This version is still in development and is not considered stable yet. For the latest stable version, please use Spring Security 6.4.0!

In-Memory Authentication

Spring Security’s InMemoryUserDetailsManager implements UserDetailsService to provide support for username/password based authentication that is stored in memory. InMemoryUserDetailsManager provides management of UserDetails by implementing the UserDetailsManager interface. UserDetails based authentication is used by Spring Security when it is configured to accept a username/password for authentication.

In this sample we use Spring Boot CLI to encode the password of password and get the encoded password of {bcrypt}$2a$10$GRLdNijSQMUvl/au9ofL.eDwmoohzzS7.rmNSJZ.0FxO/BTk76klW.

InMemoryUserDetailsManager Java Configuration

  • Java

  • XML

  • Kotlin

@Bean
public UserDetailsService users() {
	UserDetails user = User.builder()
		.username("user")
		.password("{bcrypt}$2a$10$GRLdNijSQMUvl/au9ofL.eDwmoohzzS7.rmNSJZ.0FxO/BTk76klW")
		.roles("USER")
		.build();
	UserDetails admin = User.builder()
		.username("admin")
		.password("{bcrypt}$2a$10$GRLdNijSQMUvl/au9ofL.eDwmoohzzS7.rmNSJZ.0FxO/BTk76klW")
		.roles("USER", "ADMIN")
		.build();
	return new InMemoryUserDetailsManager(user, admin);
}
<user-service>
	<user name="user"
		password="{bcrypt}$2a$10$GRLdNijSQMUvl/au9ofL.eDwmoohzzS7.rmNSJZ.0FxO/BTk76klW"
		authorities="ROLE_USER" />
	<user name="admin"
		password="{bcrypt}$2a$10$GRLdNijSQMUvl/au9ofL.eDwmoohzzS7.rmNSJZ.0FxO/BTk76klW"
		authorities="ROLE_USER,ROLE_ADMIN" />
</user-service>
@Bean
fun users(): UserDetailsService {
    val user = User.builder()
        .username("user")
        .password("{bcrypt}$2a$10\$GRLdNijSQMUvl/au9ofL.eDwmoohzzS7.rmNSJZ.0FxO/BTk76klW")
        .roles("USER")
        .build()
    val admin = User.builder()
        .username("admin")
        .password("{bcrypt}$2a$10\$GRLdNijSQMUvl/au9ofL.eDwmoohzzS7.rmNSJZ.0FxO/BTk76klW")
        .roles("USER", "ADMIN")
        .build()
    return InMemoryUserDetailsManager(user, admin)
}

The samples above store the passwords in a secure format, but leave a lot to be desired in terms of getting started experience.

In the sample below we leverage User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder to ensure that the password stored in memory is protected. However, it does not protect against obtaining the password by decompiling the source code. For this reason, User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder should only be used for "getting started" and is not intended for production.

InMemoryUserDetailsManager with User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder

  • Java

  • Kotlin

@Bean
public UserDetailsService users() {
	// The builder will ensure the passwords are encoded before saving in memory
	UserBuilder users = User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder();
	UserDetails user = users
		.username("user")
		.password("password")
		.roles("USER")
		.build();
	UserDetails admin = users
		.username("admin")
		.password("password")
		.roles("USER", "ADMIN")
		.build();
	return new InMemoryUserDetailsManager(user, admin);
}
@Bean
fun users(): UserDetailsService {
    // The builder will ensure the passwords are encoded before saving in memory
    val users = User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder()
    val user = users
        .username("user")
        .password("password")
        .roles("USER")
        .build()
    val admin = users
        .username("admin")
        .password("password")
        .roles("USER", "ADMIN")
        .build()
    return InMemoryUserDetailsManager(user, admin)
}

There is no simple way to use User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder with XML based configuration. For demos or just getting started, you can choose to prefix the password with {noop} to indicate no encoding should be used.

<user-service> {noop} XML Configuration
<user-service>
	<user name="user"
		password="{noop}password"
		authorities="ROLE_USER" />
	<user name="admin"
		password="{noop}password"
		authorities="ROLE_USER,ROLE_ADMIN" />
</user-service>