sec:authorize with role hierarchy not working

[neojonas]

I can't get sec:authorize hasRole() to work with the role hierarchy. If I have a user with role ROLE_BOSS which is the parent of ROLE_WORKER, then <sec:authorize access="hasRole('ROLE_WORKER')"> is false for some reason. In my service classes @PreAuthorize("hasRole('ROLE_WORKER')") does work however. I assumed they both used the same evaluator, so why doesn't the taglib work? Thanks for the help.

JSP:

      <sec:authorize access="hasRole('ROLE_BOSS')">
        <p>This shows up.</p>
      </sec:authorize>
      <sec:authorize access="hasRole('ROLE_WORKER')">
        <p>This does not show up, but should.</p>
      </sec:authorize>

-config.xml security:

  <bean id="expressionHandler" class="org.springframework.security.access.expression.method.DefaultMethodSecurityExpressionHandler">
    <property name="permissionEvaluator" ref="permissionEvaluator"/>
    <property name="roleHierarchy" ref="roleHierarchy"/>
  </bean>

  <sec:global-method-security pre-post-annotations="enabled">
    <sec:expression-handler ref="expressionHandler"/>
  </sec:global-method-security>

  <bean id="permissionEvaluator" class="com.myapp.security.MyPermissionEvaluator">
    <constructor-arg index="0">
      <map key-type="java.lang.String" value-type="com.myapp.security.Permission">
        <entry key="contractReadAccess" value-ref="contractReadPermission"/>
        <entry key="contractWriteAccess" value-ref="contractWritePermission"/>
      </map>
    </constructor-arg>
  </bean>

  <bean id="contractReadPermission" class="com.myapp.security.ContractReadPermission"/>
  <bean id="contractWritePermission" class="com.myapp.security.ContractWritePermission"/>

  <sec:http use-expressions="true" access-decision-manager-ref="accessDecisionManager">
    <sec:intercept-url pattern="/worker/**" access="isAuthenticated()" requires-channel="https"/>
    <sec:intercept-url pattern="/boss/**" access="hasRole('ROLE_BOSS')" requires-channel="https"/>

    <sec:form-login login-page="/login" authentication-failure-url="/login?login_error=1" authentication-success-handler-ref="successHandler"/>
    <sec:logout logout-url="/logout" logout-success-url="/login" invalidate-session="true"/>
    <sec:remember-me/>
  </sec:http>

  <bean id="accessDecisionManager" class="org.springframework.security.access.vote.AffirmativeBased">
    <constructor-arg>
      <list>
        <ref bean="roleVoter" />
        <bean class="org.springframework.security.web.access.expression.WebExpressionVoter">
          <property name="expressionHandler">
            <bean class="org.springframework.security.web.access.expression.DefaultWebSecurityExpressionHandler">
              <property name="roleHierarchy" ref="roleHierarchy"/>
            </bean>
          </property>
        </bean>
        <bean class="org.springframework.security.access.vote.AuthenticatedVoter"/>
      </list>
    </constructor-arg>
  </bean>

  <bean id="roleVoter" class="org.springframework.security.access.vote.RoleHierarchyVoter">
    <constructor-arg ref="roleHierarchy" />
  </bean>

  <bean id="roleHierarchy" class="org.springframework.security.access.hierarchicalroles.RoleHierarchyImpl">
    <property name="hierarchy">
      <value>
        ROLE_BOSS > ROLE_WORKER
      </value>
    </property>
  </bean>

  <sec:authentication-manager alias="authenticationManager">
    <sec:authentication-provider user-service-ref="myUserDetailsService"/>
  </sec:authentication-manager>

[neojonas]

Very strange and I don't think this is correct, but it seems to work. I started digging through the Spring source code and I think I got it to work by taking the DefaultWebSecurityExpressionHandler out of the accessDecisionManager and placing it at the very top of all my security configurations. So at the top of my -config.xml I have this:

  <bean id="webExpressionHandler" class="org.springframework.security.web.access.expression.DefaultWebSecurityExpressionHandler">
    <property name="permissionEvaluator" ref="permissionEvaluator"/>
    <property name="roleHierarchy" ref="roleHierarchy"/>
  </bean>

And my accessDecisionManager is now:

  <bean id="accessDecisionManager" class="org.springframework.security.access.vote.AffirmativeBased">
    <constructor-arg>
      <list>
        <ref bean="roleVoter" />
        <bean class="org.springframework.security.web.access.expression.WebExpressionVoter">
          <property name="expressionHandler" ref="webExpressionHandler"/>
        </bean>
        <bean class="org.springframework.security.access.vote.AuthenticatedVoter"/>
      </list>
    </constructor-arg>
  </bean>

[neojonas]

I have a working webExpressionHandler and methodExpressionHandler, but for the life of me I can't get (HttpServletRequest)request.isUserInRole("ROLE_WOR KER") to return true when I am just a ROLE_BOSS, which should be the parent of ROLE_WORKER. Why is this?

[cdavid15]

Have you had any luck in resolving this?

I have come across the exact same problem yesterday and I am tearing my hair out.

The Role RoleHierarchyVoter works as expected within the intercept urls but when I try and use it through the authorize taglibs the WebExpressionVoter blatantly ignores the roles and simply denies access.