title: ZooKeeper Digest Authentication - Secure Alternative?
body: <p>I would like to have services authenticate with ZooKeeper with some credentials, so that they can access configuration information.</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://zookeeper.apache.org/doc/trunk/zookeeperProgrammers.html#sc_ZooKeeperAccessControl" rel="nofollow">Digest authentication</a> is not secure enough for my requirements: "<em>Authentication is done by sending the username:password in clear text</em>".</p>
  
  <p>Is there a simple and secure alternative already available? I am able to use Curator, and the project is Java-based.</p>
  
  <p>If not, what steps would be involved in creating my own authentication method? Implement <code>AuthenticationProvider</code>, set <code>zookeeper.authProvider.1</code> on the servers to use this provider, and then pass whatever authentication token (perhaps a username/password hash) to the <code>CuratorFrameWorkFactory</code> builder as the <code>byte[]</code> parameter?</p>