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Username/Password Authentication

One of the most common ways to authenticate a user is by validating a username and password. As such, Spring Security provides comprehensive support for authenticating with a username and password.

You can configure username and password authentication using the following:

Simple Username/Password Example

Java
XML
Kotlin

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
public class SecurityConfig {

	@Bean
	public SecurityFilterChain securityFilterChain(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
		http
			.authorizeHttpRequests((authorize) -> authorize
				.anyRequest().authenticated()
			)
			.httpBasic(Customizer.withDefaults())
			.formLogin(Customizer.withDefaults());

		return http.build();
	}

	@Bean
	public UserDetailsService userDetailsService() {
		UserDetails userDetails = User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder()
			.username("user")
			.password("password")
			.roles("USER")
			.build();

		return new InMemoryUserDetailsManager(userDetails);
	}

}

<http>
	<intercept-url pattern="/**" access="authenticated"/>
	<form-login />
	<http-basic />

	<user-service>
		<user name="user"
			password="{noop}password"
			authorities="ROLE_USER" />
	</user-service>
</http>

import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.invoke

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
class SecurityConfig {

	@Bean
	fun securityFilterChain(http: HttpSecurity): SecurityFilterChain {
		http {
			authorizeHttpRequests {
				authorize(anyRequest, authenticated)
			}
			formLogin { }
			httpBasic { }
		}

		return http.build()
	}

	@Bean
	fun userDetailsService(): UserDetailsService {
		val user = User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder()
			.username("user")
			.password("password")
			.roles("USER")
			.build()

		return InMemoryUserDetailsManager(user)
	}

}

The preceding configuration automatically registers an in-memory UserDetailsService with the SecurityFilterChain, registers the DaoAuthenticationProvider with the default AuthenticationManager, and enables Form Login and HTTP Basic authentication.

To learn more about username/password authentication, consider the following use cases:

I want to learn how Form Login works
I want to learn how HTTP Basic authentication works
I want to learn how DaoAuthenticationProvider works
I want to manage users in memory
I want to manage users in a database
I want to manage users in LDAP
I want to publish an AuthenticationManager bean for custom authentication
I want to customize the global AuthenticationManager

Publish an `AuthenticationManager` bean

A fairly common requirement is publishing an AuthenticationManager bean to allow for custom authentication, such as in a @Service or Spring MVC @Controller. For example, you may want to authenticate users via a REST API instead of using Form Login.

You can publish such an AuthenticationManager for custom authentication scenarios using the following configuration:

Publish AuthenticationManager bean for Custom Authentication

Java
XML
Kotlin

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
public class SecurityConfig {

	@Bean
	public SecurityFilterChain securityFilterChain(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
		http
			.authorizeHttpRequests((authorize) -> authorize
				.requestMatchers("/login").permitAll()
				.anyRequest().authenticated()
			);

		return http.build();
	}

	@Bean
	public AuthenticationManager authenticationManager(
			UserDetailsService userDetailsService,
			PasswordEncoder passwordEncoder) {
		DaoAuthenticationProvider authenticationProvider = new DaoAuthenticationProvider();
		authenticationProvider.setUserDetailsService(userDetailsService);
		authenticationProvider.setPasswordEncoder(passwordEncoder);

		return new ProviderManager(authenticationProvider);
	}

	@Bean
	public UserDetailsService userDetailsService() {
		UserDetails userDetails = User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder()
			.username("user")
			.password("password")
			.roles("USER")
			.build();

		return new InMemoryUserDetailsManager(userDetails);
	}

	@Bean
	public PasswordEncoder passwordEncoder() {
		return PasswordEncoderFactories.createDelegatingPasswordEncoder();
	}

}

<http>
	<intercept-url pattern="/login" access="permitAll"/>
	<intercept-url pattern="/**" access="authenticated"/>

