Seam Security - Authorization doesn't work (with workaround)

[demetrio812]

Hello,

I've followed the Seam 3 guide to add Authorization check using Seam Security, basically I have a custom @Admin annotation and I applied in Pages.java to avoid unauthorized access to the administration by users without the "admin" role.

If in the page I want to protect I add a viewAction, the system works as expected, if in the page I don't have any "page action" the system doesn't work.

Basically I debugged the Seam Security code and I have noticed that it correctly intercepts the annotation, calls the authorizer and correctly calls the redirectToAccessDeniedView() method in SecurityPhaseListener, the problems start here:

{code}
    private void redirectToAccessDeniedView(FacesContext context, UIViewRoot viewRoot) {
        // If a user has already done a redirect and rendered the response (possibly in an observer) we cannot do this output
        final PhaseId currentPhase = context.getCurrentPhaseId();
        if (!context.getResponseComplete() && !PhaseId.RENDER_RESPONSE.equals(currentPhase)) {
            AccessDeniedView accessDeniedView = viewConfigStore.getAnnotationData(viewRoot.getViewId(), AccessDeniedView.class);
            if (accessDeniedView == null || accessDeniedView.value() == null || accessDeniedView.value().isEmpty()) {
                log.warn("No AccessDeniedView is configured, returning 401 response (access denied). Please configure an AccessDeniedView in the ViewConfig.");
                context.getExternalContext().setResponseStatus(401);
                context.responseComplete();
                return;
            }
            String accessDeniedViewId = accessDeniedView.value();
            log.debugf("Redirecting to configured AccessDenied %s", accessDeniedViewId);
            NavigationHandler navHandler = context.getApplication().getNavigationHandler();
            navHandler.handleNavigation(context, "", accessDeniedViewId);
            context.renderResponse();
        }
    }
{code}

As you can see it goes on only if getResponseComplete()==false and we aren't in the RENDER_RESPONSE phase. If I directly access that page by writing it to the browser URL (or with a redirect) JSF goes directly to the RENDER_RESPONSE phase so the method above skips the redirect. In case I add the viewAction the INVOKE_APPLICATION view is called and everything works.

My workaround is to add @RestrictAtPhase(PhaseIdType.RESTORE_VIEW) to the annotation so that it gets called at the RESTORE_VIEW phase anyway, so that's the code:

{code}
@SecurityBindingType
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target({ElementType.FIELD, ElementType.TYPE, ElementType.METHOD})
@RestrictAtPhase(PhaseIdType.RESTORE_VIEW)
public @interface Admin { }
{code}

I don't think there are problems with this approach except if we need to run some action before the check...

Any hints?

Btw I think that Seam 3 need at least other 2 minor version updates to address at least the problems fixed by the community, I'm going to open another post about that topic.

Demetrio Filocamo