I’m trying to create an API server that has some endpoints that are accessible without authentication and some endpoints that requires authentication. I want to configure Spring Security to authenticate the user when possible, and still let the request through even when it cannot so that controller/service layer handle that.
Although I have some experience in Spring projects but new to configuring Spring Security, especially Spring Security 6 with Spring boot 3
I have my Spring Security configured like below:
// RestApiSecurityConfiguration.java
@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
@EnableMethodSecurity
public class RestApiSecurityConfiguration {
@Bean
public SecurityFilterChain signInSecurityFilterChain(HttpSecurity http,
DaoAuthenticationProvider daoAuthenticationProvider) throws Exception {
// This filter chain should be applied to all routes
http.securityMatcher("/**")
.authorizeHttpRequests(request -> request
// All requests should be authenticated either with Basic or Anonymous Authentication
.anyRequest().authenticated())
// Session is stateless
.sessionManagement(manager -> manager.sessionCreationPolicy(STATELESS))
// Disable csrf and cors
.csrf(AbstractHttpConfigurer::disable)
.cors(AbstractHttpConfigurer::disable)
// Enable BasicAuthenticationFilter with a custom DaoAuthenticationProvider
.httpBasic(Customizer.withDefaults())
.authenticationProvider(daoAuthenticationProvider)
// Add AnonymousAuthenticationFilter
.anonymous(Customizer.withDefaults());
return http.build();
}
Expectation
My expectation is:
- First try to authenticate the caller using BasicAuthenticationFilter
- If the BasicAuthenticationFilter fails to authenticate, still attach some anonymous authentication object with AnonymousAuthenticationFilter and let the controller/service decide what to do
Since I have not set any authorization rule yet, the app should work the same way with or without the credentials.
Actual
If I put credentials in the header, the app works as expected. But if I don’t put anything in the header the request fails with 401, before the request even reaches the controller.
2024-06-17T21:07:17.917-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Trying to match request against DefaultSecurityFilterChain [RequestMatcher=Or [Mvc [pattern='/**']], Filters=[org.springframework.security.web.session.DisableEncodeUrlFilter@2129fad8, org.springframework.security.web.context.request.async.WebAsyncManagerIntegrationFilter@1bfb6db7, org.springframework.security.web.context.SecurityContextHolderFilter@49863271, org.springframework.security.web.header.HeaderWriterFilter@3dc1e968, org.springframework.security.web.authentication.logout.LogoutFilter@7e4949ac, org.springframework.security.web.authentication.www.BasicAuthenticationFilter@1decdf51, org.springframework.security.web.savedrequest.RequestCacheAwareFilter@71008711, org.springframework.security.web.servletapi.SecurityContextHolderAwareRequestFilter@2c76559e, org.springframework.security.web.authentication.AnonymousAuthenticationFilter@4f6c6a90, org.springframework.security.web.session.SessionManagementFilter@47143ab9, org.springframework.security.web.access.ExceptionTranslationFilter@3612b539, org.springframework.security.web.access.intercept.AuthorizationFilter@2f113e31]] (1/1)
2024-06-17T21:07:17.918-07:00 DEBUG 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Securing GET /api/posts
2024-06-17T21:07:17.918-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Invoking DisableEncodeUrlFilter (1/12)
2024-06-17T21:07:17.918-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Invoking WebAsyncManagerIntegrationFilter (2/12)
2024-06-17T21:07:17.918-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Invoking SecurityContextHolderFilter (3/12)
2024-06-17T21:07:17.918-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Invoking HeaderWriterFilter (4/12)
2024-06-17T21:07:17.918-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Invoking LogoutFilter (5/12)
2024-06-17T21:07:17.918-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.s.w.a.logout.LogoutFilter : Did not match request to Or [Ant [pattern='/logout', GET], Ant [pattern='/logout', POST], Ant [pattern='/logout', PUT], Ant [pattern='/logout', DELETE]]
2024-06-17T21:07:17.918-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Invoking BasicAuthenticationFilter (6/12)
2024-06-17T21:07:17.918-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.s.w.a.www.BasicAuthenticationFilter : Did not process authentication request since failed to find username and password in Basic Authorization header
2024-06-17T21:07:17.918-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Invoking RequestCacheAwareFilter (7/12)
2024-06-17T21:07:17.918-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Invoking SecurityContextHolderAwareRequestFilter (8/12)
2024-06-17T21:07:17.918-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Invoking AnonymousAuthenticationFilter (9/12)
2024-06-17T21:07:17.918-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Invoking SessionManagementFilter (10/12)
2024-06-17T21:07:17.919-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] .s.s.w.c.SupplierDeferredSecurityContext : Created SecurityContextImpl [Null authentication]
2024-06-17T21:07:17.919-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.s.w.a.AnonymousAuthenticationFilter : Set SecurityContextHolder to AnonymousAuthenticationToken [Principal=anonymousUser, Credentials=[PROTECTED], Authenticated=true, Details=WebAuthenticationDetails [RemoteIpAddress=127.0.0.1, SessionId=null], Granted Authorities=[ROLE_ANONYMOUS]]
2024-06-17T21:07:17.919-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Invoking ExceptionTranslationFilter (11/12)
2024-06-17T21:07:17.919-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Invoking AuthorizationFilter (12/12)
2024-06-17T21:07:17.919-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] estMatcherDelegatingAuthorizationManager : Authorizing GET /api/posts
2024-06-17T21:07:17.919-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] estMatcherDelegatingAuthorizationManager : Checking authorization on GET /api/posts using org.springframework.security.authorization.AuthenticatedAuthorizationManager@21795633
2024-06-17T21:07:17.922-07:00 TRACE 19168 --- [spring-template] [nio-4000-exec-2] o.s.s.w.a.ExceptionTranslationFilter : Sending AnonymousAuthenticationToken [Principal=anonymousUser, Credentials=[PROTECTED], Authenticated=true, Details=WebAuthenticationDetails [RemoteIpAddress=127.0.0.1, SessionId=null], Granted Authorities=[ROLE_ANONYMOUS]] to authentication entry point since access is denied
org.springframework.security.access.AccessDeniedException: Access Denied
at org.springframework.security.web.access.intercept.AuthorizationFilter.doFilter(AuthorizationFilter.java:98) ~[spring-security-web-6.3.0.jar:6.3.0]
at org.springframework.security.web.ObservationFilterChainDecorator$ObservationFilter.wrapFilter(ObservationFilterChainDecorator.java:240) ~[spring-security-web-6.3.0.jar:6.3.0]
at org.springframework.security.web.ObservationFilterChainDecorator$ObservationFilter.doFilter(ObservationFilterChainDecorator.java:227) ~[spring-security-web-6.3.0.jar:6.3.0]
at org.springframework.security.web.ObservationFilterChainDecorator$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(ObservationFilterChainDecorator.java:137) ~[spring-security-web-6.3.0.jar:6.3.0]
at org.springframework.security.web.access.ExceptionTranslationFilter.doFilter(ExceptionTranslationFilter.java:126) ~[spring-security-web-6.3.0.jar:6.3.0]
at org.springframework.security.web.access.ExceptionTranslationFilter.doFilter(ExceptionTranslationFilter.java:120) ~[spring-security-web-6.3.0.jar:6.3.0]
The authorization filter is blocking the request, but I’m not sure why it is blocking when there isn’t any authorization rule in place.