What is base64 clear text username and password?

basic-authentication, http-authentication, passwords, windows

Solution

In HTTP Basic authentication, the "password:username" is encoded in Base64. Since it's not encrypted, it's cleartext.

Here is a sample Authorization header,

Authorization: Basic dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=

Where `dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=` is Base64-encoded `"username:password"` (literally).

Problem

Recently I came across this word in a basic authentication article. What it meant by base64 clear text usrname and password on the network? Thanks

Original source