Unless otherwise configured, the client libraries use Application Default Credentials to authenticate with Google Cloud Services. While this works for most applications, in some cases you may need to override this default. You can do so by providing the UnifiedCredentialsOption The following example shows how to explicitly load a service account key file:
[](std::string const& keyfile) {
auto is = std::ifstream(keyfile);
is.exceptions(std::ios::badbit); // Minimal error handling in examples
auto contents = std::string(std::istreambuf_iterator<char>(is.rdbuf()), {});
auto options =
google::cloud::Options{}.set<google::cloud::UnifiedCredentialsOption>(
google::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials(contents));
return google::cloud::securitycentermanagement_v1::
SecurityCenterManagementClient(
google::cloud::securitycentermanagement_v1::
MakeSecurityCenterManagementConnection(options));
}
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-04-23 UTC."],[[["This page details how to override the default authentication credentials used by client libraries when interacting with Google Cloud Services."],["The default authentication method for client libraries utilizes Application Default Credentials, but you can override this if needed for a given application."],["Overriding the default authentication can be achieved by providing the `UnifiedCredentialsOption` with custom credentials."],["An example of overriding the credentials involves explicitly loading a service account key file using the `MakeServiceAccountCredentials` method."],["For detailed information on creating `google::cloud::Credentials` objects or additional information on service account keys, refer to the provided links for \"Authentication Components\" and \"Best practices for managing service account keys\"."]]],[]]