This tutorial explores Spring Security’s role based login. That means redirecting users to different URLs upon login according to their assigned roles. Let’s get going.

Basically what we have to do is to create a custom Success-Handler which will be responsible for redirecting the logged-in user to appropriate URL based on his/her role. Spring Security already provides SimpleUrlAuthenticationSuccessHandler which contains the generic logic for success handler. We will just extend this with our own redirect logic to achieve our goal.

Once we got this success handler, we will register it with formLogin() or loginPage() et voila. Complete example is shown below.

---

Following technologies being used:

• Spring 4.1.6.RELEASE
• Spring Security 4.0.1.RELEASE
• Maven 3
• JDK 1.7
• Tomcat 8.0.21
• Eclipse JUNO Service Release 2

Let’s begin.

Step 1: Project directory structure

Following will be the final project structure:

Let’s now add the content mentioned in above structure explaining each in detail.

Step 2: Update pom.xml to include required dependencies

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <groupId>com.websystique.springsecurity</groupId>
  <artifactId>SpringSecurityRoleBasedLoginExample</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.0</version>
  <packaging>war</packaging>

  <name>SpringSecurityRoleBasedLoginExample</name>

	<properties>
		<springframework.version>4.1.6.RELEASE</springframework.version>
		<springsecurity.version>4.0.1.RELEASE</springsecurity.version>
	</properties>

	<dependencies>
		<!-- Spring -->
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
			<version>${springframework.version}</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
			<version>${springframework.version}</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
			<version>${springframework.version}</version>
		</dependency>

		<!-- Spring Security -->
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-security-web</artifactId>
			<version>${springsecurity.version}</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-security-config</artifactId>
			<version>${springsecurity.version}</version>
		</dependency>

		<dependency>
			<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
			<artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
			<version>3.1.0</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
			<artifactId>javax.servlet.jsp-api</artifactId>
			<version>2.3.1</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
			<artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
			<version>1.2</version>
		</dependency>
	</dependencies>

	<build>
		<pluginManagement>
			<plugins>
				<plugin>
					<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
					<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
					<version>3.2</version>
					<configuration>
						<source>1.7</source>
						<target>1.7</target>
					</configuration>
				</plugin>
				<plugin>
					<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
					<artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
					<version>2.4</version>
					<configuration>
						<warSourceDirectory>src/main/webapp</warSourceDirectory>
						<warName>SpringSecurityRoleBasedLoginExample</warName>
						<failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
					</configuration>
				</plugin>
			</plugins>
		</pluginManagement>
		<finalName>SpringSecurityRoleBasedLoginExample</finalName>
	</build>
</project>

Step 3: Add Spring Security Configuration Class

The first and foremost step to add spring security in our application is to create Spring Security Java Configuration. This configuration creates a Servlet Filter known as the springSecurityFilterChain which is responsible for all the security (protecting the application URLs, validating submitted username and passwords, redirecting to the log in form, etc) within our application.

package com.websystique.springsecurity.configuration;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.authentication.builders.AuthenticationManagerBuilder;
import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.builders.HttpSecurity;
import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.configuration.EnableWebSecurity;
import org.springframework.security.config.annotation.web.configuration.WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter;

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
public class SecurityConfiguration extends WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter {

	@Autowired
	CustomSuccessHandler customSuccessHandler;

	@Autowired
	public void configureGlobalSecurity(AuthenticationManagerBuilder auth) throws Exception {
		auth.inMemoryAuthentication().withUser("bill").password("abc123").roles("USER");
		auth.inMemoryAuthentication().withUser("admin").password("root123").roles("ADMIN");
		auth.inMemoryAuthentication().withUser("dba").password("root123").roles("ADMIN","DBA");
	}

	@Override
	protected void configure(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
	  http.authorizeRequests()
	  	.antMatchers("/", "/home").access("hasRole('USER')")
	  	.antMatchers("/admin/**").access("hasRole('ADMIN')")
	  	.antMatchers("/db/**").access("hasRole('ADMIN') and hasRole('DBA')")
	  	.and().formLogin().loginPage("/login").successHandler(customSuccessHandler)
	  	.usernameParameter("ssoId").passwordParameter("password")
	  	.and().csrf()
	  	.and().exceptionHandling().accessDeniedPage("/Access_Denied");
	}

}

This class is similar to previous posts except one major difference:
formLogin().loginPage("/login").successHandler(customSuccessHandler). Look at successHandler. This is the class [shown below] responsible for eventual redirection based on any custom logic, which in our case will be to redirect the user [to home/admin/db ] based on his role [USER/ADMIN/DBA].

