Authorization of web endpoints

Quarkus has an integrated pluggable web security layer. If security is enabled, all HTTP requests have a permission check performed to verify that they are allowed to continue. Therefore, you cannot use @PermitAll to open a path if the path is blocked by the quarkus.http.auth. configuration.

If you use Jakarta RESTful Web Services, consider using quarkus.security.jaxrs.deny-unannotated-endpoints or quarkus.security.jaxrs.default-roles-allowed to set default security requirements instead of HTTP path-level matching because annotations can override these properties on an individual endpoint.

Authorization is based on user roles that the security provider provides. To customize these roles, a SecurityIdentityAugmentor can be created, see Security Identity Customization.

Authorization using configuration

Permissions are defined in the Quarkus configuration using permission sets, each specifying a policy for access control.

Table 1. Quarkus policies summary
Built-in policy Description

deny

This policy denies all users.

permit

This policy permits all users.

authenticated

This policy permits only authenticated users.

You can define role-based policies that allow users with specific roles to access the resources.

Example of a role-based policy
quarkus.http.auth.policy.role-policy1.roles-allowed=user,admin                  (1)
1 This defines a role-based policy that allows users with the user and admin roles.

You can reference a custom policy by configuring the built-in permission sets that are defined in the application.properties file, as outlined in the following configuration example:

Example of policy configuration
quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.paths=/public/*                            (1)
quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.policy=permit
quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.methods=GET

quarkus.http.auth.permission.deny1.paths=/forbidden                             (2)
quarkus.http.auth.permission.deny1.policy=deny

quarkus.http.auth.permission.roles1.paths=/roles-secured/*,/other/*,/api/*      (3)
quarkus.http.auth.permission.roles1.policy=role-policy1
1 This permission references the default built-in permit policy to allow GET methods to /public. In this case, the demonstrated setting would not affect this example because this request is allowed anyway.
2 This permission references the built-in deny policy for /forbidden. It is an exact path match because it does not end with *.
3 This permission set references the previously defined policy. roles1 is an example name; you can call the permission sets whatever you want.

Matching on paths and methods

Permission sets can also specify paths and methods as a comma-separated list. If a path ends with the * wildcard, the query it generates matches all sub-paths. Otherwise, it queries for an exact match and only matches that specific path:

quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.paths=/public/*,/css/*,/js/*,/robots.txt
quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.policy=permit
quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.methods=GET,HEAD

Matching a path but not a method

The request is rejected if it matches one or more permission sets based on the path but none of the required methods.

Given the preceding permission set, GET /public/foo would match both the path and method and therefore be allowed. In contrast, POST /public/foo would match the path but not the method. It would therefore be rejected.

Matching multiple paths: longest path wins

Matching is always done on the "longest path wins" basis. Less specific permission sets are not considered if a more specific one has been matched:

quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.paths=/public/*
quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.policy=permit
quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.methods=GET,HEAD

quarkus.http.auth.permission.deny1.paths=/public/forbidden-folder/*
quarkus.http.auth.permission.deny1.policy=deny
Given the preceding permission set, GET /public/forbidden-folder/foo would match both permission sets' paths. However, because the longer path matches the path of the deny1 permission set, deny1 is chosen, and the request is rejected.

Subpath permissions always win against the root path permissions, as explained in the preceding deny1 versus permit1 permission example. Here is another example showing subpath permission allowing a public resource access with the root path permission requiring the authorization:

quarkus.http.auth.policy.user-policy.roles-allowed=user
quarkus.http.auth.permission.roles.paths=/api/*
quarkus.http.auth.permission.roles.policy=user-policy

quarkus.http.auth.permission.public.paths=/api/noauth/*
quarkus.http.auth.permission.public.policy=permit

Matching multiple paths: most specific method wins

When a path is registered with multiple permission sets, the permission sets explicitly specifying an HTTP method that matches the request take precedence. In this instance, the permission sets without methods only come into effect if the request method does not match permission sets with the method specification.

quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.paths=/public/*
quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.policy=permit
quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.methods=GET,HEAD

quarkus.http.auth.permission.deny1.paths=/public/*
quarkus.http.auth.permission.deny1.policy=deny

Given the preceding permission set, GET /public/foo would match the paths of both permission sets, but because it fits the explicit method of the permit1 permission set, permit1 is chosen, and the request is accepted.

