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Password Storage

Spring Security’s PasswordEncoder interface is used to perform a one way transformation of a password to allow the password to be stored securely. Given PasswordEncoder is a one way transformation, it is not intended when the password transformation needs to be two way (i.e. storing credentials used to authenticate to a database). Typically PasswordEncoder is used for storing a password that needs to be compared to a user provided password at the time of authentication.

Password Storage History

Throughout the years the standard mechanism for storing passwords has evolved. In the beginning passwords were stored in plain text. The passwords were assumed to be safe because the data store the passwords were saved in required credentials to access it. However, malicious users were able to find ways to get large "data dumps" of usernames and passwords using attacks like SQL Injection. As more and more user credentials became public security experts realized we needed to do more to protect users' passwords.

Developers were then encouraged to store passwords after running them through a one way hash such as SHA-256. When a user tried to authenticate, the hashed password would be compared to the hash of the password that they typed. This meant that the system only needed to store the one way hash of the password. If a breach occurred, then only the one way hashes of the passwords were exposed. Since the hashes were one way and it was computationally difficult to guess the passwords given the hash, it would not be worth the effort to figure out each password in the system. To defeat this new system malicious users decided to create lookup tables known as Rainbow Tables. Rather than doing the work of guessing each password every time, they computed the password once and stored it in a lookup table.

To mitigate the effectiveness of Rainbow Tables, developers were encouraged to use salted passwords. Instead of using just the password as input to the hash function, random bytes (known as salt) would be generated for every users' password. The salt and the user’s password would be ran through the hash function which produced a unique hash. The salt would be stored alongside the user’s password in clear text. Then when a user tried to authenticate, the hashed password would be compared to the hash of the stored salt and the password that they typed. The unique salt meant that Rainbow Tables were no longer effective because the hash was different for every salt and password combination.

In modern times we realize that cryptographic hashes (like SHA-256) are no longer secure. The reason is that with modern hardware we can perform billions of hash calculations a second. This means that we can crack each password individually with ease.

Developers are now encouraged to leverage adaptive one-way functions to store a password. Validation of passwords with adaptive one-way functions are intentionally resource (i.e. CPU, memory, etc) intensive. An adaptive one-way function allows configuring a "work factor" which can grow as hardware gets better. It is recommended that the "work factor" be tuned to take about 1 second to verify a password on your system. This trade off is to make it difficult for attackers to crack the password, but not so costly it puts excessive burden on your own system. Spring Security has attempted to provide a good starting point for the "work factor", but users are encouraged to customize the "work factor" for their own system since the performance will vary drastically from system to system. Examples of adaptive one-way functions that should be used include bcrypt, PBKDF2, scrypt, and argon2.

Because adaptive one-way functions are intentionally resource intensive, validating a username and password for every request will degrade performance of an application significantly. There is nothing Spring Security (or any other library) can do to speed up the validation of the password since security is gained by making the validation resource intensive. Users are encouraged to exchange the long term credentials (i.e. username and password) for a short term credential (i.e. session, OAuth Token, etc). The short term credential can be validated quickly without any loss in security.

DelegatingPasswordEncoder

Prior to Spring Security 5.0 the default PasswordEncoder was NoOpPasswordEncoder which required plain text passwords. Based upon the Password History section you might expect that the default PasswordEncoder is now something like BCryptPasswordEncoder. However, this ignores three real world problems:

  • There are many applications using old password encodings that cannot easily migrate

  • The best practice for password storage will change again

  • As a framework Spring Security cannot make breaking changes frequently

Instead Spring Security introduces DelegatingPasswordEncoder which solves all of the problems by:

  • Ensuring that passwords are encoded using the current password storage recommendations

  • Allowing for validating passwords in modern and legacy formats

  • Allowing for upgrading the encoding in the future

You can easily construct an instance of DelegatingPasswordEncoder using PasswordEncoderFactories.

Create Default DelegatingPasswordEncoder

  • Java

  • Kotlin

PasswordEncoder passwordEncoder =
    PasswordEncoderFactories.createDelegatingPasswordEncoder();
val passwordEncoder: PasswordEncoder = PasswordEncoderFactories.createDelegatingPasswordEncoder()

Alternatively, you may create your own custom instance. For example:

Create Custom DelegatingPasswordEncoder

  • Java

  • Kotlin

String idForEncode = "bcrypt";
Map encoders = new HashMap<>();
encoders.put(idForEncode, new BCryptPasswordEncoder());
encoders.put("noop", NoOpPasswordEncoder.getInstance());
encoders.put("pbkdf2", new Pbkdf2PasswordEncoder());
encoders.put("scrypt", new SCryptPasswordEncoder());
encoders.put("sha256", new StandardPasswordEncoder());