	<bean id="authenticationManager"
			class="org.springframework.security.authentication.ProviderManager">
		<constructor-arg>
			<bean class="org.springframework.security.authentication.dao.DaoAuthenticationProvider">
				<property name="userDetailsService" ref="userDetailsService" />
				<property name="passwordEncoder" ref="passwordEncoder" />
			</bean>
		</constructor-arg>
	</bean>

	<user-service id="userDetailsService">
		<user name="user"
			password="{noop}password"
			authorities="ROLE_USER" />
	</user-service>

	<bean id="passwordEncoder"
			class="org.springframework.security.crypto.factory.PasswordEncoderFactories" factory-method="createDelegatingPasswordEncoder"/>
</http>

import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.invoke

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
class SecurityConfig {

	@Bean
	fun securityFilterChain(http: HttpSecurity): SecurityFilterChain {
		http {
			authorizeHttpRequests {
				authorize("/login", permitAll)
				authorize(anyRequest, authenticated)
			}
		}

		return http.build()
	}

	@Bean
	fun authenticationManager(
			userDetailsService: UserDetailsService,
			passwordEncoder: PasswordEncoder): AuthenticationManager {
		val authenticationProvider = DaoAuthenticationProvider()
		authenticationProvider.setUserDetailsService(userDetailsService)
		authenticationProvider.setPasswordEncoder(passwordEncoder)

		return ProviderManager(authenticationProvider)
	}

	@Bean
	fun userDetailsService(): UserDetailsService {
		val user = User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder()
			.username("user")
			.password("password")
			.roles("USER")
			.build()

		return InMemoryUserDetailsManager(user)
	}

	@Bean
	fun passwordEncoder(): PasswordEncoder {
		return PasswordEncoderFactories.createDelegatingPasswordEncoder()
	}

}

With the preceding configuration in place, you can create a @RestController that uses the AuthenticationManager as follows:

Create a @RestController for Authentication

Java
Kotlin

@RestController
public class LoginController {

	private final AuthenticationManager authenticationManager;

	public LoginController(AuthenticationManager authenticationManager) {
		this.authenticationManager = authenticationManager;
	}

	@PostMapping("/login")
	public ResponseEntity<Void> login(@RequestBody LoginRequest loginRequest) {
		Authentication authenticationRequest =
			UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken.unauthenticated(loginRequest.username(), loginRequest.password());
		Authentication authenticationResponse =
			this.authenticationManager.authenticate(authenticationRequest);
		// ...
	}

	public record LoginRequest(String username, String password) {
	}

}

@RestController
class LoginController(val authenticationManager: AuthenticationManager) {

	@PostMapping("/login")
	fun login(@RequestBody loginRequest: LoginRequest): ResponseEntity<Void> {
		val authenticationRequest =
			UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken.unauthenticated(
				loginRequest.username, loginRequest.password)
		val authenticationResponse =
			authenticationManager.authenticate(authenticationRequest)
		// ...
	}

	data class LoginRequest(val username: String, val password: String)

}

In this example, it is your responsibility to save the authenticated user in the SecurityContextRepository if needed. For example, if using the HttpSession to persist the SecurityContext between requests, you can use HttpSessionSecurityContextRepository.

Customize the `AuthenticationManager`

Normally, Spring Security builds an AuthenticationManager internally composed of a DaoAuthenticationProvider for username/password authentication. In certain cases, it may still be desired to customize the instance of AuthenticationManager used by Spring Security. For example, you may need to simply disable credential erasure for cached users.

To do this, you can take advantage of the fact that the AuthenticationManagerBuilder used to build Spring Security’s global AuthenticationManager is published as a bean. You can configure the builder as follows:

Configure global AuthenticationManagerBuilder

Java
Kotlin

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
public class SecurityConfig {

	@Bean
	public SecurityFilterChain securityFilterChain(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
		// ...
		return http.build();
	}

	@Bean
	public UserDetailsService userDetailsService() {
		// Return a UserDetailsService that caches users
		// ...
	}

	@Autowired
	public void configure(AuthenticationManagerBuilder builder) {
		builder.eraseCredentials(false);
	}

}

import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.invoke

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
class SecurityConfig {

	@Bean
	fun securityFilterChain(http: HttpSecurity): SecurityFilterChain {
		// ...
		return http.build()
	}

	@Bean
	fun userDetailsService(): UserDetailsService {
		// Return a UserDetailsService that caches users
		// ...
	}

	@Autowired
	fun configure(builder: AuthenticationManagerBuilder) {
		builder.eraseCredentials(false)
	}

}

Alternatively, you may configure a local AuthenticationManager to override the global one.

