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OAuth 2.0 Resource Server JWT

Minimal Dependencies for JWT

Most Resource Server support is collected into spring-security-oauth2-resource-server. However, the support for decoding and verifying JWTs is in spring-security-oauth2-jose, meaning that both are necessary in order to have a working resource server that supports JWT-encoded Bearer Tokens.

Minimal Configuration for JWTs

When using Spring Boot, configuring an application as a resource server consists of two basic steps. First, include the needed dependencies and second, indicate the location of the authorization server.

Specifying the Authorization Server

In a Spring Boot application, to specify which authorization server to use, simply do:

spring:
  security:
    oauth2:
      resourceserver:
        jwt:
          issuer-uri: https://idp.example.com/issuer

Where idp.example.com/issuer is the value contained in the iss claim for JWT tokens that the authorization server will issue. Resource Server will use this property to further self-configure, discover the authorization server’s public keys, and subsequently validate incoming JWTs.

To use the issuer-uri property, it must also be true that one of idp.example.com/issuer/.well-known/openid-configuration, idp.example.com/.well-known/openid-configuration/issuer, or idp.example.com/.well-known/oauth-authorization-server/issuer is a supported endpoint for the authorization server. This endpoint is referred to as a Provider Configuration endpoint or a Authorization Server Metadata endpoint.

And that’s it!

Startup Expectations

When this property and these dependencies are used, Resource Server will automatically configure itself to validate JWT-encoded Bearer Tokens.

It achieves this through a deterministic startup process:

Hit the Provider Configuration or Authorization Server Metadata endpoint, processing the response for the jwks_url property
Configure the validation strategy to query jwks_url for valid public keys
Configure the validation strategy to validate each JWTs iss claim against idp.example.com.

A consequence of this process is that the authorization server must be up and receiving requests in order for Resource Server to successfully start up.

If the authorization server is down when Resource Server queries it (given appropriate timeouts), then startup will fail.

Runtime Expectations

Once the application is started up, Resource Server will attempt to process any request containing an Authorization: Bearer header:

GET / HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Bearer some-token-value # Resource Server will process this

So long as this scheme is indicated, Resource Server will attempt to process the request according to the Bearer Token specification.

Given a well-formed JWT, Resource Server will:

Validate its signature against a public key obtained from the jwks_url endpoint during startup and matched against the JWTs header
Validate the JWTs exp and nbf timestamps and the JWTs iss claim, and
Map each scope to an authority with the prefix SCOPE_.

As the authorization server makes available new keys, Spring Security will automatically rotate the keys used to validate the JWT tokens.

The resulting Authentication#getPrincipal, by default, is a Spring Security Jwt object, and Authentication#getName maps to the JWT’s sub property, if one is present.

From here, consider jumping to:

How to Configure without Tying Resource Server startup to an authorization server’s availability

How to Configure without Spring Boot

Specifying the Authorization Server JWK Set Uri Directly

If the authorization server doesn’t support any configuration endpoints, or if Resource Server must be able to start up independently from the authorization server, then the jwk-set-uri can be supplied as well:

spring:
  security:
    oauth2:
      resourceserver:
        jwt:
          issuer-uri: https://idp.example.com
          jwk-set-uri: https://idp.example.com/.well-known/jwks.json

The JWK Set uri is not standardized, but can typically be found in the authorization server’s documentation

Consequently, Resource Server will not ping the authorization server at startup. We still specify the issuer-uri so that Resource Server still validates the iss claim on incoming JWTs.

This property can also be supplied directly on the DSL.

Overriding or Replacing Boot Auto Configuration

There are two @Beans that Spring Boot generates on Resource Server’s behalf.

The first is a SecurityWebFilterChain that configures the app as a resource server. When including spring-security-oauth2-jose, this SecurityWebFilterChain looks like:

Resource Server SecurityWebFilterChain

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
SecurityWebFilterChain springSecurityFilterChain(ServerHttpSecurity http) {
	http
		.authorizeExchange(exchanges -> exchanges
			.anyExchange().authenticated()
		)
		.oauth2ResourceServer(OAuth2ResourceServerSpec::jwt)
	return http.build();
}

@Bean
fun springSecurityFilterChain(http: ServerHttpSecurity): SecurityWebFilterChain {
    return http {
        authorizeExchange {
            authorize(anyExchange, authenticated)
        }
        oauth2ResourceServer {
            jwt { }
        }
    }
}

If the application doesn’t expose a SecurityWebFilterChain bean, then Spring Boot will expose the above default one.