PasswordEncoder passwordEncoder =
    new DelegatingPasswordEncoder(idForEncode, encoders);
val idForEncode = "bcrypt"
val encoders: MutableMap<String, PasswordEncoder> = mutableMapOf()
encoders[idForEncode] = BCryptPasswordEncoder()
encoders["noop"] = NoOpPasswordEncoder.getInstance()
encoders["pbkdf2"] = Pbkdf2PasswordEncoder()
encoders["scrypt"] = SCryptPasswordEncoder()
encoders["sha256"] = StandardPasswordEncoder()

val passwordEncoder: PasswordEncoder = DelegatingPasswordEncoder(idForEncode, encoders)

Password Storage Format

The general format for a password is:

DelegatingPasswordEncoder Storage Format
{id}encodedPassword

Such that id is an identifier used to look up which PasswordEncoder should be used and encodedPassword is the original encoded password for the selected PasswordEncoder. The id must be at the beginning of the password, start with { and end with }. If the id cannot be found, the id will be null. For example, the following might be a list of passwords encoded using different id. All of the original passwords are "password".

DelegatingPasswordEncoder Encoded Passwords Example
{bcrypt}$2a$10$dXJ3SW6G7P50lGmMkkmwe.20cQQubK3.HZWzG3YB1tlRy.fqvM/BG (1)
{noop}password (2)
{pbkdf2}5d923b44a6d129f3ddf3e3c8d29412723dcbde72445e8ef6bf3b508fbf17fa4ed4d6b99ca763d8dc (3)
{scrypt}$e0801$8bWJaSu2IKSn9Z9kM+TPXfOc/9bdYSrN1oD9qfVThWEwdRTnO7re7Ei+fUZRJ68k9lTyuTeUp4of4g24hHnazw==$OAOec05+bXxvuu/1qZ6NUR+xQYvYv7BeL1QxwRpY5Pc=  (4)
{sha256}97cde38028ad898ebc02e690819fa220e88c62e0699403e94fff291cfffaf8410849f27605abcbc0 (5)
1 The first password would have a PasswordEncoder id of bcrypt and encodedPassword of $2a$10$dXJ3SW6G7P50lGmMkkmwe.20cQQubK3.HZWzG3YB1tlRy.fqvM/BG. When matching it would delegate to BCryptPasswordEncoder
2 The second password would have a PasswordEncoder id of noop and encodedPassword of password. When matching it would delegate to NoOpPasswordEncoder
3 The third password would have a PasswordEncoder id of pbkdf2 and encodedPassword of 5d923b44a6d129f3ddf3e3c8d29412723dcbde72445e8ef6bf3b508fbf17fa4ed4d6b99ca763d8dc. When matching it would delegate to Pbkdf2PasswordEncoder
4 The fourth password would have a PasswordEncoder id of scrypt and encodedPassword of $e0801$8bWJaSu2IKSn9Z9kM+TPXfOc/9bdYSrN1oD9qfVThWEwdRTnO7re7Ei+fUZRJ68k9lTyuTeUp4of4g24hHnazw==$OAOec05+bXxvuu/1qZ6NUR+xQYvYv7BeL1QxwRpY5Pc= When matching it would delegate to SCryptPasswordEncoder
5 The final password would have a PasswordEncoder id of sha256 and encodedPassword of 97cde38028ad898ebc02e690819fa220e88c62e0699403e94fff291cfffaf8410849f27605abcbc0. When matching it would delegate to StandardPasswordEncoder

Some users might be concerned that the storage format is provided for a potential hacker. This is not a concern because the storage of the password does not rely on the algorithm being a secret. Additionally, most formats are easy for an attacker to figure out without the prefix. For example, BCrypt passwords often start with $2a$.

Password Encoding

The idForEncode passed into the constructor determines which PasswordEncoder will be used for encoding passwords. In the DelegatingPasswordEncoder we constructed above, that means that the result of encoding password would be delegated to BCryptPasswordEncoder and be prefixed with {bcrypt}. The end result would look like:

DelegatingPasswordEncoder Encode Example
{bcrypt}$2a$10$dXJ3SW6G7P50lGmMkkmwe.20cQQubK3.HZWzG3YB1tlRy.fqvM/BG

Password Matching

Matching is done based upon the {id} and the mapping of the id to the PasswordEncoder provided in the constructor. Our example in Password Storage Format provides a working example of how this is done. By default, the result of invoking matches(CharSequence, String) with a password and an id that is not mapped (including a null id) will result in an IllegalArgumentException. This behavior can be customized using DelegatingPasswordEncoder.setDefaultPasswordEncoderForMatches(PasswordEncoder).