Conversely, PUT /public/foo would not match the method permissions of permit1, so deny1 would be activated and reject the request.

Matching multiple paths and methods: both win

Sometimes, the previously described rules allow multiple permission sets to win simultaneously. In that case, for the request to proceed, all the permissions must allow access. For this to happen, both must either have specified the method or have no method. Method-specific matches take precedence.

quarkus.http.auth.policy.user-policy1.roles-allowed=user
quarkus.http.auth.policy.admin-policy1.roles-allowed=admin

quarkus.http.auth.permission.roles1.paths=/api/*,/restricted/*
quarkus.http.auth.permission.roles1.policy=user-policy1

quarkus.http.auth.permission.roles2.paths=/api/*,/admin/*
quarkus.http.auth.permission.roles2.policy=admin-policy1
Given the preceding permission set, GET /api/foo would match both permission sets' paths, requiring both the user and admin roles.

Configuration properties to deny access

The following configuration settings alter the role-based access control (RBAC) denying behavior:

quarkus.security.jaxrs.deny-unannotated-endpoints=true|false

If set to true, access is denied for all Jakarta REST endpoints by default. If a Jakarta REST endpoint has no security annotations, it defaults to the @DenyAll behavior. This helps you to avoid accidentally exposing an endpoint that is supposed to be secured. Defaults to false.

quarkus.security.jaxrs.default-roles-allowed=role1,role2

Defines the default role requirements for unannotated endpoints. The ** role is a special role that means any authenticated user. This cannot be combined with deny-unannotated-endpoints because deny takes effect instead.

quarkus.security.deny-unannotated-members=true|false

If set to true, the access is denied to all CDI methods and Jakarta REST endpoints that do not have security annotations but are defined in classes that contain methods with security annotations. Defaults to false.

Disabling permissions

Permissions can be disabled at build time with an enabled property for each declared permission, such as:

quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.enabled=false
quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.paths=/public/*,/css/*,/js/*,/robots.txt
quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.policy=permit
quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.methods=GET,HEAD

Permissions can be reenabled at runtime with a system property or environment variable, such as: -Dquarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.enabled=true.

Permission paths and HTTP root path

The quarkus.http.root-path configuration property changes the http endpoint context path.

By default, quarkus.http.root-path is prepended automatically to configured permission paths then do not use a forward slash, for example:

quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.paths=public/*,css/*,js/*,robots.txt

This configuration is equivalent to the following:

quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.paths=${quarkus.http.root-path}/public/*,${quarkus.http.root-path}/css/*,${quarkus.http.root-path}/js/*,${quarkus.http.root-path}/robots.txt

A leading slash changes how the configured permission path is interpreted. The configured URL is used as-is, and paths are not adjusted if the value of quarkus.http.root-path changes. For example:

quarkus.http.auth.permission.permit1.paths=/public/*,css/*,js/*,robots.txt

This configuration only impacts resources served from the fixed or static URL, /public, which might not match your application resources if quarkus.http.root-path has been set to something other than /.

For more information, see Path Resolution in Quarkus.

Authorization using annotations

Quarkus includes built-in security to allow for Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) based on the common security annotations @RolesAllowed, @DenyAll, @PermitAll on REST endpoints and CDI beans.

Table 2. Quarkus annotation types summary
Annotation type Description

@DenyAll

Specifies that no security roles are allowed to invoke the specified methods.

@PermitAll

Specifies that all security roles are allowed to invoke the specified methods.

@PermitAll lets everybody in, even without authentication.

@RolesAllowed

Specifies the list of security roles permitted to access methods in an application.

As an equivalent to @RolesAllowed("**"), Quarkus also provides the io.quarkus.security.Authenticated annotation that permits any authenticated user to access the resource.

The following SubjectExposingResource example demonstrates an endpoint that uses both Jakarta REST and Common Security annotations to describe and secure its endpoints.

