org.springframework.security
Interface Authentication

All Superinterfaces:

Principal, Serializable

All Known Subinterfaces:

AuthByAdapter

All Known Implementing Classes:

AbstractAdapterAuthenticationToken, AbstractAuthenticationToken, AnonymousAuthenticationToken, CasAuthenticationToken, JaasAuthenticationToken, NtlmUsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken, OpenIDAuthenticationToken, PreAuthenticatedAuthenticationToken, PrincipalSpringSecurityUserToken, RememberMeAuthenticationToken, RunAsUserToken, UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken, X509AuthenticationToken

public interface Authentication
extends Principal, Serializable

Represents an authentication request.

An Authentication object is not considered authenticated until it is processed by an AuthenticationManager.

Stored in a request SecurityContext.

Version:

$Id$

Author:

Ben Alex

Method Summary

GrantedAuthority[]	getAuthorities() Set by an AuthenticationManager to indicate the authorities that the principal has been granted.
Object	getCredentials() The credentials that prove the principal is correct.
Object	getDetails() Stores additional details about the authentication request.
Object	getPrincipal() The identity of the principal being authenticated.
boolean	isAuthenticated() Used to indicate to AbstractSecurityInterceptor whether it should present the authentication token to the AuthenticationManager.
void	setAuthenticated(boolean isAuthenticated) See isAuthenticated() for a full description.

Methods inherited from interface java.security.Principal

equals, getName, hashCode, toString

Method Detail

getAuthorities

GrantedAuthority[] getAuthorities()

Set by an AuthenticationManager to indicate the authorities that the principal has been granted. Note that classes should not rely on this value as being valid unless it has been set by a trusted AuthenticationManager.

Implementations should ensure that modifications to the returned array do not affect the state of the Authentication object (e.g. by returning an array copy).

Returns:

the authorities granted to the principal, or null if authentication has not been completed

getCredentials

Object getCredentials()

The credentials that prove the principal is correct. This is usually a password, but could be anything relevant to the AuthenticationManager. Callers are expected to populate the credentials.

Returns:

the credentials that prove the identity of the Principal

getDetails

Object getDetails()

Stores additional details about the authentication request. These might be an IP address, certificate serial number etc.

Returns:

additional details about the authentication request, or null if not used

getPrincipal

Object getPrincipal()

The identity of the principal being authenticated. This is usually a username. Callers are expected to populate the principal.

Returns:

the Principal being authenticated

isAuthenticated

boolean isAuthenticated()

Used to indicate to AbstractSecurityInterceptor whether it should present the authentication token to the AuthenticationManager. Typically an AuthenticationManager (or, more often, one of its AuthenticationProviders) will return an immutable authentication token after successful authentication, in which case that token can safely return true to this method. Returning true will improve performance, as calling the AuthenticationManager for every request will no longer be necessary.

For security reasons, implementations of this interface should be very careful about returning true to this method unless they are either immutable, or have some way of ensuring the properties have not been changed since original creation.

Returns:

true if the token has been authenticated and the AbstractSecurityInterceptor does not need to represent the token for re-authentication to the AuthenticationManager

setAuthenticated

void setAuthenticated(boolean isAuthenticated)
                      throws IllegalArgumentException

See isAuthenticated() for a full description.

Implementations should always allow this method to be called with a false parameter, as this is used by various classes to specify the authentication token should not be trusted. If an implementation wishes to reject an invocation with a true parameter (which would indicate the authentication token is trusted - a potential security risk) the implementation should throw an IllegalArgumentException.

Parameters:

isAuthenticated - true if the token should be trusted (which may result in an exception) or false if the token should not be trusted

Throws:

IllegalArgumentException - if an attempt to make the authentication token trusted (by passing true as the argument) is rejected due to the implementation being immutable or implementing its own alternative approach to isAuthenticated()