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));
}
Follow these links to find examples for other *Client classes:
[[["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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-22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 release candidate version is 2.37.0-rc, and this page contains links to documentation for versions ranging from 2.37.0-rc down to 2.11.0, detailing the override authentication feature.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eClient libraries generally use Application Default Credentials for authentication with Google Cloud Services, but this can be overridden when needed.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eOverriding the default authentication can be done by using the \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e to load a service account key file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eExamples for other \u003ccode\u003e*Client\u003c/code\u003e classes are available for both \u003ccode\u003esecuritycenter_v1::SecurityCenterClient\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003esecuritycenter_v2::SecurityCenterClient\u003c/code\u003e, demonstrating how to override the authentication credentials.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor best practices on managing service account keys and further information on \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects, refer to the provided links to external documentation.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]
