# Using Nexus with Maven -plain text password in settings.xml **URL:** \ **Category:** Best Practices\ **Tags:** maven, security\ **Created:** [April 15, 2021, 3:55pm UTC](https://community.sonatype.com/t/using-nexus-with-maven-plain-text-password-in-settings-xml/6332 "2021-04-15T15:55:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 1
**Author:** ![richm123](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@richm123](https://community.sonatype.com/u/richm123)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2021, 3:55pm UTC](https://community.sonatype.com/t/using-nexus-with-maven-plain-text-password-in-settings-xml/6332/1 "2021-04-15T15:55:10Z")
I am setting up Nexus 3.29 OSS to be used with Maven repositories. One of the first issue I see is with the plain-text nexus credentials being stored in Maven settings.xml. Maven supports API tokens instead of passwords, but I am not finding any way in Nexus to generate API token. I do see Nuget API key, but I believe that’s meant for Nuget repos. Came across an old article written 9 yrs ago on Nexus 2, which says that OSS version does not support generating API token while Pro does. Is that still true that Nexus 3 today does not support API token generation ? > **[How can I avoid clear text usernames and passwords in settings.xml?](https://support.sonatype.com/hc/en-us/articles/213465418-How-can-I-avoid-clear-text-usernames-and-passwords-in-settings-xml)** > > In order to access Nexus Professional from Maven or any other build tools for deployment, you need to supply your username and password credentials. With Maven these credentials are typically store... I can still encrypt the password using Maven encrypt password utility, but wanted to confirm if that is the only possible way to avoid plain-text passwords. Any best practices or recommendations around this ? --- _[View the full topic](https://community.sonatype.com/t/using-nexus-with-maven-plain-text-password-in-settings-xml/6332)._