Class SecurityContextHolder

java.lang.Object
org.springframework.security.core.context.SecurityContextHolder

public class SecurityContextHolder extends Object
Associates a given SecurityContext with the current execution thread.

This class provides a series of static methods that delegate to an instance of SecurityContextHolderStrategy. The purpose of the class is to provide a convenient way to specify the strategy that should be used for a given JVM. This is a JVM-wide setting, since everything in this class is static to facilitate ease of use in calling code.

To specify which strategy should be used, you must provide a mode setting. A mode setting is one of the three valid MODE_ settings defined as static final fields, or a fully qualified classname to a concrete implementation of SecurityContextHolderStrategy that provides a public no-argument constructor.

There are two ways to specify the desired strategy mode String. The first is to specify it via the system property keyed on SYSTEM_PROPERTY. The second is to call setStrategyName(String) before using the class. If neither approach is used, the class will default to using MODE_THREADLOCAL, which is backwards compatible, has fewer JVM incompatibilities and is appropriate on servers (whereas MODE_GLOBAL is definitely inappropriate for server use).

  • Field Details

  • Constructor Details

    • SecurityContextHolder

      public SecurityContextHolder()
  • Method Details

    • clearContext

      public static void clearContext()
      Explicitly clears the context value from the current thread.
    • getContext

      public static SecurityContext getContext()
      Obtain the current SecurityContext.
      Returns:
      the security context (never null)
    • getInitializeCount

      public static int getInitializeCount()
      Primarily for troubleshooting purposes, this method shows how many times the class has re-initialized its SecurityContextHolderStrategy.
      Returns:
      the count (should be one unless you've called setStrategyName(String) or setContextHolderStrategy(SecurityContextHolderStrategy) to switch to an alternate strategy).
    • setContext

      public static void setContext(SecurityContext context)
      Associates a new SecurityContext with the current thread of execution.
      Parameters:
      context - the new SecurityContext (may not be null)
    • setStrategyName

      public static void setStrategyName(String strategyName)
      Changes the preferred strategy. Do NOT call this method more than once for a given JVM, as it will re-initialize the strategy and adversely affect any existing threads using the old strategy.
      Parameters:
      strategyName - the fully qualified class name of the strategy that should be used.
    • setContextHolderStrategy

      public static void setContextHolderStrategy(SecurityContextHolderStrategy strategy)
      Use this SecurityContextHolderStrategy. Call either setStrategyName(String) or this method, but not both. This method is not thread safe. Changing the strategy while requests are in-flight may cause race conditions. SecurityContextHolder maintains a static reference to the provided SecurityContextHolderStrategy. This means that the strategy and its members will not be garbage collected until you remove your strategy. To ensure garbage collection, remember the original strategy like so:
           SecurityContextHolderStrategy original = SecurityContextHolder.getContextHolderStrategy();
           SecurityContextHolder.setContextHolderStrategy(myStrategy);
       
      And then when you are ready for myStrategy to be garbage collected you can do:
           SecurityContextHolder.setContextHolderStrategy(original);
       
      Parameters:
      strategy - the SecurityContextHolderStrategy to use
      Since:
      5.6
    • getContextHolderStrategy

      public static SecurityContextHolderStrategy getContextHolderStrategy()
      Allows retrieval of the context strategy. See SEC-1188.
      Returns:
      the configured strategy for storing the security context.
    • createEmptyContext

      public static SecurityContext createEmptyContext()
      Delegates the creation of a new, empty context to the configured strategy.
    • toString

      public String toString()
      Overrides:
      toString in class Object