spring-projects / spring-projects/spring-security

DefaultAuthorizationManagerFactory.anonymous() applies additionalAuthorization

Open Beginner friendly
#19,334 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

status: waiting-for-triage
Dominant language
Java
Stars
9.6k
Forks
6.3k
Avg merge
2d 11h
Merged PRs (30d)
52

Description

Describe the bug

DefaultAuthorizationManagerFactory.anonymous() applies the configured additionalAuthorization, which contradicts the documented contract of setAdditionalAuthorization(...):

This does not affect anonymous, permitAll, or denyAll.

permitAll() and denyAll() are correctly unaffected, but anonymous() is affected.

To Reproduce

DefaultAuthorizationManagerFactory<String> factory = new DefaultAuthorizationManagerFactory<>();
// any additional gate that an anonymous user cannot satisfy (e.g. an MFA factor requirement)
factory.setAdditionalAuthorization((authentication, object) -> new AuthorizationDecision(false));

AuthorizationManager<String> anonymous = factory.anonymous();
Authentication anonymousToken = new AnonymousAuthenticationToken("key", "anonymousUser",
        AuthorityUtils.createAuthorityList("ROLE_ANONYMOUS"));

// Expected (per the contract): granted, because anonymous() is not affected by additionalAuthorization
boolean granted = anonymous.authorize(() -> anonymousToken, "").isGranted();
// Actual: false

Equivalently, when configured through AuthorizationManagerFactories.multiFactor().requireFactors(...), anonymous requests are denied because an anonymous user holds none of the required factors.

Expected behavior

anonymous() is not affected by additionalAuthorization (as documented), so an anonymous authentication is granted.

Root cause

anonymous() routes through the same createManager(AuthenticatedAuthorizationManager) path as authenticated(), fullyAuthenticated(), and rememberMe(), which wraps the manager via withAdditionalAuthorization(...). permitAll() and denyAll() are inherited interface defaults and never go through that path, so they remain unaffected.

I will submit a PR with a regression test.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start at DefaultAuthorizationManagerFactory.anonymous() and trace its createManager(AuthenticatedAuthorizationManager) and withAdditionalAuthorization path. Add the regression test described in the issue, then verify that anonymous() remains granted when additionalAuthorization denies access while authenticated() behavior is unchanged.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java, spring
Domain
authorization, security
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
74/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.