SubjectExposingResource example
import java.security.Principal;

import jakarta.annotation.security.DenyAll;
import jakarta.annotation.security.PermitAll;
import jakarta.annotation.security.RolesAllowed;
import jakarta.ws.rs.GET;
import jakarta.ws.rs.Path;
import jakarta.ws.rs.core.Context;
import jakarta.ws.rs.core.SecurityContext;

@Path("subject")
public class SubjectExposingResource {

    @GET
    @Path("secured")
    @RolesAllowed("Tester") (1)
    public String getSubjectSecured(@Context SecurityContext sec) {
        Principal user = sec.getUserPrincipal(); (2)
        String name = user != null ? user.getName() : "anonymous";
        return name;
    }

    @GET
    @Path("unsecured")
    @PermitAll (3)
    public String getSubjectUnsecured(@Context SecurityContext sec) {
        Principal user = sec.getUserPrincipal(); (4)
        String name = user != null ? user.getName() : "anonymous";
        return name;
    }

    @GET
    @Path("denied")
    @DenyAll (5)
    public String getSubjectDenied(@Context SecurityContext sec) {
        Principal user = sec.getUserPrincipal();
        String name = user != null ? user.getName() : "anonymous";
        return name;
    }
}
1 The /subject/secured endpoint requires an authenticated user with the granted "Tester" role through the use of the @RolesAllowed("Tester") annotation.
2 The endpoint obtains the user principal from the Jakarta REST SecurityContext. This returns non-null for a secured endpoint.
3 The /subject/unsecured endpoint allows for unauthenticated access by specifying the @PermitAll annotation.
4 The call to obtain the user principal returns null if the caller is unauthenticated and non-null if the caller is authenticated.
5 The /subject/denied endpoint declares the @DenyAll annotation, disallowing all direct access to it as a REST method, regardless of the user calling it. The method is still invokable internally by other methods in this class.
If you plan to use standard security annotations on the IO thread, review the information in Proactive Authentication.

The @RolesAllowed annotation value supports property expressions including default values and nested property expressions. Configuration properties used with the annotation are resolved at runtime.

Table 3. Annotation value examples
Annotation Value explanation

@RolesAllowed("${admin-role}")

The endpoint allows users with the role denoted by the value of the admin-role property.

@RolesAllowed("${tester.group}-${tester.role}")

An example showing that the value can contain multiple variables.

@RolesAllowed("${customer:User}")

A default value demonstration. The required role is denoted by the value of the customer property. However, if that property is not specified, a role named User is required as a default.

Example of a property expressions usage in the @RolesAllowed annotation
admin=Administrator
tester.group=Software
tester.role=Tester
%prod.secured=User
%dev.secured=**
all-roles=Administrator,Software,Tester,User
import java.security.Principal;

import jakarta.annotation.security.DenyAll;
import jakarta.annotation.security.PermitAll;
import jakarta.annotation.security.RolesAllowed;
import jakarta.ws.rs.GET;
import jakarta.ws.rs.Path;
import jakarta.ws.rs.core.Context;
import jakarta.ws.rs.core.SecurityContext;

@Path("subject")
public class SubjectExposingResource {

    @GET
    @Path("admin")
    @RolesAllowed("${admin}") (1)
    public String getSubjectSecuredAdmin(@Context SecurityContext sec) {
        return getUsername(sec);
    }

    @GET
    @Path("software-tester")
    @RolesAllowed("${tester.group}-${tester.role}") (2)
    public String getSubjectSoftwareTester(@Context SecurityContext sec) {
        return getUsername(sec);
    }

    @GET
    @Path("user")
    @RolesAllowed("${customer:User}") (3)
    public String getSubjectUser(@Context SecurityContext sec) {
        return getUsername(sec);
    }

    @GET
    @Path("secured")
    @RolesAllowed("${secured}") (4)
    public String getSubjectSecured(@Context SecurityContext sec) {
        return getUsername(sec);
    }