Above security configuration in XML configuration format would be:

<beans:beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/security"
    xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-4.1.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/security http://www.springframework.org/schema/security/spring-security-4.0.xsd">
     
    <http auto-config="true" >
        <intercept-url pattern="/" access="hasRole('USER')" />
        <intercept-url pattern="/home" access="hasRole('USER')" />
        <intercept-url pattern="/admin**" access="hasRole('ADMIN')" />
        <intercept-url pattern="/dba**" access="hasRole('ADMIN') and hasRole('DBA')" />
        <form-login  login-page="/login" 
                     username-parameter="ssoId" 
                     password-parameter="password" 
                     authentication-success-handler-ref="customSuccessHandler"
                     authentication-failure-url="/Access_Denied" />
        <csrf/>
    </http>
 
    <authentication-manager >
        <authentication-provider>
            <user-service>
                <user name="bill"  password="abc123"  authorities="ROLE_USER" />
                <user name="admin" password="root123" authorities="ROLE_ADMIN" />
                <user name="dba"   password="root123" authorities="ROLE_ADMIN,ROLE_DBA" />
            </user-service>
        </authentication-provider>
    </authentication-manager>
     
    <beans:bean id="customSuccessHandler" class="com.websystique.springsecurity.configuration.CustomSuccessHandler" />
    
</beans:beans>

Below is the Success-Handler referred in above class

package com.websystique.springsecurity.configuration;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.List;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import org.springframework.security.core.Authentication;
import org.springframework.security.core.GrantedAuthority;
import org.springframework.security.web.DefaultRedirectStrategy;
import org.springframework.security.web.RedirectStrategy;
import org.springframework.security.web.authentication.SimpleUrlAuthenticationSuccessHandler;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
public class CustomSuccessHandler extends SimpleUrlAuthenticationSuccessHandler {

	private RedirectStrategy redirectStrategy = new DefaultRedirectStrategy();

	@Override
	protected void handle(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Authentication authentication)
			throws IOException {
		String targetUrl = determineTargetUrl(authentication);

		if (response.isCommitted()) {
			System.out.println("Can't redirect");
			return;
		}

		redirectStrategy.sendRedirect(request, response, targetUrl);
	}

	/*
	 * This method extracts the roles of currently logged-in user and returns
	 * appropriate URL according to his/her role.
	 */
	protected String determineTargetUrl(Authentication authentication) {
		String url = "";

		Collection<? extends GrantedAuthority> authorities = authentication.getAuthorities();

		List<String> roles = new ArrayList<String>();

		for (GrantedAuthority a : authorities) {
			roles.add(a.getAuthority());
		}

		if (isDba(roles)) {
			url = "/db";
		} else if (isAdmin(roles)) {
			url = "/admin";
		} else if (isUser(roles)) {
			url = "/home";
		} else {
			url = "/accessDenied";
		}

		return url;
	}

	private boolean isUser(List<String> roles) {
		if (roles.contains("ROLE_USER")) {
			return true;
		}
		return false;
	}

	private boolean isAdmin(List<String> roles) {
		if (roles.contains("ROLE_ADMIN")) {
			return true;
		}
		return false;
	}

	private boolean isDba(List<String> roles) {
		if (roles.contains("ROLE_DBA")) {
			return true;
		}
		return false;
	}

	public void setRedirectStrategy(RedirectStrategy redirectStrategy) {
		this.redirectStrategy = redirectStrategy;
	}

	protected RedirectStrategy getRedirectStrategy() {
		return redirectStrategy;
	}

}

Notice how we are extending Spring SimpleUrlAuthenticationSuccessHandler class and overriding handle() method which simply invokes a redirect using configured RedirectStrategy [default in this case] with the URL returned by the user defined determineTargetUrl method. This method extracts the Roles of currently logged in user from Authentication object and then construct appropriate URL based on there roles. Finally RedirectStrategy , which is responsible for all redirections within Spring Security framework , redirects the request to specified URL.