By using the id we can match on any password encoding, but encode passwords using the most modern password encoding. This is important, because unlike encryption, password hashes are designed so that there is no simple way to recover the plaintext. Since there is no way to recover the plaintext, it makes it difficult to migrate the passwords. While it is simple for users to migrate NoOpPasswordEncoder, we chose to include it by default to make it simple for the getting started experience.

Getting Started Experience

If you are putting together a demo or a sample, it is a bit cumbersome to take time to hash the passwords of your users. There are convenience mechanisms to make this easier, but this is still not intended for production.

withDefaultPasswordEncoder Example

  • Java

  • Kotlin

User user = User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder()
  .username("user")
  .password("password")
  .roles("user")
  .build();
System.out.println(user.getPassword());
// {bcrypt}$2a$10$dXJ3SW6G7P50lGmMkkmwe.20cQQubK3.HZWzG3YB1tlRy.fqvM/BG
val user = User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder()
    .username("user")
    .password("password")
    .roles("user")
    .build()
println(user.password)
// {bcrypt}$2a$10$dXJ3SW6G7P50lGmMkkmwe.20cQQubK3.HZWzG3YB1tlRy.fqvM/BG

If you are creating multiple users, you can also reuse the builder.

withDefaultPasswordEncoder Reusing the Builder

  • Java

  • Kotlin

UserBuilder users = User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder();
User user = users
  .username("user")
  .password("password")
  .roles("USER")
  .build();
User admin = users
  .username("admin")
  .password("password")
  .roles("USER","ADMIN")
  .build();
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()

This does hash the password that is stored, but the passwords are still exposed in memory and in the compiled source code. Therefore, it is still not considered secure for a production environment. For production, you should hash your passwords externally.

Encode with Spring Boot CLI

The easiest way to properly encode your password is to use the Spring Boot CLI.

For example, the following will encode the password of password for use with DelegatingPasswordEncoder:

Spring Boot CLI encodepassword Example
spring encodepassword password
{bcrypt}$2a$10$X5wFBtLrL/kHcmrOGGTrGufsBX8CJ0WpQpF3pgeuxBB/H73BK1DW6

Troubleshooting

The following error occurs when one of the passwords that are stored has no id as described in Password Storage Format.

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: There is no PasswordEncoder mapped for the id "null"
	at org.springframework.security.crypto.password.DelegatingPasswordEncoder$UnmappedIdPasswordEncoder.matches(DelegatingPasswordEncoder.java:233)
	at org.springframework.security.crypto.password.DelegatingPasswordEncoder.matches(DelegatingPasswordEncoder.java:196)

The easiest way to resolve the error is to switch to explicitly providing the PasswordEncoder that your passwords are encoded with. The easiest way to resolve it is to figure out how your passwords are currently being stored and explicitly provide the correct PasswordEncoder.

If you are migrating from Spring Security 4.2.x you can revert to the previous behavior by exposing a NoOpPasswordEncoder bean.

Alternatively, you can prefix all of your passwords with the correct id and continue to use DelegatingPasswordEncoder. For example, if you are using BCrypt, you would migrate your password from something like:

$2a$10$dXJ3SW6G7P50lGmMkkmwe.20cQQubK3.HZWzG3YB1tlRy.fqvM/BG

to

{bcrypt}$2a$10$dXJ3SW6G7P50lGmMkkmwe.20cQQubK3.HZWzG3YB1tlRy.fqvM/BG

For a complete listing of the mappings refer to the Javadoc on PasswordEncoderFactories.

BCryptPasswordEncoder

The BCryptPasswordEncoder implementation uses the widely supported bcrypt algorithm to hash the passwords. In order to make it more resistent to password cracking, bcrypt is deliberately slow. Like other adaptive one-way functions, it should be tuned to take about 1 second to verify a password on your system. The default implementation of BCryptPasswordEncoder uses strength 10 as mentioned in the Javadoc of BCryptPasswordEncoder. You are encouraged to tune and test the strength parameter on your own system so that it takes roughly 1 second to verify a password.

BCryptPasswordEncoder

  • Java

  • Kotlin

// Create an encoder with strength 16
BCryptPasswordEncoder encoder = new BCryptPasswordEncoder(16);
String result = encoder.encode("myPassword");
assertTrue(encoder.matches("myPassword", result));
// Create an encoder with strength 16
val encoder = BCryptPasswordEncoder(16)
val result: String = encoder.encode("myPassword")
assertTrue(encoder.matches("myPassword", result))

Argon2PasswordEncoder

The Argon2PasswordEncoder implementation uses the Argon2 algorithm to hash the passwords. Argon2 is the winner of the Password Hashing Competition. In order to defeat password cracking on custom hardware, Argon2 is a deliberately slow algorithm that requires large amounts of memory. Like other adaptive one-way functions, it should be tuned to take about 1 second to verify a password on your system. The current implementation of the Argon2PasswordEncoder requires BouncyCastle.