    @GET
    @Path("list")
    @RolesAllowed("${all-roles}") (5)
    public String getSubjectList(@Context SecurityContext sec) {
        return getUsername(sec);
    }

    private String getUsername(SecurityContext sec) {
        Principal user = sec.getUserPrincipal();
        String name = user != null ? user.getName() : "anonymous";
        return name;
    }
}
1 The @RolesAllowed annotation value is set to the value of Administrator.
2 This /subject/software-tester endpoint requires an authenticated user that has been granted the role of "Software-Tester". It is possible to use multiple expressions in the role definition.
3 This /subject/user endpoint requires an authenticated user that has been granted the role "User" through the use of the @RolesAllowed("${customer:User}") annotation because we did not set the configuration property customer.
4 In production, this /subject/secured endpoint requires an authenticated user with the User role. In development mode, it allows any authenticated user.
5 Property expression all-roles will be treated as a collection type List, therefore the endpoint will be accessible for roles Administrator, Software, Tester and User.

Permission annotation

Quarkus also provides the io.quarkus.security.PermissionsAllowed annotation, which authorizes any authenticated user with the given permission to access the resource. This annotation is an extension of the common security annotations and checks the permissions granted to a SecurityIdentity instance.

Example of endpoints secured with the @PermissionsAllowed annotation
package org.acme.crud;

import io.quarkus.arc.Arc;
import io.vertx.ext.web.RoutingContext;
import jakarta.ws.rs.GET;
import jakarta.ws.rs.POST;
import jakarta.ws.rs.Path;
import jakarta.ws.rs.QueryParam;

import io.quarkus.security.PermissionsAllowed;

import java.security.BasicPermission;
import java.security.Permission;
import java.util.Collection;
import java.util.Collections;

@Path("/crud")
public class CRUDResource {

    @PermissionsAllowed("create") (1)
    @PermissionsAllowed("update")
    @POST
    @Path("/modify/repeated")
    public String createOrUpdate() {
        return "modified";
    }

    @PermissionsAllowed(value = {"create", "update"}, inclusive=true) (2)
    @POST
    @Path("/modify/inclusive")
    public String createOrUpdate(Long id) {
        return id + " modified";
    }

    @PermissionsAllowed({"see:detail", "see:all", "read"}) (3)
    @GET
    @Path("/id/{id}")
    public String getItem(String id) {
        return "item-detail-" + id;
    }

    @PermissionsAllowed(value = "list", permission = CustomPermission.class) (4)
    @Path("/list")
    @GET
    public Collection<String> list(@QueryParam("query-options") String queryOptions) {
        // your business logic comes here
        return Collections.emptySet();
    }

    public static class CustomPermission extends BasicPermission {

        public CustomPermission(String name) {
            super(name);
        }

        @Override
        public boolean implies(Permission permission) {
            var event = Arc.container().instance(RoutingContext.class).get(); (5)
            var publicContent = "public-content".equals(event.request().params().get("query-options"));
            var hasPermission = getName().equals(permission.getName());
            return hasPermission && publicContent;
        }
    }
}
1 The resource method createOrUpdate is only accessible for a user with both create and update permissions.
2 By default, at least one of the permissions specified through one annotation instance is required. You can require all permissions by setting inclusive=true. Both resource methods createOrUpdate have equal authorization requirements.
3 Access is granted to getItem if SecurityIdentity has either read permission or see permission and one of the all or detail actions.
4 You can use your preferred java.security.Permission implementation. By default, string-based permission is performed by io.quarkus.security.StringPermission.
5 Permissions are not beans, therefore the only way to obtain bean instances is programmatically by using Arc.container().
If you plan to use the @PermissionsAllowed on the IO thread, review the information in Proactive Authentication.
@PermissionsAllowed is not repeatable on the class level due to a limitation with Quarkus interceptors. For more information, see the Repeatable interceptor bindings section of the Quarkus "CDI reference" guide.