REST OF THE STEPS ARE SAME AS PREVIOUS POST

Step 4: Register the springSecurityFilter with war

Below specified initializer class registes the springSecurityFilter [created in Step 3] with application war.

package com.websystique.springsecurity.configuration;

import org.springframework.security.web.context.AbstractSecurityWebApplicationInitializer;

public class SecurityWebApplicationInitializer extends AbstractSecurityWebApplicationInitializer {

}

Above setup in XML configuration format would be:

<filter>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class>
</filter>

<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>

Step 5: Add Controller

package com.websystique.springsecurity.controller;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;

import org.springframework.security.core.Authentication;
import org.springframework.security.core.context.SecurityContextHolder;
import org.springframework.security.core.userdetails.UserDetails;
import org.springframework.security.web.authentication.logout.SecurityContextLogoutHandler;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.ui.ModelMap;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;

@Controller
public class HelloWorldController {

	
	@RequestMapping(value = { "/", "/home" }, method = RequestMethod.GET)
	public String homePage(ModelMap model) {
		model.addAttribute("user", getPrincipal());
		return "welcome";
	}

	@RequestMapping(value = "/admin", method = RequestMethod.GET)
	public String adminPage(ModelMap model) {
		model.addAttribute("user", getPrincipal());
		return "admin";
	}
	
	@RequestMapping(value = "/db", method = RequestMethod.GET)
	public String dbaPage(ModelMap model) {
		model.addAttribute("user", getPrincipal());
		return "dba";
	}

	@RequestMapping(value = "/Access_Denied", method = RequestMethod.GET)
	public String accessDeniedPage(ModelMap model) {
		model.addAttribute("user", getPrincipal());
		return "accessDenied";
	}

	@RequestMapping(value = "/login", method = RequestMethod.GET)
	public String loginPage() {
		return "login";
	}

	@RequestMapping(value="/logout", method = RequestMethod.GET)
	public String logoutPage (HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) {
		Authentication auth = SecurityContextHolder.getContext().getAuthentication();
		if (auth != null){    
			new SecurityContextLogoutHandler().logout(request, response, auth);
		}
		return "redirect:/login?logout";
	}

	private String getPrincipal(){
		String userName = null;
		Object principal = SecurityContextHolder.getContext().getAuthentication().getPrincipal();

		if (principal instanceof UserDetails) {
			userName = ((UserDetails)principal).getUsername();
		} else {
			userName = principal.toString();
		}
		return userName;
	}

}

Step 6: Add SpringMVC Configuration Class

package com.websystique.springsecurity.configuration;

import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.ComponentScan;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.ViewResolver;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.EnableWebMvc;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.ResourceHandlerRegistry;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.config.annotation.WebMvcConfigurerAdapter;
import org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView;

@Configuration
@EnableWebMvc
@ComponentScan(basePackages = "com.websystique.springsecurity")
public class HelloWorldConfiguration extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter{
	
	@Bean
	public ViewResolver viewResolver() {
		InternalResourceViewResolver viewResolver = new InternalResourceViewResolver();
		viewResolver.setViewClass(JstlView.class);
		viewResolver.setPrefix("/WEB-INF/views/");
		viewResolver.setSuffix(".jsp");

		return viewResolver;
	}

     /*
     * Configure ResourceHandlers to serve static resources like CSS/ Javascript etc...
     */
    @Override
    public void addResourceHandlers(ResourceHandlerRegistry registry) {
        registry.addResourceHandler("/static/**").addResourceLocations("/static/");
    }
}

Step 7: Add Initializer class

package com.websystique.springsecurity.configuration;

import org.springframework.web.servlet.support.AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherServletInitializer;

public class SpringMvcInitializer extends AbstractAnnotationConfigDispatcherServletInitializer {

	@Override
	protected Class<?>[] getRootConfigClasses() {
		return new Class[] { HelloWorldConfiguration.class };
	}
 
	@Override
	protected Class<?>[] getServletConfigClasses() {
		return null;
	}
 
	@Override
	protected String[] getServletMappings() {
		return new String[] { "/" };
	}

}

Step 8: Add Views

login.jsp
This view additionally contains CSS for login panel layout.

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
<html>
	<head>
		<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
		<title>Login page</title>
		<link href="<c:url value='/static/css/bootstrap.css' />"  rel="stylesheet"></link>
		<link href="<c:url value='/static/css/app.css' />" rel="stylesheet"></link>
		<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/font-awesome/4.2.0/css/font-awesome.css" />
	</head>

	<body>
		<div id="mainWrapper">
			<div class="login-container">
				<div class="login-card">
					<div class="login-form">
						<c:url var="loginUrl" value="/login" />
						<form action="${loginUrl}" method="post" class="form-horizontal">
							<c:if test="${param.error != null}">
								<div class="alert alert-danger">
									<p>Invalid username and password.</p>
								</div>
							</c:if>
							<c:if test="${param.logout != null}">
								<div class="alert alert-success">
									<p>You have been logged out successfully.</p>
								</div>
							</c:if>
							<div class="input-group input-sm">
								<label class="input-group-addon" for="username"><i class="fa fa-user"></i></label>
								<input type="text" class="form-control" id="username" name="ssoId" placeholder="Enter Username" required>
							</div>
							<div class="input-group input-sm">
								<label class="input-group-addon" for="password"><i class="fa fa-lock"></i></label> 
								<input type="password" class="form-control" id="password" name="password" placeholder="Enter Password" required>
							</div>
							<input type="hidden" name="${_csrf.parameterName}"  value="${_csrf.token}" />
								
