For the latest stable version, please use Spring Security 6.4.1!

Authentication

Spring Security provides comprehensive support for Authentication. We start by discussing the overall Servlet Authentication Architecture. As you might expect, this section is more abstract describing the architecture without much discussion on how it applies to concrete flows.

If you prefer, you can refer to Authentication Mechanisms for concrete ways in which users can authenticate. These sections focus on specific ways you may want to authenticate and point back at the architecture sections to describe how the specific flows work.

Authentication Mechanisms