Configure local AuthenticationManager for Spring Security

Java
XML
Kotlin

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
public class SecurityConfig {

	@Bean
	public SecurityFilterChain securityFilterChain(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
		http
			.authorizeHttpRequests((authorize) -> authorize
				.anyRequest().authenticated()
			)
			.httpBasic(Customizer.withDefaults())
			.formLogin(Customizer.withDefaults())
			.authenticationManager(authenticationManager());

		return http.build();
	}

	private AuthenticationManager authenticationManager() {
		DaoAuthenticationProvider authenticationProvider = new DaoAuthenticationProvider();
		authenticationProvider.setUserDetailsService(userDetailsService());
		authenticationProvider.setPasswordEncoder(passwordEncoder());

		ProviderManager providerManager = new ProviderManager(authenticationProvider);
		providerManager.setEraseCredentialsAfterAuthentication(false);

		return providerManager;
	}

	private UserDetailsService userDetailsService() {
		UserDetails userDetails = User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder()
			.username("user")
			.password("password")
			.roles("USER")
			.build();

		return new InMemoryUserDetailsManager(userDetails);
	}

	private PasswordEncoder passwordEncoder() {
		return PasswordEncoderFactories.createDelegatingPasswordEncoder();
	}

}

<http authentication-manager-ref="authenticationManager">
	<intercept-url pattern="/**" access="authenticated"/>
	<form-login />
	<http-basic />

	<bean id="authenticationManager"
			class="org.springframework.security.authentication.ProviderManager">
		<constructor-arg>
			<bean class="org.springframework.security.authentication.dao.DaoAuthenticationProvider">
				<property name="userDetailsService" ref="userDetailsService" />
				<property name="passwordEncoder" ref="passwordEncoder" />
			</bean>
		</constructor-arg>
	</bean>

	<user-service id="userDetailsService">
		<user name="user"
			password="{noop}password"
			authorities="ROLE_USER" />
	</user-service>

	<bean id="passwordEncoder"
			class="org.springframework.security.crypto.factory.PasswordEncoderFactories" factory-method="createDelegatingPasswordEncoder"/>
</http>

import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.invoke

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
class SecurityConfig {

	@Bean
	fun securityFilterChain(http: HttpSecurity): SecurityFilterChain {
		http {
			authorizeHttpRequests {
				authorize(anyRequest, authenticated)
			}
			formLogin { }
			httpBasic { }
			authenticationManager = authenticationManager()
		}

		return http.build()
	}

	@Bean
	fun authenticationManager(): AuthenticationManager {
		val authenticationProvider = DaoAuthenticationProvider()
		authenticationProvider.setUserDetailsService(userDetailsService())
		authenticationProvider.setPasswordEncoder(passwordEncoder())

		val providerManager = ProviderManager(authenticationProvider)
		providerManager.eraseCredentialsAfterAuthentication = false

		return providerManager
	}

	private fun userDetailsService(): UserDetailsService {
		val user = User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder()
			.username("user")
			.password("password")
			.roles("USER")
			.build()

		return InMemoryUserDetailsManager(user)
	}

	private fun passwordEncoder(): PasswordEncoder {
		return PasswordEncoderFactories.createDelegatingPasswordEncoder()
	}

}

Username/Password Authentication

Publish an AuthenticationManager bean

Customize the AuthenticationManager

Section Summary

Publish an `AuthenticationManager` bean

Customize the `AuthenticationManager`