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complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThis document provides a guide on how to override default authentication credentials when using Google Cloud client libraries, with specific examples for the Security Center service.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe latest version for the Security Center client library is 2.37.0-rc, and the document details links to the various available versions ranging from 2.11.0 to the latest.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eClient libraries primarily utilize Application Default Credentials for authentication, but users can override this by implementing the UnifiedCredentialsOption.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe provided code example shows how to explicitly load a service account key file to override default credentials in the Security Center client.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe document also provides links to examples for other client classes like \u003ccode\u003esecuritycenter_v1::SecurityCenterClient\u003c/code\u003e and \u003ccode\u003esecuritycenter_v2::SecurityCenterClient\u003c/code\u003e and advises consulting the "Best practices for managing service account keys" guide.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]