The easiest way to add permissions to a role-enabled SecurityIdentity instance is to map roles to permissions. Use Authorization using configuration to grant the required SecurityIdentity permissions for CRUDResource endpoints to authenticated requests, as outlined in the following example:

quarkus.http.auth.policy.role-policy1.permissions.user=see:all                                      (1)
quarkus.http.auth.policy.role-policy1.permissions.admin=create,update,read                          (2)
quarkus.http.auth.permission.roles1.paths=/crud/modify/*,/crud/id/*                                 (3)
quarkus.http.auth.permission.roles1.policy=role-policy1

quarkus.http.auth.policy.role-policy2.permissions.user=list
quarkus.http.auth.policy.role-policy2.permission-class=org.acme.crud.CRUDResource.CustomPermission  (4)
quarkus.http.auth.permission.roles2.paths=/crud/list
quarkus.http.auth.permission.roles2.policy=role-policy2
1 Add the permission see and the action all to the SecurityIdentity instance of the user role. Similarly, for the @PermissionsAllowed annotation, io.quarkus.security.StringPermission is used by default.
2 Permissions create, update, and read are mapped to the role admin.
3 The role policy role-policy1 allows only authenticated requests to access /crud/modify and /crud/id sub-paths. For more information about the path-matching algorithm, see Matching multiple paths: longest path wins later in this guide.
4 You can also specify a custom implementation of the java.security.Permission class. Your custom class must define exactly one constructor that accepts the permission name and optionally some actions, for example, String array. In this scenario, the permission list is added to the SecurityIdentity instance as new CustomPermission("list").

You can also create a custom java.security.Permission class with additional constructor parameters. These additional parameters get matched with arguments of the method annotated with the @PermissionsAllowed annotation. Later, Quarkus instantiates your custom permission with actual arguments, with which the method annotated with the @PermissionsAllowed has been invoked.

Example of a custom java.security.Permission class that accepts additional arguments
import java.security.Permission;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Set;

public class LibraryPermission extends Permission {

    private final Set<String> actions;
    private final Library library;

    public LibraryPermission(String libraryName, String[] actions, Library library) { (1)
        super(libraryName);
        this.actions = Set.copyOf(Arrays.asList(actions));
        this.library = library;
    }

    @Override
    public boolean implies(Permission requiredPermission) {
        if (requiredPermission instanceof LibraryPermission) {
            LibraryPermission that = (LibraryPermission) requiredPermission;
            boolean librariesMatch = getName().equals(that.getName());
            boolean requiredLibraryIsSublibrary = library.isParentLibraryOf(that.library);
            boolean hasOneOfRequiredActions = that.actions.stream().anyMatch(actions::contains);
            return (librariesMatch || requiredLibraryIsSublibrary) && hasOneOfRequiredActions;
        }
        return false;
    }

    ...

    public static abstract class Library {

        protected String description;

        abstract boolean isParentLibraryOf(Library library);

    }

    public static class MediaLibrary extends Library {

        @Override
        boolean isParentLibraryOf(Library library) {
            return library instanceof MediaLibrary;
        }
    }

    public static class TvLibrary extends MediaLibrary {
        ...
    }
}
1 There must be exactly one constructor of a custom Permission class. The first parameter is always considered to be a permission name and must be of type String. Quarkus can optionally pass permission actions to the constructor. For this to happen, declare the second parameter as String[].

The LibraryPermission class permits access to the current or parent library if SecurityIdentity is allowed to perform one of the required actions, for example, read, write, or list.

The following example shows how the LibraryPermission class can be used:

import io.quarkus.security.PermissionsAllowed;
import jakarta.enterprise.context.ApplicationScoped;

@ApplicationScoped
public class LibraryService {

    @PermissionsAllowed(value = "tv:write", permission = LibraryPermission.class) (1)
    public Library updateLibrary(String newDesc, Library update) {
        update.description = newDesc;
        return update;
    }

    @PermissionsAllowed(value = "tv:write", permission = LibraryPermission.class, params = "library") (2)
    @PermissionsAllowed(value = {"tv:read", "tv:list"}, permission = LibraryPermission.class)
    public Library migrateLibrary(Library migrate, Library library) {
        // migrate libraries
        return library;
    }

