I recently upgraded to Spring Security 6, and have found that authenticating using basic auth from JS or from curl no longer works but authenticating with basic auth using Java’s HttpClient does work. My goal is to be able to authenticate with all approaches.
The app uses Java 17, Spring Security 6, and Spring Session 3. It has a “login” endpoint which is just a convenience endpoint that is expected to be hit with basic auth and create a session, and it returns a User object. The session id should be used for subsequent requests to other endpoints.
The curl command is like so:
curl -kv --user admin:admin "https://localhost:9000/login"
VS the HttpClient is configured like so and calling HttpClient.get(loginUrl)
HttpClient.newBuilder()
.connectTimeout(Duration.ofSeconds(300))
.cookieHandler(new CookieManager())
.authenticator(new BasicAuthenticator(username, password))
.sslContext(createSsl())
.build();
public class BasicAuthenticator extends Authenticator {
private PasswordAuthentication authentication;
public BasicAuthenticator(String username, String password) {
authentication = new PasswordAuthentication(username, password.toCharArray());
}
@Override
public PasswordAuthentication getPasswordAuthentication() {
return authentication;
}
}
The security configuration is the block below… In upgrading to SpringSecurity 6 I added the requireExplicitSave() method, I have suspicions around this because my trouble is around saving sessions, but the added code is supposed to have spring security using the old functionality.
http .securityContext( securityContext -> securityContext.requireExplicitSave(false)) .authorizeHttpRequests((authz) -> authz .requestMatchers(openEndpoints).permitAll() .anyRequest().authenticated() ) .httpBasic() .and() .csrf() .disable() .exceptionHandling() .accessDeniedHandler((req, resp, e) -> e.printStackTrace() ) .and() .logout() .invalidateHttpSession(true) .clearAuthentication(true);
I turned on request logging, security logging, and SQL logging. The SQL is all the same, and the basic auth request is always authenticated for all scenarios. The headers are different, but I can’t see the headers for the HttpClient preflight call, and of the headers I do see, I don’t know why authentication or session creation would work for one set of headers but not the other.
The core of the problem seems to be that the login request from the HttpClient ends with a session being created and the request from curl does not. Note that the big difference in the server logs when using curl is “Failed to create a session, as response has been committed. Unable to store SecurityContext.” However even stepping through the spring security code I can’t tell what is causing the difference.
See logs here:
CURL
2022-12-14T16:38:07.594-05:00 DEBUG 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Securing GET /login 2022-12-14T16:38:07.597-05:00 DEBUG 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] s.s.w.c.SecurityContextPersistenceFilter : Set SecurityContextHolder to empty SecurityContext 2022-12-14T16:38:07.704-05:00 DEBUG 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] org.hibernate.SQL : select u1_0.id,u1_0.display_name,u1_0.email,u1_0.enabled,u1_0.password,u1_0.registration_time,r1_0.user_id,r1_0.role_id,u1_0.username from app_user u1_0 join user_role r1_0 on u1_0.id=r1_0.user_id where u1_0.username=? 2022-12-14T16:38:07.797-05:00 DEBUG 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] o.s.s.a.dao.DaoAuthenticationProvider : Authenticated user 2022-12-14T16:38:07.799-05:00 DEBUG 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] o.s.s.w.a.www.BasicAuthenticationFilter : Set SecurityContextHolder to UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken [Principal=org.springframework.security.core.userdetails.User [Username=admin, Password=[PROTECTED], Enabled=true, AccountNonExpired=true, credentialsNonExpired=true, AccountNonLocked=true, Granted Authorities=[ROLE_ADMIN, ROLE_USER]], Credentials=[PROTECTED], Authenticated=true, Details=WebAuthenticationDetails [RemoteIpAddress=127.0.0.1, SessionId=null], Granted Authorities=[ROLE_ADMIN, ROLE_USER]] 2022-12-14T16:38:07.801-05:00 DEBUG 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Secured GET /login 2022-12-14T16:38:07.805-05:00 DEBUG 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] o.s.w.f.CommonsRequestLoggingFilter : Before