Spring security 401 Unauthorized even with permitAll

Question

I'm using Spring security to secure some endpoints in my REST service.

here's the security configuration class:

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
@EnableGlobalMethodSecurity(securedEnabled = true, jsr250Enabled = true, prePostEnabled = true)
public class SecurityConfig extends WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter {

    // Other methods

    @Override
    protected void configure(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
        http
                .cors()
                .and()
                .csrf()
                .disable()
                .exceptionHandling()
                .authenticationEntryPoint(this.jwtAuthenticationEntryPoint)
                .and()
                .sessionManagement()
                .sessionCreationPolicy(SessionCreationPolicy.STATELESS)
                .and()
                .authorizeRequests()
                .antMatchers("/",
                        "/favicon.ico",
                        "/**/*.png",
                        "/**/*.gif",
                        "/**/*.svg",
                        "/**/*.jpg",
                        "/**/*.html",
                        "/**/*.css",
                        "/**/*.js")
                .permitAll()
                .antMatchers(HttpMethod.POST, "/api/auth/**")
                .permitAll()
                .anyRequest()
                .authenticated();

        // Add our custom JWT security filter
        http.addFilterBefore(jwtAuthenticationFilter(), UsernamePasswordAuthenticationFilter.class);

    }
}

As you can see i'm given the full access to /api/auth/signup and /api/auth/signin by using: .antMatchers(HttpMethod.POST, "/api/auth/**").permitAll()

for some reason when i tried those request in the postman, the "signup" request worked fine, but "signin" didn't works and gives me "401 Unauthorized"
i tried also .antMatchers("/**").permitAll()

here's my controller:

@RestController
public class UserController {

    private UserService userService;

    @Autowired
    public UserController(UserService userService) {
        this.userService = userService;
    }

    @PostMapping("/api/auth/signup")
    public ResponseEntity<RestResponse> registerUser(@Valid @RequestBody SignUpRequest signUpRequest,
                                                     UriComponentsBuilder uriComponentsBuilder)  {
        RestResponse restResponse = this.userService.register(signUpRequest);
        UriComponents uriComponents = uriComponentsBuilder.path("/users").buildAndExpand();
        return ResponseEntity.created(uriComponents.toUri()).body(restResponse);
    }

    @PostMapping("/api/auth/signin")
    public ResponseEntity<JwtAuthenticationResponse> authenticateUser(@Valid @RequestBody LoginRequest loginRequest) {
        return ResponseEntity.ok(this.userService.login(loginRequest));
    }
}

Answer 1

I had the same issue, not sure, but I think you need this order:

@Override
protected void configure(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
    http
            .authorizeRequests()
            .antMatchers(HttpMethod.POST, "/api/auth/**")
            .permitAll()
            .antMatchers("/",
                    "/favicon.ico",
                    "/**/*.png",
                    "/**/*.gif",
                    "/**/*.svg",
                    "/**/*.jpg",
                    "/**/*.html",
                    "/**/*.css",
                    "/**/*.js")
            .permitAll()                   
            .anyRequest()
            .authenticated()
            .and()
            .cors()
            .and()
            .exceptionHandling()
            .authenticationEntryPoint(this.jwtAuthenticationEntryPoint)
            .and()
            .sessionManagement()
            .sessionCreationPolicy(SessionCreationPolicy.STATELESS)
            .and()
            .csrf()
            .disable();

    // Add our custom JWT security filter
    http.addFilterBefore(jwtAuthenticationFilter(), UsernamePasswordAuthenticationFilter.class);

}

Answer 2

Your configuration is not working due to order in which the antMatcher is evaluated

 .and()
 .authorizeRequests()
 .antMatchers("/",
    "/favicon.ico",
    "/**/*.png",
    "/**/*.gif",
    "/**/*.svg",
    "/**/*.jpg",
    "/**/*.html",
    "/**/*.css",
    "/**/*.js")
 .permitAll()
 .antMatchers(HttpMethod.POST, "/api/auth/**")
 .permitAll()
 .anyRequest()
 .authenticated();

The order of the request match rule matters and more specific rules should go first. There is some conflict between both antMatcher rules and therefore the second rule i.e .antMatchers(HttpMethod.POST, "/api/auth/")** is ignored.

Therefore the order should be following :-

 .antMatchers(HttpMethod.POST, "/api/auth/**")
 .permitAll()
 .antMatchers("/",
    "/favicon.ico",
    "/**/*.png",
    "/**/*.gif",
    "/**/*.svg",
    "/**/*.jpg",
    "/**/*.html",
    "/**/*.css",
    "/**/*.js")
 .permitAll()