Replacing this is as simple as exposing the bean within the application:

Replacing SecurityWebFilterChain

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
SecurityWebFilterChain springSecurityFilterChain(ServerHttpSecurity http) {
	http
		.authorizeExchange(exchanges -> exchanges
			.pathMatchers("/message/**").hasAuthority("SCOPE_message:read")
			.anyExchange().authenticated()
		)
		.oauth2ResourceServer(oauth2 -> oauth2
			.jwt(withDefaults())
		);
	return http.build();
}

@Bean
fun springSecurityFilterChain(http: ServerHttpSecurity): SecurityWebFilterChain {
    return http {
        authorizeExchange {
            authorize("/message/**", hasAuthority("SCOPE_message:read"))
            authorize(anyExchange, authenticated)
        }
        oauth2ResourceServer {
            jwt { }
        }
    }
}

The above requires the scope of message:read for any URL that starts with /messages/.

Methods on the oauth2ResourceServer DSL will also override or replace auto configuration.

For example, the second @Bean Spring Boot creates is a ReactiveJwtDecoder, which decodes String tokens into validated instances of Jwt:

ReactiveJwtDecoder

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
public ReactiveJwtDecoder jwtDecoder() {
    return ReactiveJwtDecoders.fromIssuerLocation(issuerUri);
}

@Bean
fun jwtDecoder(): ReactiveJwtDecoder {
    return ReactiveJwtDecoders.fromIssuerLocation(issuerUri)
}

Calling ReactiveJwtDecoders#fromIssuerLocation is what invokes the Provider Configuration or Authorization Server Metadata endpoint in order to derive the JWK Set Uri. If the application doesn’t expose a ReactiveJwtDecoder bean, then Spring Boot will expose the above default one.

And its configuration can be overridden using jwkSetUri() or replaced using decoder().

Using `jwkSetUri()`

An authorization server’s JWK Set Uri can be configured as a configuration property or it can be supplied in the DSL:

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
SecurityWebFilterChain springSecurityFilterChain(ServerHttpSecurity http) {
	http
		.authorizeExchange(exchanges -> exchanges
			.anyExchange().authenticated()
		)
		.oauth2ResourceServer(oauth2 -> oauth2
			.jwt(jwt -> jwt
				.jwkSetUri("https://idp.example.com/.well-known/jwks.json")
			)
		);
	return http.build();
}

@Bean
fun springSecurityFilterChain(http: ServerHttpSecurity): SecurityWebFilterChain {
    return http {
        authorizeExchange {
            authorize(anyExchange, authenticated)
        }
        oauth2ResourceServer {
            jwt {
                jwkSetUri = "https://idp.example.com/.well-known/jwks.json"
            }
        }
    }
}

Using jwkSetUri() takes precedence over any configuration property.

Using `decoder()`

More powerful than jwkSetUri() is decoder(), which will completely replace any Boot auto configuration of JwtDecoder:

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
SecurityWebFilterChain springSecurityFilterChain(ServerHttpSecurity http) {
	http
		.authorizeExchange(exchanges -> exchanges
			.anyExchange().authenticated()
		)
		.oauth2ResourceServer(oauth2 -> oauth2
			.jwt(jwt -> jwt
				.decoder(myCustomDecoder())
			)
		);
    return http.build();
}

@Bean
fun springSecurityFilterChain(http: ServerHttpSecurity): SecurityWebFilterChain {
    return http {
        authorizeExchange {
            authorize(anyExchange, authenticated)
        }
        oauth2ResourceServer {
            jwt {
                jwtDecoder = myCustomDecoder()
            }
        }
    }
}

This is handy when deeper configuration, like validation, is necessary.

Exposing a `ReactiveJwtDecoder` `@Bean`

Or, exposing a ReactiveJwtDecoder @Bean has the same effect as decoder():

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
public ReactiveJwtDecoder jwtDecoder() {
    return NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder.withJwkSetUri(jwkSetUri).build();
}

@Bean
fun jwtDecoder(): ReactiveJwtDecoder {
    return ReactiveJwtDecoders.fromIssuerLocation(issuerUri)
}

Configuring Trusted Algorithms

By default, NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder, and hence Resource Server, will only trust and verify tokens using RS256.

You can customize this via Spring Boot or the NimbusJwtDecoder builder.

