Query string authentication is useful for giving HTTP or browser access to resources that would normally require authentication.

When using query string authentication, you create a query, specify an expiration time for the query, sign it with your signature, place the data in an HTTP request, and distribute the request to a user or embed the request in a web page.

Query string authentication requests require an expiration date. You can specify any future expiration time in epoch or UNIX time (number of seconds since January 1, 1970). For example, a query URL is similar to the following example.

http://quotes.s3.amazonaws.com/nelson?AWSAccessKeyId=44CF9590006BF252F707&Expires=1177363698&Signature=vjbyPxybdZaNmGa%2ByT272YEAiv4%3D