request [GET /login, headers=[host:"localhost:9000", authorization:"Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=", user-agent:"curl/7.84.0", accept:"*/*"]] 2022-12-14T16:38:07.816-05:00 DEBUG 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] horizationManagerBeforeMethodInterceptor : Authorizing method invocation ReflectiveMethodInvocation: public com.seebie.dto.User com.seebie.server.controller.UserController.login(java.security.Principal); target is of class [com.seebie.server.controller.UserController] 2022-12-14T16:38:07.822-05:00 DEBUG 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] horizationManagerBeforeMethodInterceptor : Authorized method invocation ReflectiveMethodInvocation: public com.seebie.dto.User com.seebie.server.controller.UserController.login(java.security.Principal); target is of class [com.seebie.server.controller.UserController] 2022-12-14T16:38:07.826-05:00 DEBUG 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] org.hibernate.SQL : select u1_0.id,u1_0.display_name,u1_0.email,u1_0.enabled,u1_0.password,u1_0.registration_time,u1_0.username from app_user u1_0 where u1_0.username=? 2022-12-14T16:38:07.832-05:00 DEBUG 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] org.hibernate.SQL : select r1_0.user_id,r1_0.role_id from user_role r1_0 where r1_0.user_id=? 2022-12-14T16:38:07.836-05:00 DEBUG 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] org.hibernate.SQL : select a1_0.user_id,a1_0.id,a1_0.city,a1_0.line1,a1_0.state,a1_0.zip from address a1_0 where a1_0.user_id=? 2022-12-14T16:38:07.840-05:00 DEBUG 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] org.hibernate.SQL : select s1_0.principal_name,s1_0.primary_id,s1_0.session_id from spring_session s1_0 where s1_0.principal_name=? 2022-12-14T16:38:07.871-05:00 DEBUG 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] o.s.w.f.CommonsRequestLoggingFilter : REQUEST DATA : GET /login, headers=[host:"localhost:9000", authorization:"Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=", user-agent:"curl/7.84.0", accept:"*/*"]] 2022-12-14T16:38:07.873-05:00 WARN 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] w.c.HttpSessionSecurityContextRepository : Failed to create a session, as response has been committed. Unable to store SecurityContext. 2022-12-14T16:38:07.873-05:00 DEBUG 92726 --- [nio-9000-exec-1] s.s.w.c.SecurityContextPersistenceFilter : Cleared SecurityContextHolder to complete request
HttpClient
2022-12-14T06:31:28.390-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Securing GET /login 2022-12-14T06:31:28.420-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] s.s.w.c.SecurityContextPersistenceFilter : Set SecurityContextHolder to empty SecurityContext 2022-12-14T06:31:28.913-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] org.hibernate.SQL : select u1_0.id,u1_0.display_name,u1_0.email,u1_0.enabled,u1_0.password,u1_0.registration_time,r1_0.user_id,r1_0.role_id,u1_0.username from app_user u1_0 join user_role r1_0 on u1_0.id=r1_0.user_id where u1_0.username=? 2022-12-14T06:31:29.102-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] o.s.s.a.dao.DaoAuthenticationProvider : Authenticated user 2022-12-14T06:31:29.103-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] o.s.s.w.a.www.BasicAuthenticationFilter : Set SecurityContextHolder to UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken [Principal=org.springframework.security.core.userdetails.User [Username=admin, Password=[PROTECTED], Enabled=true, AccountNonExpired=true, credentialsNonExpired=true, AccountNonLocked=true, Granted Authorities=[ROLE_ADMIN, ROLE_USER]], Credentials=[PROTECTED], Authenticated=true, Details=WebAuthenticationDetails [RemoteIpAddress=127.0.0.1, SessionId=19ab0971-5fb3-47fd-a4f9-cdde1ad24883], Granted Authorities=[ROLE_ADMIN, ROLE_USER]] 2022-12-14T06:31:29.108-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] o.s.security.web.FilterChainProxy : Secured GET /login 2022-12-14T06:31:29.136-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] o.s.w.f.CommonsRequestLoggingFilter : Before request [GET /login, headers=[authorization:"Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=", content-length:"0", host:"localhost:64723", user-agent:"Java-http-client/17.0.2", cookie:"SESSION=MTlhYjA5NzEtNWZiMy00N2ZkLWE0ZjktY2RkZTFhZDI0ODgz", Content-Type:"application/json;charset=UTF-8"]] 