Argon2PasswordEncoder

  • Java

  • Kotlin

// Create an encoder with all the defaults
Argon2PasswordEncoder encoder = new Argon2PasswordEncoder();
String result = encoder.encode("myPassword");
assertTrue(encoder.matches("myPassword", result));
// Create an encoder with all the defaults
val encoder = Argon2PasswordEncoder()
val result: String = encoder.encode("myPassword")
assertTrue(encoder.matches("myPassword", result))

Pbkdf2PasswordEncoder

The Pbkdf2PasswordEncoder implementation uses the PBKDF2 algorithm to hash the passwords. In order to defeat password cracking PBKDF2 is a deliberately slow algorithm. Like other adaptive one-way functions, it should be tuned to take about 1 second to verify a password on your system. This algorithm is a good choice when FIPS certification is required.

Pbkdf2PasswordEncoder

  • Java

  • Kotlin

// Create an encoder with all the defaults
Pbkdf2PasswordEncoder encoder = new Pbkdf2PasswordEncoder();
String result = encoder.encode("myPassword");
assertTrue(encoder.matches("myPassword", result));
// Create an encoder with all the defaults
val encoder = Pbkdf2PasswordEncoder()
val result: String = encoder.encode("myPassword")
assertTrue(encoder.matches("myPassword", result))

SCryptPasswordEncoder

The SCryptPasswordEncoder implementation uses scrypt algorithm to hash the passwords. In order to defeat password cracking on custom hardware scrypt is a deliberately slow algorithm that requires large amounts of memory. Like other adaptive one-way functions, it should be tuned to take about 1 second to verify a password on your system.

SCryptPasswordEncoder

  • Java

  • Kotlin

// Create an encoder with all the defaults
SCryptPasswordEncoder encoder = new SCryptPasswordEncoder();
String result = encoder.encode("myPassword");
assertTrue(encoder.matches("myPassword", result));
// Create an encoder with all the defaults
val encoder = SCryptPasswordEncoder()
val result: String = encoder.encode("myPassword")
assertTrue(encoder.matches("myPassword", result))

Other PasswordEncoders

There are a significant number of other PasswordEncoder implementations that exist entirely for backward compatibility. They are all deprecated to indicate that they are no longer considered secure. However, there are no plans to remove them since it is difficult to migrate existing legacy systems.

Password Storage Configuration

Spring Security uses DelegatingPasswordEncoder by default. However, this can be customized by exposing a PasswordEncoder as a Spring bean.

If you are migrating from Spring Security 4.2.x you can revert to the previous behavior by exposing a NoOpPasswordEncoder bean.

Reverting to NoOpPasswordEncoder is not considered to be secure. You should instead migrate to using DelegatingPasswordEncoder to support secure password encoding.
NoOpPasswordEncoder

  • Java

  • XML

  • Kotlin

@Bean
public static PasswordEncoder passwordEncoder() {
    return NoOpPasswordEncoder.getInstance();
}
<b:bean id="passwordEncoder"
        class="org.springframework.security.crypto.password.NoOpPasswordEncoder" factory-method="getInstance"/>
@Bean
fun passwordEncoder(): PasswordEncoder {
    return NoOpPasswordEncoder.getInstance();
}

XML Configuration requires the NoOpPasswordEncoder bean name to be passwordEncoder.

Change Password Configuration

Most applications that allow a user to specify a password also require a feature for updating that password.

A Well-Known URL for Changing Passwords indicates a mechanism by which password managers can discover the password update endpoint for a given application.

You can configure Spring Security to provide this discovery endpoint. For example, if the change password endpoint in your application is /change-password, then you can configure Spring Security like so:

Default Change Password Endpoint

  • Java

  • XML

  • Kotlin

http
    .passwordManagement(Customizer.withDefaults())
<sec:password-management/>
http {
    passwordManagement { }
}

Then, when a password manager navigates to /.well-known/change-password then Spring Security will redirect your endpoint, /change-password.

Or, if your endpoint is something other than /change-password, you can also specify that like so:

Change Password Endpoint

  • Java

  • XML

  • Kotlin

http
    .passwordManagement((management) -> management
        .changePasswordPage("/update-password")
    )
<sec:password-management change-password-page="/update-password"/>
http {
    passwordManagement {
        changePasswordPage = "/update-password"
    }
}

With the above configuration, when a password manager navigates to /.well-known/change-password, then Spring Security will redirect to /update-password.