Spring Boot JWT Security

JWT authentication and authorization patterns for Spring Boot 3.5.x using Spring Security 6.x and JJWT. Covers token generation, validation, refresh strategies, RBAC/ABAC, and OAuth2 integration.

Overview

This skill provides implementation patterns for stateless JWT authentication in Spring Boot applications. It covers the complete authentication flow including token generation with JJWT 0.12.6, Bearer/cookie-based authentication, refresh token rotation, and method-level authorization with @PreAuthorize expressions.

Key capabilities:

• Access and refresh token generation with configurable expiration
• Bearer token and HttpOnly cookie authentication strategies
• Integration with Spring Data JPA and OAuth2 providers
• RBAC with role/permission-based @PreAuthorize rules
• Token revocation and blacklisting for logout/rotation

When to Use

Activate when user requests involve:

• "Implement JWT authentication", "secure REST API with tokens"
• "Spring Security 6.x configuration", "SecurityFilterChain setup"
• "Role-based access control", "RBAC", `@PreAuthorize`
• "Refresh token", "token rotation", "token revocation"
• "OAuth2 integration", "social login", "Google/GitHub auth"
• "Stateless authentication", "SPA backend security"
• "JWT filter", "OncePerRequestFilter", "Bearer token"
• "Cookie-based JWT", "HttpOnly cookie"
• "Permission-based access control", "custom PermissionEvaluator"

Quick Reference

Dependencies (JJWT 0.12.6)

See references/jwt-quick-reference.md for Maven and Gradle snippets.

Key Configuration Properties

Authorization Annotations

Instructions

Step 1 — Add Dependencies

Include spring-boot-starter-security, spring-boot-starter-oauth2-resource-server, and the three JJWT artifacts in your build file. See references/jwt-quick-reference.md for exact Maven/Gradle snippets.

Step 2 — Configure application.yml

jwt:
  secret: ${JWT_SECRET:change-me-min-32-chars-in-production}
  access-token-expiration: 900000
  refresh-token-expiration: 604800000
  issuer: my-app
  cookie-name: jwt-token
  cookie-http-only: true
  cookie-secure: false   # true in production

See references/jwt-complete-configuration.md for the full properties reference.

Step 3 — Implement JwtService

Core operations: generate access token, generate refresh token, extract username, validate token.

@Service
public class JwtService {

    public String generateAccessToken(UserDetails userDetails) {
        return Jwts.builder()
            .subject(userDetails.getUsername())
            .issuer(issuer)
            .issuedAt(new Date())
            .expiration(new Date(System.currentTimeMillis() + accessTokenExpiration))
            .claim("authorities", getAuthorities(userDetails))
            .signWith(getSigningKey())
            .compact();
    }

    public boolean isTokenValid(String token, UserDetails userDetails) {
        try {
            String username = extractUsername(token);
            return username.equals(userDetails.getUsername()) && !isTokenExpired(token);
        } catch (JwtException e) {
            return false;
        }
    }
}

See references/jwt-complete-configuration.md for the complete JwtService including key management and claim extraction.

Step 4 — Create JwtAuthenticationFilter

Extend OncePerRequestFilter to extract a JWT from the Authorization: Bearer header (or HttpOnly cookie), validate it, and set the SecurityContext.

@Component
public class JwtAuthenticationFilter extends OncePerRequestFilter {

    @Override
    protected void doFilterInternal(HttpServletRequest request,
            HttpServletResponse response, FilterChain chain)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
        String authHeader = request.getHeader("Authorization");
        if (authHeader == null || !authHeader.startsWith("Bearer ")) {
            chain.doFilter(request, response);
            return;
        }
        String jwt = authHeader.substring(7);
        String username = jwtService.extractUsername(jwt);
        if (username != null && SecurityContextHolder.getContext().getAuthentication() == null) {
            UserDetails userDetails = userDetailsService.loadUserByUsername(username);
            if (jwtService.isTokenValid(jwt, userDetails)) {
                UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken authToken =
                    new UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken(
                        userDetails, null, userDetails.getAuthorities());
                authToken.setDetails(new WebAuthenticationDetailsSource().buildDetails(request));
                SecurityContextHolder.getContext().setAuthentication(authToken);
            }
        }
        chain.doFilter(request, response);
    }
}

See references/configuration.md for the cookie-based variant.

Step 5 — Configure SecurityFilterChain

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
@EnableMethodSecurity
public class SecurityConfig {

    @Bean
    public SecurityFilterChain securityFilterChain(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
        return http
            .csrf(AbstractHttpConfigurer::disable)
            .sessionManagement(s -> s.sessionCreationPolicy(SessionCreationPolicy.STATELESS))
            .