Configuring @ PreAuthorize in Spring Boot to Secure User Endpoints

Описание: Learn how to configure `@ PreAuthorize` with `User` IDs in Spring Boot for secure endpoint access based on logged-in user details.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/62662036/ asked by the user 'satish' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/9420149/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/62717000/ provided by the user 'Kavithakaran Kanapathippillai' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/7875623/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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Configuring @ PreAuthorize in Spring Boot to Secure User Endpoints

In application development, ensuring secure access to endpoints based on user roles or credentials is crucial. If you are working with Spring Boot and Spring Security, you might find yourself needing to restrict certain endpoints to only those users whose IDs match a provided identifier. This challenge is common, especially when building APIs that manage user data.

In this guide, we'll explore the steps needed to properly configure @ PreAuthorize to recognize the ID of the currently logged-in user, so that only authorized users can update their own information.

Understanding the Problem

You may have a REST controller with an endpoint that updates user information. You want to ensure that only the user whose ID matches the parameter can access this endpoint. A common way to do this is using Spring Security's @ PreAuthorize annotation. However, you might encounter issues like the following:

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This error occurs because @ PreAuthorize cannot find a property that matches the expected user identification field in the authentication principal.

Solution Overview

To solve this problem, we will implement the following steps:

Create a Custom User Class: This class will extend the Spring Security User class to include a user ID property.

Update the UserDetails Service: Modify the service to return an instance of the custom user class containing the ID.

Ensure Method Security is Enabled: Make sure global method security is configured to allow @ PreAuthorize to work.

Step 1: Create a Custom User Class

Define a new class, CustomUser, which will extend org.springframework.security.core.userdetails.User. This custom class will add an ID field:

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Step 2: Update UserDetails Service

Next, we’ll modify the DatabaseUserDetailsService to return our CustomUser instead of the default User type:

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Step 3: Ensure Method Security is Enabled

It’s also essential to enable method security in your Spring Boot application. Add the @ EnableGlobalMethodSecurity annotation to your configuration class:

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Conclusion

By following these steps, you can successfully configure your Spring Boot application's security to recognize the logged-in user's ID. This allows the @ PreAuthorize annotation to function as intended, ensuring that users can only update their own information.

Testing your application after making these changes is crucial, so verify that the authorization behavior works as expected. With this configuration, you've not only improved your application's security but also enhanced user data management.

Now you can be confident that your REST API endpoints are secure and accessible only to the intended users. Happy coding!