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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-22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\u003eThis webpage provides documentation for various versions of the Security Center client library, ranging from version 2.11.0 up to the release candidate 2.37.0-rc.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe content details how to override the default authentication credentials used by the client libraries with specific options like \u003ccode\u003eUnifiedCredentialsOption\u003c/code\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe example code demonstrates how to load credentials from a service account key file to authenticate with Google Cloud Services, which may be needed instead of using Application Default Credentials.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThere are also links provided for client classes such as \u003ca href=\"/cpp/docs/reference/securitycenter/2.27.0/securitycenter_v1_1_1SecurityCenterClient-service-account-snippet\"\u003e\u003ccode\u003esecuritycenter_v1::SecurityCenterClient\u003c/code\u003e\u003c/a\u003e and \u003ca href=\"/cpp/docs/reference/securitycenter/2.27.0/securitycenter_v2_1_1SecurityCenterClient-service-account-snippet\"\u003e\u003ccode\u003esecuritycenter_v2::SecurityCenterClient\u003c/code\u003e\u003c/a\u003e to find related code examples.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe webpage advises consulting the "Best practices for managing service account keys" guide for detailed information and also references the "Authentication Components" section for more information on creating \u003ccode\u003eCredentials\u003c/code\u003e objects.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]