Via Spring Boot

The simplest way to set the algorithm is as a property:

spring:
  security:
    oauth2:
      resourceserver:
        jwt:
          jws-algorithm: RS512
          jwk-set-uri: https://idp.example.org/.well-known/jwks.json

Using a Builder

For greater power, though, we can use a builder that ships with NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder:

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
ReactiveJwtDecoder jwtDecoder() {
    return NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder.withJwkSetUri(this.jwkSetUri)
            .jwsAlgorithm(RS512).build();
}

@Bean
fun jwtDecoder(): ReactiveJwtDecoder {
    return NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder.withJwkSetUri(this.jwkSetUri)
            .jwsAlgorithm(RS512).build()
}

Calling jwsAlgorithm more than once will configure NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder to trust more than one algorithm, like so:

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
ReactiveJwtDecoder jwtDecoder() {
    return NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder.withJwkSetUri(this.jwkSetUri)
            .jwsAlgorithm(RS512).jwsAlgorithm(ES512).build();
}

@Bean
fun jwtDecoder(): ReactiveJwtDecoder {
    return NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder.withJwkSetUri(this.jwkSetUri)
            .jwsAlgorithm(RS512).jwsAlgorithm(ES512).build()
}

Or, you can call jwsAlgorithms:

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
ReactiveJwtDecoder jwtDecoder() {
    return NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder.withJwkSetUri(this.jwkSetUri)
            .jwsAlgorithms(algorithms -> {
                    algorithms.add(RS512);
                    algorithms.add(ES512);
            }).build();
}

@Bean
fun jwtDecoder(): ReactiveJwtDecoder {
    return NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder.withJwkSetUri(this.jwkSetUri)
            .jwsAlgorithms {
                it.add(RS512)
                it.add(ES512)
            }
            .build()
}

Trusting a Single Asymmetric Key

Simpler than backing a Resource Server with a JWK Set endpoint is to hard-code an RSA public key. The public key can be provided via Spring Boot or by Using a Builder.

Via Spring Boot

Specifying a key via Spring Boot is quite simple. The key’s location can be specified like so:

spring:
  security:
    oauth2:
      resourceserver:
        jwt:
          public-key-location: classpath:my-key.pub

Or, to allow for a more sophisticated lookup, you can post-process the RsaKeyConversionServicePostProcessor:

BeanFactoryPostProcessor

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
BeanFactoryPostProcessor conversionServiceCustomizer() {
    return beanFactory ->
        beanFactory.getBean(RsaKeyConversionServicePostProcessor.class)
                .setResourceLoader(new CustomResourceLoader());
}

@Bean
fun conversionServiceCustomizer(): BeanFactoryPostProcessor {
    return BeanFactoryPostProcessor { beanFactory: ConfigurableListableBeanFactory ->
        beanFactory.getBean<RsaKeyConversionServicePostProcessor>()
                .setResourceLoader(CustomResourceLoader())
    }
}

Specify your key’s location:

key.location: hfds://my-key.pub

And then autowire the value:

Java
Kotlin

@Value("${key.location}")
RSAPublicKey key;

@Value("\${key.location}")
val key: RSAPublicKey? = null

Using a Builder

To wire an RSAPublicKey directly, you can simply use the appropriate NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder builder, like so:

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
public ReactiveJwtDecoder jwtDecoder() {
    return NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder.withPublicKey(this.key).build();
}

@Bean
fun jwtDecoder(): ReactiveJwtDecoder {
    return NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder.withPublicKey(key).build()
}

Trusting a Single Symmetric Key

Using a single symmetric key is also simple. You can simply load in your SecretKey and use the appropriate NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder builder, like so:

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
public ReactiveJwtDecoder jwtDecoder() {
    return NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder.withSecretKey(this.key).build();
}

@Bean
fun jwtDecoder(): ReactiveJwtDecoder {
    return NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder.withSecretKey(this.key).build()
}

Configuring Authorization

A JWT that is issued from an OAuth 2.0 Authorization Server will typically either have a scope or scp attribute, indicating the scopes (or authorities) it’s been granted, for example:

{ …, "scope" : "messages contacts"}

When this is the case, Resource Server will attempt to coerce these scopes into a list of granted authorities, prefixing each scope with the string "SCOPE_".

This means that to protect an endpoint or method with a scope derived from a JWT, the corresponding expressions should include this prefix:

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
SecurityWebFilterChain springSecurityFilterChain(ServerHttpSecurity http) {
	http
		.authorizeExchange(exchanges -> exchanges
			.mvcMatchers("/contacts/**").hasAuthority("SCOPE_contacts")
			.mvcMatchers("/messages/**").hasAuthority("SCOPE_messages")
			.anyExchange().authenticated()
		)
		.oauth2ResourceServer(OAuth2ResourceServerSpec::jwt);
    return http.build();
}

@Bean
fun springSecurityFilterChain(http: ServerHttpSecurity): SecurityWebFilterChain {
    return http {
        authorizeExchange {
            authorize("/contacts/**", hasAuthority("SCOPE_contacts"))
            authorize("/messages/**", hasAuthority("SCOPE_messages"))
            authorize(anyExchange, authenticated)
        }
        oauth2ResourceServer {
            jwt { }
        }
    }
}

Or similarly with method security:

Java
Kotlin

@PreAuthorize("hasAuthority('SCOPE_messages')")
public Flux<Message> getMessages(...) {}

@PreAuthorize("hasAuthority('SCOPE_messages')")
fun getMessages(): Flux<Message> { }

Extracting Authorities Manually

However, there are a number of circumstances where this default is insufficient. For example, some authorization servers don’t use the scope attribute, but instead have their own custom attribute. Or, at other times, the resource server may need to adapt the attribute or a composition of attributes into internalized authorities.

