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::securitycenter_v1::SecurityCenterClient(
google::cloud::securitycenter_v1::MakeSecurityCenterConnection(
options));
}
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-22 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThe latest version available is 2.37.0-rc, with many older versions listed, starting from 2.36.0 down to 2.11.0.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eClient libraries primarily utilize Application Default Credentials for Google Cloud Services authentication, however, this can be overridden.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAuthentication can be overridden by using the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e and by providing a service account key file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe code example provided demonstrates how to explicitly load a service account key file for authentication, which is useful to know but it is also very important to consult the official guide for best practices.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eAdditional information on creating \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects can be found in the "Authentication Components" section.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]
