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Handling Logouts

In an application where end users can login, they should also be able to logout.

By default, Spring Security stands up a /logout endpoint, so no additional code is necessary.

The rest of this section covers a number of use cases for you to consider:

Understanding Logout’s Architecture

When you include the spring-boot-starter-security dependency or use the @EnableWebSecurity annotation, Spring Security will add its logout support and by default respond both to GET /logout and POST /logout.

If you request GET /logout, then Spring Security displays a logout confirmation page. Aside from providing a valuable double-checking mechanism for the user, it also provides a simple way to provide the needed CSRF token to POST /logout.

In your application it is not necessary to use GET /logout to perform a logout. So long as the needed CSRF token is present in the request, your application can simply POST /logout to induce a logout.

If you request POST /logout, then it will perform the following default operations using a series of LogoutHandlers:

Once completed, then it will exercise its default LogoutSuccessHandler which redirects to /login?logout.

Customizing Logout URIs

Since the LogoutFilter appears before the AuthorizationFilter in the filter chain, it is not necessary by default to explicitly permit the /logout endpoint. Thus, only custom logout endpoints that you create yourself generally require a permitAll configuration to be reachable.

For example, if you want to simply change the URI that Spring Security is matching, you can do so in the logout DSL in following way:

Custom Logout Uri

  • Java

  • Kotlin

  • Xml

http
    .logout((logout) -> logout.logoutUrl("/my/logout/uri"))
http {
    logout {
        logoutUrl = "/my/logout/uri"
    }
}
<logout logout-url="/my/logout/uri"/>

and no authorization changes are necessary since it simply adjusts the LogoutFilter.

However, if you stand up your own logout success endpoint (or in a rare case, your own logout endpoint), say using Spring MVC, you will need permit it in Spring Security. This is because Spring MVC processes your request after Spring Security does.

You can do this using authorizeHttpRequests or <intercept-url> like so:

Custom Logout Endpoint

  • Java

  • Kotlin

  • Xml

http
    .authorizeHttpRequests((authorize) -> authorize
        .requestMatchers("/my/success/endpoint").permitAll()
        // ...
    )
    .logout((logout) -> logout.logoutSuccessUrl("/my/success/endpoint"))
http {
    authorizeHttpRequests {
        authorize("/my/success/endpoint", permitAll)
    }
    logout {
        logoutSuccessUrl = "/my/success/endpoint"
    }
}
<http>
    <filter-url pattern="/my/success/endpoint" access="permitAll"/>
    <logout logout-success-url="/my/success/endpoint"/>
</http>

In this example, you tell the LogoutFilter to redirect to /my/success/endpoint when it is done. And, you explicitly permit the /my/success/endpoint endpoint in the AuthorizationFilter.

Specifying it twice can be cumbersome, though. If you are using Java configuration, you can instead set the permitAll property in the logout DSL like so:

Permitting Custom Logout Endpoints

  • Java

  • Kotlin

http
    .authorizeHttpRequests((authorize) -> authorize
        // ...
    )
    .logout((logout) -> logout
        .logoutSuccessUrl("/my/success/endpoint")
        .permitAll()
    )
http
    authorizeHttpRequests {
        // ...
    }
    logout {
        logoutSuccessUrl = "/my/success/endpoint"
        permitAll = true
    }

which will add all logout URIs to the permit list for you.

Adding Clean-up Actions

If you are using Java configuration, you can add clean up actions of your own by calling the addLogoutHandler method in the logout DSL, like so:

Custom Logout Handler

  • Java

  • Kotlin

CookieClearingLogoutHandler cookies = new CookieClearingLogoutHandler("our-custom-cookie");
http
    .logout((logout) -> logout.addLogoutHandler(cookies))
http {
    logout {
        addLogoutHandler(CookieClearingLogoutHandler("our-custom-cookie"))
    }
}
Because LogoutHandlers are for the purposes of cleanup, they should not throw exceptions.
Since LogoutHandler is a functional interface, you can provide a custom one as a lambda.

Some logout handler configurations are common enough that they are exposed directly in the logout DSL and <logout> element. One example is configuring session invalidation and another is which additional cookies should be deleted.

For example, you can configure the CookieClearingLogoutHandler as seen above.

Or you can instead set the appropriate configuration value like so:

  • Java

  • Kotlin

  • Xml

http
    .logout((logout) -> logout.deleteCookies("our-custom-cookie"))
http {
    logout {
        deleteCookies = "our-custom-cookie"
    }
}
<http>
    <logout delete-cookies="our-custom-cookie"/>
</http>
Specifying that the JSESSIONID cookie is not necessary since SecurityContextLogoutHandler removes it by virtue of invalidating the session.