To this end, the DSL exposes jwtAuthenticationConverter():

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
SecurityWebFilterChain springSecurityFilterChain(ServerHttpSecurity http) {
	http
		.authorizeExchange(exchanges -> exchanges
			.anyExchange().authenticated()
		)
		.oauth2ResourceServer(oauth2 -> oauth2
			.jwt(jwt -> jwt
				.jwtAuthenticationConverter(grantedAuthoritiesExtractor())
			)
		);
	return http.build();
}

Converter<Jwt, Mono<AbstractAuthenticationToken>> grantedAuthoritiesExtractor() {
    JwtAuthenticationConverter jwtAuthenticationConverter =
            new JwtAuthenticationConverter();
    jwtAuthenticationConverter.setJwtGrantedAuthoritiesConverter
            (new GrantedAuthoritiesExtractor());
    return new ReactiveJwtAuthenticationConverterAdapter(jwtAuthenticationConverter);
}

@Bean
fun springSecurityFilterChain(http: ServerHttpSecurity): SecurityWebFilterChain {
    return http {
        authorizeExchange {
            authorize(anyExchange, authenticated)
        }
        oauth2ResourceServer {
            jwt {
                jwtAuthenticationConverter = grantedAuthoritiesExtractor()
            }
        }
    }
}

fun grantedAuthoritiesExtractor(): Converter<Jwt, Mono<AbstractAuthenticationToken>> {
    val jwtAuthenticationConverter = JwtAuthenticationConverter()
    jwtAuthenticationConverter.setJwtGrantedAuthoritiesConverter(GrantedAuthoritiesExtractor())
    return ReactiveJwtAuthenticationConverterAdapter(jwtAuthenticationConverter)
}

which is responsible for converting a Jwt into an Authentication. As part of its configuration, we can supply a subsidiary converter to go from Jwt to a Collection of granted authorities.

That final converter might be something like GrantedAuthoritiesExtractor below:

Java
Kotlin

static class GrantedAuthoritiesExtractor
        implements Converter<Jwt, Collection<GrantedAuthority>> {

    public Collection<GrantedAuthority> convert(Jwt jwt) {
        Collection<?> authorities = (Collection<?>)
                jwt.getClaims().getOrDefault("mycustomclaim", Collections.emptyList());

        return authorities.stream()
                .map(Object::toString)
                .map(SimpleGrantedAuthority::new)
                .collect(Collectors.toList());
    }
}

internal class GrantedAuthoritiesExtractor : Converter<Jwt, Collection<GrantedAuthority>> {
    override fun convert(jwt: Jwt): Collection<GrantedAuthority> {
        val authorities: List<Any> = jwt.claims
                .getOrDefault("mycustomclaim", emptyList<Any>()) as List<Any>
        return authorities
                .map { it.toString() }
                .map { SimpleGrantedAuthority(it) }
    }
}

For more flexibility, the DSL supports entirely replacing the converter with any class that implements Converter<Jwt, Mono<AbstractAuthenticationToken>>:

Java
Kotlin

static class CustomAuthenticationConverter implements Converter<Jwt, Mono<AbstractAuthenticationToken>> {
    public AbstractAuthenticationToken convert(Jwt jwt) {
        return Mono.just(jwt).map(this::doConversion);
    }
}

internal class CustomAuthenticationConverter : Converter<Jwt, Mono<AbstractAuthenticationToken>> {
    override fun convert(jwt: Jwt): Mono<AbstractAuthenticationToken> {
        return Mono.just(jwt).map(this::doConversion)
    }
}

Configuring Validation

Using minimal Spring Boot configuration, indicating the authorization server’s issuer uri, Resource Server will default to verifying the iss claim as well as the exp and nbf timestamp claims.

In circumstances where validation needs to be customized, Resource Server ships with two standard validators and also accepts custom OAuth2TokenValidator instances.

Customizing Timestamp Validation

JWT’s typically have a window of validity, with the start of the window indicated in the nbf claim and the end indicated in the exp claim.