2022-12-14T06:31:29.274-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] horizationManagerBeforeMethodInterceptor : Authorizing method invocation ReflectiveMethodInvocation: public com.seebie.dto.User com.seebie.server.controller.UserController.login(java.security.Principal); target is of class [com.seebie.server.controller.UserController] 2022-12-14T06:31:29.332-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] horizationManagerBeforeMethodInterceptor : Authorized method invocation ReflectiveMethodInvocation: public com.seebie.dto.User com.seebie.server.controller.UserController.login(java.security.Principal); target is of class [com.seebie.server.controller.UserController] 2022-12-14T06:31:29.373-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] org.hibernate.SQL : select u1_0.id,u1_0.display_name,u1_0.email,u1_0.enabled,u1_0.password,u1_0.registration_time,u1_0.username from app_user u1_0 where u1_0.username=? 2022-12-14T06:31:29.392-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] org.hibernate.SQL : select r1_0.user_id,r1_0.role_id from user_role r1_0 where r1_0.user_id=? 2022-12-14T06:31:29.409-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] org.hibernate.SQL : select a1_0.user_id,a1_0.id,a1_0.city,a1_0.line1,a1_0.state,a1_0.zip from address a1_0 where a1_0.user_id=? 2022-12-14T06:31:29.413-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] org.hibernate.SQL : select s1_0.principal_name,s1_0.primary_id,s1_0.session_id from spring_session s1_0 where s1_0.principal_name=? 2022-12-14T06:31:29.678-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] o.s.w.f.CommonsRequestLoggingFilter : REQUEST DATA : GET /login, headers=[authorization:"Basic YWRtaW46YWRtaW4=", content-length:"0", host:"localhost:64723", user-agent:"Java-http-client/17.0.2", cookie:"SESSION=MTlhYjA5NzEtNWZiMy00N2ZkLWE0ZjktY2RkZTFhZDI0ODgz", Content-Type:"application/json;charset=UTF-8"]] 2022-12-14T06:31:29.680-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] w.c.HttpSessionSecurityContextRepository : Stored SecurityContextImpl [Authentication=UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken [Principal=org.springframework.security.core.userdetails.User [Username=admin, Password=[PROTECTED], Enabled=true, AccountNonExpired=true, credentialsNonExpired=true, AccountNonLocked=true, Granted Authorities=[ROLE_ADMIN, ROLE_USER]], Credentials=[PROTECTED], Authenticated=true, Details=WebAuthenticationDetails [RemoteIpAddress=127.0.0.1, SessionId=19ab0971-5fb3-47fd-a4f9-cdde1ad24883], Granted Authorities=[ROLE_ADMIN, ROLE_USER]]] to HttpSession [org.springframework.session.web.http.SessionRepositoryFilter$SessionRepositoryRequestWrapper$HttpSessionWrapper@7ba784f2] 2022-12-14T06:31:29.680-05:00 DEBUG 85610 --- [o-auto-1-exec-1] s.s.w.c.SecurityContextPersistenceFilter : Cleared SecurityContextHolder to complete request
Note the session in headers for the HttpClient call… I think HttpClient makes a preflight auth call that gets a 401 and then makes the “real” call with the credentials, at least that’s how it was in Java 11.
I think if I understood the difference in how these calls are being made/handled that causes one technique to work but not the other, I would be able to solve the problem. So that really is the question: What is the difference in spring security 6 (along with spring session) handling session creation when using Java 17’s HttpClient vs curl?
[UPDATE] to anyone who read this far: the behavior is actually expected behavior for Spring Security. A full discussion and explanation are in the spring security issue that I had opened here
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Answer
Well, if we are not going to investigate why preflight requests make sense (IMO, that seems to be a bug), the explanation of what has been changed in spring 6 is following:
as was mentioned in Session Management Migrations now Spring does not enable SecurityContextPersistenceFilter by default, however in Spring 5 SecurityContextPersistenceFilter was responsible for saving SecurityContext in http session (and hence creating it) unless that was explicitly disabled. Now in order to return previous behaviour you desire you need to setup SecurityContextRepository via:
http.securityContext(securityContext -> securityContext.
securityContextRepository(new HttpSessionSecurityContextRepository())
)