to authenticate with jira.atlassian.com with the username 'tester' and password 'tstpassowrd'. As passing a clear text username and password into JIRA and Confluence is a security risk Atlassian has made the decision to block this functionality in JIRA and Confluence Cloud.

Solution

Instead of using os_username or os_password to authenticate with JIRA Cloud it is now necessary to use alternative authentication methods:

• os_authType=basic can be added to the URL, JIRA or Confluence will then request that a username and password is provided.

• Basic authentication can be used. If many requests are made this may cause performance problems in JIRA and Confluence as every request will need to be authenticated.

• Cookie based authentication is recommended when many calls are made to prevent performance problems.