spring security manual login

Question

I am using spring security and want to login my users manually.

my controller looks like this:

 @RequestMapping("/login")
    public String login() {
        Authentication authenticationResult = authenticationManager.authenticate(new UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken("user2", "password"));
        SecurityContextHolder.getContext().setAuthentication(authenticationResult);
        return "redirect:/";
}

I found an example in the docs where such a login is made.

http://docs.spring.io/spring-security/site/docs/current/reference/htmlsingle/#what-is-authentication-in-spring-security

I just wanted to ask whether there are any downsides or security issues with this approach?

EDIT: If someone can point me to the class (&docs?) where the default spring /login request ist handled it might also answer my question as i could look how the login process is implemented spring internally

Answer 1

This is a work around when we need to do some process before the user logs in. The actual problem comes when you do the following things. Of course these are not problems :-).

1. If You are using spring remember-me token or custom authentication providers.
2. When you are using encrypted passwords in your DB.