							<div class="form-actions">
								<input type="submit"
									class="btn btn-block btn-primary btn-default" value="Log in">
							</div>
						</form>
					</div>
				</div>
			</div>
		</div>

	</body>
</html>

As mentioned in previous posts as well, CSRF related line in above jsp:

<input type="hidden" name="${_csrf.parameterName}" value="${_csrf.token}" /></strong>

is required to protect against CSRF attacks. As you can see, the CSRF parameters are accessed using EL expressions in your JSP, you may additionally prefer to force EL expressions to be evaluated, by adding following to the top of your JSP:

<%@ page isELIgnored="false"%>

welcome.jsp

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
<html>
<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
	<title>Welcome page</title>
</head>
<body>
	Dear <strong>${user}</strong>, Welcome to Home Page.
	<a href="<c:url value="/logout" />">Logout</a>
</body>
</html>

admin.jsp

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
<html>
<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
	<title>Admin page</title>
</head>
<body>
	Dear <strong>${user}</strong>, Welcome to Admin Page.
	<a href="<c:url value="/logout" />">Logout</a>
</body>
</html>

dba.jsp

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
<html>
<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
	<title>DBA page</title>
</head>
<body>
	Dear <strong>${user}</strong>, Welcome to DBA Page.
	<a href="<c:url value="/logout" />">Logout</a>
</body>
</html>

accessDenied.jsp

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
<html>
<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
	<title>AccessDenied page</title>
</head>
<body>
	Dear <strong>${user}</strong>, You are not authorized to access this page
	<a href="<c:url value="/logout" />">Logout</a>
</body>
</html>

In case you need it, here is the quick & dirty CSS i used for this example:
app.css

html{
	background-color:#2F2F2F;
}

body, #mainWrapper {
	height: 100%;
	background-image: -webkit-gradient(
	linear,
	right bottom,
	right top,
	color-stop(0, #EDEDED),
	color-stop(0.08, #EAEAEA),
	color-stop(1, #2F2F2F),
	color-stop(1, #AAAAAA)
);
background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #EDEDED 0%, #EAEAEA 8%, #2F2F2F 100%, #AAAAAA 100%);
background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #EDEDED 0%, #EAEAEA 8%, #2F2F2F 100%, #AAAAAA 100%);
background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #EDEDED 0%, #EAEAEA 8%, #2F2F2F 100%, #AAAAAA 100%);
background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #EDEDED 0%, #EAEAEA 8%, #2F2F2F 100%, #AAAAAA 100%);
background-image: linear-gradient(to top, #EDEDED 0%, #EAEAEA 8%, #2F2F2F 100%, #AAAAAA 100%);
}

body, #mainWrapper, .form-control{
	font-size:12px!important;
}

#mainWrapper {
	height: 100vh; 
	padding-left:10px;
	padding-right:10px;
	padding-bottom:10px;
}

#authHeaderWrapper{
	clear:both;
	width: 100%;
	height:3%;
	padding-top:5px;
	padding-bottom:5px;
}

.login-container {
    margin-top: 100px;
    background-color: floralwhite;
    width: 40%;
    left: 30%;
    position: absolute;
}

.login-card {
    width: 80%;
    margin: auto;
}
.login-form {
    padding: 10%;
}

Step 9: Build and Deploy the application

Now build the war (either by eclipse/m2eclipse) or via maven command line( mvn clean install). Deploy the war to a Servlet 3.0 container . Since here i am using Tomcat, i will simply put this war file into tomcat webapps folder and click on start.bat inside tomcat bin directory.

Run the application
Open browser and goto localhost:8080/SpringSecurityRoleBasedLoginExample/, you will be prompted for login

Provide credentials of DBA

submit, you will be taken directly to /db page as the logged-in user has DBA role. ROLE-BASED-LOGIN

Now logout, and fill-in credentials of a USER role.

Provide wrong password & submit.

Provide correct USER role credentials, you will be redirected to home page.

Now try to access admin page.You should see AccessDenied page.

Now logout and login with ADMIN credentials, you will be taken to /admin URL.

That’s it. Next post shows you Spring Security database authentication using Hibernate annotation based approach.

Download Source Code

References

• Spring Security 4 Project Page
• Spring Security 4 Reference Manual