Using the new Authenticator-based Security
==========================================
.. versionadded:: 5.1
Authenticator-based security was introduced as an
:doc:`experimental feature ` in
Symfony 5.1.
In Symfony 5.1, a new authentication system was introduced. This system
changes the internals of Symfony Security, to make it more extensible
and more understandable.
Enabling the System
-------------------
The authenticator-based system can be enabled using the
``enable_authenticator_manager`` setting:
.. configuration-block::
.. code-block:: yaml
# config/packages/security.yaml
security:
enable_authenticator_manager: true
# ...
.. code-block:: xml
.. code-block:: php
// config/packages/security.php
$container->loadFromExtension('security', [
'enable_authenticator_manager' => true,
// ...
]);
The new system is backwards compatible with the current authentication
system, with some exceptions that will be explained in this article:
* :ref:`Anonymous users no longer exist `
* :ref:`Configuring the authentication entry point is required when more than one authenticator is used `
* :ref:`The authentication providers are refactored into Authenticators `
.. _authenticators-removed-anonymous:
Adding Support for Unsecured Access (i.e. Anonymous Users)
----------------------------------------------------------
In Symfony, visitors that haven't yet logged in to your website were called
:ref:`anonymous users `. The new system no longer
has anonymous authentication. Instead, these sessions are now treated as
unauthenticated (i.e. there is no security token). When using
``isGranted()``, the result will always be ``false`` (i.e. denied) as this
session is handled as a user without any privileges.
In the ``access_control`` configuration, you can use the new
``PUBLIC_ACCESS`` security attribute to whitelist some routes for
unauthenticated access (e.g. the login page):
.. configuration-block::
.. code-block:: yaml
# config/packages/security.yaml
security:
enable_authenticator_manager: true
# ...
access_control:
# allow unauthenticated users to access the login form
- { path: ^/admin/login, roles: PUBLIC_ACCESS }
# but require authentication for all other admin routes
- { path: ^/admin, roles: ROLE_ADMIN }
.. code-block:: xml
.. code-block:: php
// config/packages/security.php
use Symfony\Component\Security\Http\Firewall\AccessListener;
$container->loadFromExtension('security', [
'enable_authenticator_manager' => true,
// ...
'access_control' => [
// allow unauthenticated users to access the login form
['path' => '^/admin/login', 'roles' => AccessListener::PUBLIC_ACCESS],
// but require authentication for all other admin routes
['path' => '^/admin', 'roles' => 'ROLE_ADMIN'],
],
]);
.. _authenticators-required-entry-point:
Configuring the Authentication Entry Point
------------------------------------------
Sometimes, one firewall has multiple ways to authenticate (e.g. both a form
login and an API token authentication). In these cases, it is now required
to configure the *authentication entry point*. The entry point is used to
generate a response when the user is not yet authenticated but tries to access
a page that requires authentication. This can be used for instance to redirect
the user to the login page.
You can configure this using the ``entry_point`` setting:
.. configuration-block::
.. code-block:: yaml
# config/packages/security.yaml
security:
enable_authenticator_manager: true
# ...
firewalls:
main:
# allow authentication using a form or HTTP basic
form_login: ~
http_basic: ~
# configure the form authentication as the entry point for unauthenticated users
entry_point: form_login
.. code-block:: xml
.. code-block:: php
// config/packages/security.php
use Symfony\Component\Security\Http\Firewall\AccessListener;
$container->loadFromExtension('security', [
'enable_authenticator_manager' => true,
// ...
'firewalls' => [
'main' => [
// allow authentication using a form or HTTP basic
'form_login' => null,
'http_basic' => null,
// configure the form authentication as the entry point for unauthenticated users
'entry_point' => 'form_login'
],
],
]);
.. note::
You can also create your own authentication entry point by creating a
class that implements
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Http\\EntryPoint\\AuthenticationEntryPointInterface`.
You can then set ``entry_point`` to the service id (e.g.
``entry_point: App\Security\CustomEntryPoint``)
.. _authenticators-removed-authentication-providers:
Creating a Custom Authenticator
-------------------------------
Security traditionally could be extended by writing
:doc:`custom authentication providers `.
The authenticator-based system dropped support for these providers and
introduced a new authenticator interface as a base for custom
authentication methods.
.. tip::
:doc:`Guard authenticators ` are still
supported in the authenticator-based system. It is however recommended
to also update these when you're refactoring your application to the
new system. The new authenticator interface has many similarities with the
guard authenticator interface, making the rewrite easier.
Authenticators should implement the
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Http\\Authenticator\\AuthenticatorInterface`.
You can also extend
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Http\\Authenticator\\AbstractAuthenticator`,
which has a default implementation for the ``createAuthenticatedToken()``
method that fits most use-cases::
// src/Security/ApiKeyAuthenticator.php
namespace App\Security;
use App\Entity\User;
use Doctrine\ORM\EntityManagerInterface;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\JsonResponse;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\Authentication\Token\TokenInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\Exception\AuthenticationException;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\Exception\CustomUserMessageAuthenticationException;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\Exception\UsernameNotFoundException;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Http\Authenticator\AbstractAuthenticator;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Http\Authenticator\Passport\PassportInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Http\Authenticator\Passport\SelfValidatingPassport;
class ApiKeyAuthenticator extends AbstractAuthenticator
{
private $entityManager;
public function __construct(EntityManagerInterface $entityManager)
{
$this->entityManager = $entityManager;
}
/**
* Called on every request to decide if this authenticator should be
* used for the request. Returning `false` will cause this authenticator
* to be skipped.
