How to add jwt authendication header with all requests in spring security?

Question

I followed this link and set up the jwt authentication. It is working fine. All requests are made from java script by attaching the authentication header like below in that.

    $.ajax({
        url: "/user",
        type: "GET",
        contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
        dataType: "json",
        headers: "Authorization": token,
        success: function (data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
            var $userInfoBody = $userInfo.find("#userInfoBody");

            $userInfoBody.append($("<div>").text("Username: " + data.username));
            $userInfoBody.append($("<div>").text("Email: " + data.email));

            var $authorityList = $("<ul>");
            data.authorities.forEach(function (authorityItem) {
                $authorityList.append($("<li>").text(authorityItem.authority));
            });
            var $authorities = $("<div>").text("Authorities:");
            $authorities.append($authorityList);
            $userInfoBody.append($authorities);
            $userInfo.show();
        }
    });

But I want this to be attached to all the subsequent requests not via javascript.

Here is my security Config

httpSecurity
            // we don't need CSRF because our token is invulnerable
            .csrf()
            .disable()
            .exceptionHandling()
            .authenticationEntryPoint(unauthorizedHandler)
            .and()
            // don't create session
            .sessionManagement()
            .sessionCreationPolicy(SessionCreationPolicy.STATELESS)
            .and()
            .authorizeRequests()
            // .antMatchers(HttpMethod.OPTIONS, "/**").permitAll()
            // allow anonymous resource requests
            .antMatchers(HttpMethod.GET, "/*.html", "/favicon.ico", "/**/*.html", "/**/*.css", "/**/*.js")
            .permitAll().antMatchers("/auth/**").permitAll().antMatchers("/vendors/**").permitAll()
            .antMatchers("/production/images/**").permitAll().anyRequest().authenticated().and().formLogin()
            .loginPage("/login").loginProcessingUrl("/loginprocess").failureUrl("/?loginFailure=true").permitAll();

Here is my authentication filter

    public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response, FilterChain chain) throws IOException,
        ServletException {
    HttpServletRequest httpRequest = (HttpServletRequest) request;
    String authToken = httpRequest.getHeader(this.tokenHeader);
    // authToken.startsWith("Bearer ")
    // String authToken = header.substring(7);
    String username = jwtTokenUtil.getUsernameFromToken(authToken);
    System.out.println("Token is " + authToken);
    System.out.println("Username is " + username);
    System.out.println("Audience is from " + jwtTokenUtil.getAudienceFromToken(authToken));
    if (username != null && SecurityContextHolder.getContext().getAuthentication() == null) {
        UserDetails userDetails = this.userDetailsService.loadUserByUsername(username);
        System.out.println(userDetails.getAuthorities());
        if (jwtTokenUtil.validateToken(authToken, userDetails)) {
            UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken authentication = new UsernamePasswordAuthenticationToken(
                    userDetails, null, userDetails.getAuthorities());
            authentication.setDetails(new WebAuthenticationDetailsSource().buildDetails(httpRequest));
            SecurityContextHolder.getContext().setAuthentication(authentication);
        } else {
            System.out.println("Token is invalid ");
        }
    }
    chain.doFilter(request, response);
}

How can I attach the authentication header to the response from the server after authentication. So that all the subsequent requests will automatically go with that authentication header.

Is the approach I am thinking is correct? Or any other best approach is there?

Answer 1

The front end is responsible for adding the header to every request, not the back end. If you don't want to do this using JS, you can use a secure, httponly cookie. When you set a cookie form the backend, it will include it on every subsequent request to the domain it was issued from.

However, there are some security concerns with using a cookie. This article does a good job of explaining the security considerations.