However, every server can experience clock drift, which can cause tokens to appear expired to one server, but not to another. This can cause some implementation heartburn as the number of collaborating servers increases in a distributed system.

Resource Server uses JwtTimestampValidator to verify a token’s validity window, and it can be configured with a clockSkew to alleviate the above problem:

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
ReactiveJwtDecoder jwtDecoder() {
     NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder jwtDecoder = (NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder)
             ReactiveJwtDecoders.fromIssuerLocation(issuerUri);

     OAuth2TokenValidator<Jwt> withClockSkew = new DelegatingOAuth2TokenValidator<>(
            new JwtTimestampValidator(Duration.ofSeconds(60)),
            new IssuerValidator(issuerUri));

     jwtDecoder.setJwtValidator(withClockSkew);

     return jwtDecoder;
}

@Bean
fun jwtDecoder(): ReactiveJwtDecoder {
    val jwtDecoder = ReactiveJwtDecoders.fromIssuerLocation(issuerUri) as NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder
    val withClockSkew: OAuth2TokenValidator<Jwt> = DelegatingOAuth2TokenValidator(
            JwtTimestampValidator(Duration.ofSeconds(60)),
            JwtIssuerValidator(issuerUri))
    jwtDecoder.setJwtValidator(withClockSkew)
    return jwtDecoder
}

By default, Resource Server configures a clock skew of 60 seconds.

Configuring a Custom Validator

Adding a check for the aud claim is simple with the OAuth2TokenValidator API:

Java
Kotlin

public class AudienceValidator implements OAuth2TokenValidator<Jwt> {
    OAuth2Error error = new OAuth2Error("invalid_token", "The required audience is missing", null);

    public OAuth2TokenValidatorResult validate(Jwt jwt) {
        if (jwt.getAudience().contains("messaging")) {
            return OAuth2TokenValidatorResult.success();
        } else {
            return OAuth2TokenValidatorResult.failure(error);
        }
    }
}

class AudienceValidator : OAuth2TokenValidator<Jwt> {
    var error: OAuth2Error = OAuth2Error("invalid_token", "The required audience is missing", null)
    override fun validate(jwt: Jwt): OAuth2TokenValidatorResult {
        return if (jwt.audience.contains("messaging")) {
            OAuth2TokenValidatorResult.success()
        } else {
            OAuth2TokenValidatorResult.failure(error)
        }
    }
}

Then, to add into a resource server, it’s a matter of specifying the ReactiveJwtDecoder instance:

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
ReactiveJwtDecoder jwtDecoder() {
    NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder jwtDecoder = (NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder)
            ReactiveJwtDecoders.fromIssuerLocation(issuerUri);

    OAuth2TokenValidator<Jwt> audienceValidator = new AudienceValidator();
    OAuth2TokenValidator<Jwt> withIssuer = JwtValidators.createDefaultWithIssuer(issuerUri);
    OAuth2TokenValidator<Jwt> withAudience = new DelegatingOAuth2TokenValidator<>(withIssuer, audienceValidator);

    jwtDecoder.setJwtValidator(withAudience);

    return jwtDecoder;
}

@Bean
fun jwtDecoder(): ReactiveJwtDecoder {
    val jwtDecoder = ReactiveJwtDecoders.fromIssuerLocation(issuerUri) as NimbusReactiveJwtDecoder
    val audienceValidator: OAuth2TokenValidator<Jwt> = AudienceValidator()
    val withIssuer: OAuth2TokenValidator<Jwt> = JwtValidators.createDefaultWithIssuer(issuerUri)
    val withAudience: OAuth2TokenValidator<Jwt> = DelegatingOAuth2TokenValidator(withIssuer, audienceValidator)
    jwtDecoder.setJwtValidator(withAudience)
    return jwtDecoder
}

OAuth 2.0 Resource Server JWT

Minimal Dependencies for JWT

Minimal Configuration for JWTs

Specifying the Authorization Server

Startup Expectations

Runtime Expectations

Specifying the Authorization Server JWK Set Uri Directly

Overriding or Replacing Boot Auto Configuration

Using jwkSetUri()

Using decoder()

Exposing a ReactiveJwtDecoder @Bean

Configuring Trusted Algorithms

Via Spring Boot

Using a Builder

Trusting a Single Asymmetric Key

Via Spring Boot

Using a Builder

Trusting a Single Symmetric Key

Configuring Authorization

Extracting Authorities Manually

Configuring Validation

Customizing Timestamp Validation

Configuring a Custom Validator

Using `jwkSetUri()`

Using `decoder()`

Exposing a `ReactiveJwtDecoder` `@Bean`