*/
public function supports(Request $request): ?bool
{
return $request->headers->has('X-AUTH-TOKEN');
}
public function authenticate(Request $request): PassportInterface
{
$apiToken = $request->headers->get('X-AUTH-TOKEN');
if (null === $apiToken) {
// The token header was empty, authentication fails with HTTP Status
// Code 401 "Unauthorized"
throw new CustomUserMessageAuthenticationException('No API token provided');
}
$user = $this->entityManager->getRepository(User::class)
->findOneBy(['apiToken' => $apiToken])
;
if (null === $user) {
throw new UsernameNotFoundException();
}
return new SelfValidatingPassport($user);
}
public function onAuthenticationSuccess(Request $request, TokenInterface $token, string $firewallName): ?Response
{
// on success, let the request continue
return null;
}
public function onAuthenticationFailure(Request $request, AuthenticationException $exception): ?Response
{
$data = [
// you may want to customize or obfuscate the message first
'message' => strtr($exception->getMessageKey(), $exception->getMessageData())
// or to translate this message
// $this->translator->trans($exception->getMessageKey(), $exception->getMessageData())
];
return new JsonResponse($data, Response::HTTP_UNAUTHORIZED);
}
}
The authenticator can be enabled using the ``custom_authenticators`` setting:
.. configuration-block::
.. code-block:: yaml
# config/packages/security.yaml
security:
enable_authenticator_manager: true
# ...
firewalls:
main:
custom_authenticators:
- App\Security\ApiKeyAuthenticator
# don't forget to also configure the entry_point if the
# authenticator implements AuthenticatorEntryPointInterface
# entry_point: App\Security\CustomFormLoginAuthenticator
.. code-block:: xml
App\Security\ApiKeyAuthenticator
.. code-block:: php
// config/packages/security.php
use App\Security\ApiKeyAuthenticator;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Http\Firewall\AccessListener;
$container->loadFromExtension('security', [
'enable_authenticator_manager' => true,
// ...
'firewalls' => [
'main' => [
'custom_authenticators' => [
ApiKeyAuthenticator::class,
],
// don't forget to also configure the entry_point if the
// authenticator implements AuthenticatorEntryPointInterface
// 'entry_point' => [App\Security\CustomFormLoginAuthenticator::class],
],
],
]);
The ``authenticate()`` method is the most important method of the
authenticator. Its job is to extract credentials (e.g. username &
password, or API tokens) from the ``Request`` object and transform these
into a security
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Http\\Authenticator\\Passport\\Passport`.
.. tip::
If you want to customize the login form, you can also extend from the
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Http\\Authenticator\\AbstractLoginFormAuthenticator`
class instead.
Security Passports
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A passport is an object that contains the user that will be authenticated as
well as other pieces of information, like whether a password should be checked
or if "remember me" functionality should be enabled.
The default
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Http\\Authenticator\\Passport\\Passport`.
requires a user object and credentials. The following credential classes
are supported by default:
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Http\\Authenticator\\Passport\\Credentials\\PasswordCredentials`
This requires a plaintext ``$password``, which is validated using the
:ref:`password encoder configured for the user `.
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Http\\Authenticator\\Passport\\Credentials\\CustomCredentials`
Allows a custom closure to check credentials::
// ...
return new Passport($user, new CustomCredentials(
// If this function returns anything else than `true`, the credentials
// are marked as invalid.
// The $credentials parameter is equal to the next argument of this class
function ($credentials, UserInterface $user) {
return $user->getApiToken() === $credentials;
},
// The custom credentials
$apiToken
));
.. note::
If you don't need any credentials to be checked (e.g. a JWT token), you
can use the
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Http\\Authenticator\\Passport\\SelfValidatingPassport`.
This class only requires a user and optionally `Passport Badges`_.
Passport Badges
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The ``Passport`` also optionally allows you to add *security badges*.
Badges attach more data to the passport (to extend security). By default,
the following badges are supported:
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Http\\Authenticator\\Passport\\Badge\\RememberMeBadge`
When this badge is added to the passport, the authenticator indicates
remember me is supported. Whether remember me is actually used depends
on special ``remember_me`` configuration. Read
:doc:`/security/remember_me` for more information.
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Http\\Authenticator\\Passport\\Badge\\PasswordUpgradeBadge`
This is used to automatically upgrade the password to a new hash upon
successful login. This badge requires the plaintext password and a
password upgrader (e.g. the user repository). See :doc:`/security/password_migration`.
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Http\\Authenticator\\Passport\\Badge\\CsrfTokenBadge`
Automatically validates CSRF tokens for this authenticator during
authentication. The constructor requires a token ID (unique per form)
and CSRF token (unique per request). See :doc:`/security/csrf`.
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Http\\Authenticator\\Passport\\Badge\\PreAuthenticatedUserBadge`
Indicates that this user was pre-authenticated (i.e. before Symfony was
initiated). This skips the
:doc:`pre-authentication user checker `.
For instance, if you want to add CSRF and password migration to your custom
authenticator, you would initialize the passport like this::
// ...
use Symfony\Component\Security\Http\Authenticator\AbstractAuthenticator;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Http\Authenticator\Passport\Badge\CsrfTokenBadge;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Http\Authenticator\Passport\Badge\PasswordUpgradeBadge;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Http\Authenticator\Passport\Passport;
use Symfony\Component\Security\Http\Authenticator\Passport\PassportInterface;
class LoginAuthenticator extends AbstractAuthenticator
{
public function authenticate(Request $request): PassportInterface
{
$password = $request->request->get('password');
$username = $request->request->get('username');
$csrfToken = $request->request->get('csrf_token');
// ... get the $user from the $username and validate no
// parameter is empty
return new Passport($user, new PasswordCredentials($password), [
// $this->userRepository must implement PasswordUpgraderInterface
new PasswordUpgradeBadge($password, $this->userRepository),
new CsrfTokenBadge('login', $csrfToken);
]);
}
}