}
1 The formal parameter update is identified as the first Library parameter and gets passed to the LibraryPermission class. However, the LibraryPermission must be instantiated each time the updateLibrary method is invoked.
2 Here, the first Library parameter is migrate, therefore the library parameter gets marked explicitly through PermissionsAllowed#params. The permission constructor and the annotated method must have the parameter library set, otherwise, validation fails.
Example of a resource secured with the LibraryPermission
@Path("/library")
public class LibraryResource {

    @Inject
    LibraryService libraryService;

    @PermissionsAllowed(value = "tv:write", permission = LibraryPermission.class)
    @PUT
    @Path("/id/{id}")
    public Library updateLibrary(@PathParam("id") Integer id, Library library) {
        ...
    }

    @PUT
    @Path("/service-way/id/{id}")
    public Library updateLibrarySvc(@PathParam("id") Integer id, Library library) {
        String newDescription = "new description " + id;
        return libraryService.updateLibrary(newDescription, library);
    }

}

Similarly to the CRUDResource example, the following example shows how you can grant a user with the admin role permissions to update MediaLibrary:

package org.acme.library;

import java.security.Permission;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Set;

public class MediaLibraryPermission extends LibraryPermission {

    public MediaLibraryPermission(String libraryName, String[] actions) {
        super(libraryName, actions, new MediaLibrary());    (1)
    }

}
1 We want to pass the MediaLibrary instance to the LibraryPermission constructor.
quarkus.http.auth.policy.role-policy3.permissions.admin=media-library:list,media-library:read,media-library:write   (1)
quarkus.http.auth.policy.role-policy3.permission-class=org.acme.library.MediaLibraryPermission
quarkus.http.auth.permission.roles3.paths=/library/*
quarkus.http.auth.permission.roles3.policy=role-policy3
1 Grants the permission media-library, which permits read, write, and list actions. Because MediaLibrary is the TvLibrary class parent, a user with the admin role is also permitted to modify TvLibrary.

The examples provided so far use role-to-permission mapping. You can also add permissions to the SecurityIdentity instance programmatically. In the following example, SecurityIdentity is customized to add the same permission that was previously granted with the HTTP role-based policy.

Example of adding the LibraryPermission programmatically to SecurityIdentity
import java.security.Permission;
import java.util.function.Function;

import jakarta.enterprise.context.ApplicationScoped;

import io.quarkus.security.identity.AuthenticationRequestContext;
import io.quarkus.security.identity.SecurityIdentity;
import io.quarkus.security.identity.SecurityIdentityAugmentor;
import io.quarkus.security.runtime.QuarkusSecurityIdentity;
import io.smallrye.mutiny.Uni;

@ApplicationScoped
public class PermissionsIdentityAugmentor implements SecurityIdentityAugmentor {

    @Override
    public Uni<SecurityIdentity> augment(SecurityIdentity identity, AuthenticationRequestContext context) {
        if (isNotAdmin(identity)) {
            return Uni.createFrom().item(identity);
        }
        return Uni.createFrom().item(build(identity));
    }

    private boolean isNotAdmin(SecurityIdentity identity) {
        return identity.isAnonymous() || !"admin".equals(identity.getPrincipal().getName());
    }

    SecurityIdentity build(SecurityIdentity identity) {
        Permission possessedPermission = new MediaLibraryPermission("media-library",
                new String[] { "read", "write", "list"}); (1)
        return QuarkusSecurityIdentity.builder(identity)
                .addPermissionChecker(new Function<Permission, Uni<Boolean>>() { (2)
                    @Override
                    public Uni<Boolean> apply(Permission requiredPermission) {
                        boolean accessGranted = possessedPermission.implies(requiredPermission);
                        return Uni.createFrom().item(accessGranted);
                    }
                })
                .build();
    }

}
1 The permission media-library that was created can perform read, write, and list actions. Because MediaLibrary is the TvLibrary class parent, a user with the admin role is also permitted to modify TvLibrary.
2 You can add a permission checker through io.quarkus.security.runtime.QuarkusSecurityIdentity.Builder#addPermissionChecker.
Annotation permissions do not work with the custom Custom Jakarta REST SecurityContext because there are no permissions in jakarta.ws.rs.core.SecurityContext.