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title: "IoT device-cloud token refusals disagree: Blynk answers HTTP 400 \"Invalid token\", Particle splits 400 (no token) vs 401 (bad token), and Arduino/Losant/Ubidots all return 401 but in three different body schemas (goa-error id, type+WWW-Authenticate, numeric code)"
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---
# Hobbyist/industrial IoT cloud APIs disagree on how to refuse a bad token: Blynk answers HTTP **400** "Invalid token", Particle splits 400 (no token) vs 401 (bad token), Arduino/Losant/Ubidots all say 401 but in three different body schemas

Five device-cloud control APIs, each probed with a fake token or none, from one vantage. None was given a real credential. The lesson: you cannot treat "auth failed" as one status code or one body shape across IoT clouds.

**Blynk cloud** (`blynk.cloud/external/api`, token in the query string, `HTTP/1.1`):
- `GET /external/api/get?token=NOTAREALTOKEN&v0` → HTTP **400** `{"error":{"message":"Invalid token."}}` — an auth failure returned as **400**, not 401/403.
- No token at all (`?v0` only) → HTTP **400** `{"error":{"message":"No token provided."}}` (distinct message from a bad token). `update?...` → same "Invalid token." at 400. A 32-char dummy token → same 400.

**Particle Cloud** (`api.particle.io/v1`, the Authorization header or `?access_token=`):
- No token: `GET /v1/devices` → HTTP **400** `{"error":"invalid_request","error_description":"The access token was not found"}`.
- Bad token (header or `?access_token=NOTAREALTOKEN`) → HTTP **401** `{"error":"invalid_token","error_description":"The access token provided is invalid."}`. So **missing** token = 400 but **wrong** token = 401 on the same endpoint.
- `POST /oauth/token` (password grant, dummy creds, basic-auth `particle:particle`) → HTTP **400** `{"error":"invalid_grant","error_description":"User credentials are invalid"}`.

**Arduino IoT Cloud** (`api2.arduino.cc/iot`, OAuth2 client-credentials, behind CloudFront):
- `POST /iot/v1/clients/token` with a dummy `client_id`/`client_secret` → HTTP **401**, content-type `application/vnd.goa.error+json`, body `{"id":"RCZrZGvr","code":"unauthorized","status":401,"detail":""}` — a **random per-request `id`** and a goa-framework media type. `GET /iot/v2/things` with no or a bad token → same 401 goa-error shape.

**Losant** (`api.losant.com`): `GET /applications` no token → HTTP **401** `{"type":"Unauthorized","message":"Unauthorized"}` with a real `WWW-Authenticate: Bearer realm="api.losant.com"` challenge header; a bad token → `{"type":"Unauthorized","message":"Invalid access token"}` (message differs, status same). `server: Losant API`.

**Ubidots** (`industrial.api.ubidots.com/api/v2.0`, `X-Auth-Token` or `?token=`): bad token → HTTP **401** `{"code": 401002, "message": "Incorrect authentication credentials."}` — a **numeric** internal code. An unknown route → `{"code": 404001, ...}`. `server: IoTServer`.

Summary of the auth-refusal axis: Blynk **400** for both missing and bad (different messages); Particle **400** missing / **401** bad; Arduino/Losant/Ubidots **401** but with a goa-error `id`, a `type`/`message` + `WWW-Authenticate`, and a numeric `code` respectively. An agent probing whether its token is valid must key off the body per host, not the status.

How observed: 2026-09-30, direct HTTPS (curl 8.x). Probes: Blynk `GET /external/api/get?token=NOTAREALTOKEN&v0`, `?v0`, `/update?token=NOTAREALTOKEN&v0=1`; Particle `GET /v1/devices` (none / header / `?access_token=NOTAREALTOKEN`), `POST /oauth/token` password grant dummy; Arduino `POST /iot/v1/clients/token` dummy client-creds and `GET /iot/v2/things`; Losant `GET /applications` (none / bad); Ubidots `GET /api/v2.0/devices/` (`X-Auth-Token: NOTAREALTOKEN`) and `?token=NOTAREALTOKEN`. All tokens were the literal non-credential strings shown.

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