Using Clear-Site-Data to Log Out the User

The Clear-Site-Data HTTP header is one that browsers support as an instruction to clear cookies, storage, and cache that belong to the owning website. This is a handy and secure way to ensure that everything, including the session cookie, is cleaned up on logout.

You can add configure Spring Security to write the Clear-Site-Data header on logout like so:

Using Clear-Site-Data

  • Java

  • Kotlin

HeaderWriterLogoutHandler clearSiteData = new HeaderWriterLogoutHandler(new ClearSiteDataHeaderWriter());
http
    .logout((logout) -> logout.addLogoutHandler(clearSiteData))
val clearSiteData = HeaderWriterLogoutHandler(ClearSiteDataHeaderWriter())
http {
    logout {
        addLogoutHandler(clearSiteData)
    }
}

You give the ClearSiteDataHeaderWriter constructor the list of things that you want to be cleared out.

The above configuration clears out all site data, but you can also configure it to remove just cookies like so:

Using Clear-Site-Data to Clear Cookies

  • Java

  • Kotlin

HeaderWriterLogoutHandler clearSiteData = new HeaderWriterLogoutHandler(new ClearSiteDataHeaderWriter(Directive.COOKIES));
http
    .logout((logout) -> logout.addLogoutHandler(clearSiteData))
val clearSiteData = HeaderWriterLogoutHandler(ClearSiteDataHeaderWriter(Directive.COOKIES))
http {
    logout {
        addLogoutHandler(clearSiteData)
    }
}

Customizing Logout Success

While using logoutSuccessUrl will suffice for most cases, you may need to do something different from redirecting to a URL once logout is complete. LogoutSuccessHandler is the Spring Security component for customizing logout success actions.

For example, instead of redirecting, you may want to only return a status code. In this case, you can provide a success handler instance, like so:

Using Clear-Site-Data to Clear Cookies

  • Java

  • Kotlin

  • Xml

http
    .logout((logout) -> logout.logoutSuccessHandler(new HttpStatusReturningLogoutSuccessHandler()))
http {
    logout {
        logoutSuccessHandler = HttpStatusReturningLogoutSuccessHandler()
    }
}
<bean name="mySuccessHandlerBean" class="org.springframework.security.web.authentication.logout.HttpStatusReturningLogoutSuccessHandler"/>
<http>
    <logout success-handler-ref="mySuccessHandlerBean"/>
</http>
Since LogoutSuccessHandler is a functional interface, you can provide a custom one as a lambda.

Creating a Custom Logout Endpoint

It is strongly recommended that you use the provided logout DSL to configure logout. One reason is that its easy to forget to call the needed Spring Security components to ensure a proper and complete logout.

In fact, it is often simpler to register a custom LogoutHandler than create a Spring MVC endpoint for performing logout.

That said, if you find yourself in a circumstance where a custom logout endpoint is needed, like the following one:

Custom Logout Endpoint

  • Java

  • Kotlin

@PostMapping("/my/logout")
public String performLogout() {
    // .. perform logout
    return "redirect:/home";
}
@PostMapping("/my/logout")
fun performLogout(): String {
    // .. perform logout
    return "redirect:/home"
}

then you will need to have that endpoint invoke Spring Security’s SecurityContextLogoutHandler to ensure a secure and complete logout. Something like the following is needed at a minimum:

Custom Logout Endpoint

  • Java

  • Kotlin

SecurityContextLogoutHandler logoutHandler = new SecurityContextLogoutHandler();

@PostMapping("/my/logout")
public String performLogout(Authentication authentication, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) {
    // .. perform logout
    this.logoutHandler.doLogout(request, response, authentication);
    return "redirect:/home";
}
val logoutHandler = SecurityContextLogoutHandler()

@PostMapping("/my/logout")
fun performLogout(val authentication: Authentication, val request: HttpServletRequest, val response: HttpServletResponse): String {
    // .. perform logout
    this.logoutHandler.doLogout(request, response, authentication)
    return "redirect:/home"
}

Such will clear out the SecurityContextHolderStrategy and SecurityContextRepository as needed.

Also, you’ll need to explicitly permit the endpoint.

Failing to call SecurityContextLogoutHandler means that the SecurityContext could still be available on subsequent requests, meaning that the user is not actually logged out.

Testing Logout

Once you have logout configured you can test it using Spring Security’s MockMvc support.

Further Logout-Related References