In-Memory Authentication

Spring Security’s InMemoryUserDetailsManager implements UserDetailsService to provide support for username/password based authentication that is stored in memory. InMemoryUserDetailsManager provides management of UserDetails by implementing the UserDetailsManager interface. UserDetails-based authentication is used by Spring Security when it is configured to accept a username and password for authentication.

In the following sample, we use Spring Boot CLI to encode a password value of password and get the encoded password of {bcrypt}$2a$10$GRLdNijSQMUvl/au9ofL.eDwmoohzzS7.rmNSJZ.0FxO/BTk76klW:

InMemoryUserDetailsManager Java Configuration

Java
XML
Kotlin

@Bean
public UserDetailsService users() {
	UserDetails user = User.builder()
		.username("user")
		.password("{bcrypt}$2a$10$GRLdNijSQMUvl/au9ofL.eDwmoohzzS7.rmNSJZ.0FxO/BTk76klW")
		.roles("USER")
		.build();
	UserDetails admin = User.builder()
		.username("admin")
		.password("{bcrypt}$2a$10$GRLdNijSQMUvl/au9ofL.eDwmoohzzS7.rmNSJZ.0FxO/BTk76klW")
		.roles("USER", "ADMIN")
		.build();
	return new InMemoryUserDetailsManager(user, admin);
}

<user-service>
	<user name="user"
		password="{bcrypt}$2a$10$GRLdNijSQMUvl/au9ofL.eDwmoohzzS7.rmNSJZ.0FxO/BTk76klW"
		authorities="ROLE_USER" />
	<user name="admin"
		password="{bcrypt}$2a$10$GRLdNijSQMUvl/au9ofL.eDwmoohzzS7.rmNSJZ.0FxO/BTk76klW"
		authorities="ROLE_USER,ROLE_ADMIN" />
</user-service>

@Bean
fun users(): UserDetailsService {
    val user = User.builder()
        .username("user")
        .password("{bcrypt}$2a$10\$GRLdNijSQMUvl/au9ofL.eDwmoohzzS7.rmNSJZ.0FxO/BTk76klW")
        .roles("USER")
        .build()
    val admin = User.builder()
        .username("admin")
        .password("{bcrypt}$2a$10\$GRLdNijSQMUvl/au9ofL.eDwmoohzzS7.rmNSJZ.0FxO/BTk76klW")
        .roles("USER", "ADMIN")
        .build()
    return InMemoryUserDetailsManager(user, admin)
}

The preceding samples store the passwords in a secure format but leave a lot to be desired in terms of a getting started experience.

In the following sample, we use User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder to ensure that the password stored in memory is protected. However, it does not protect against obtaining the password by decompiling the source code. For this reason, User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder should only be used for “getting started” and is not intended for production.

InMemoryUserDetailsManager with User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder

Java
Kotlin

@Bean
public UserDetailsService users() {
	// The builder will ensure the passwords are encoded before saving in memory
	UserBuilder users = User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder();
	UserDetails user = users
		.username("user")
		.password("password")
		.roles("USER")
		.build();
	UserDetails admin = users
		.username("admin")
		.password("password")
		.roles("USER", "ADMIN")
		.build();
	return new InMemoryUserDetailsManager(user, admin);
}

@Bean
fun users(): UserDetailsService {
    // The builder will ensure the passwords are encoded before saving in memory
    val users = User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder()
    val user = users
        .username("user")
        .password("password")
        .roles("USER")
        .build()
    val admin = users
        .username("admin")
        .password("password")
        .roles("USER", "ADMIN")
        .build()
    return InMemoryUserDetailsManager(user, admin)
}

There is no simple way to use User.withDefaultPasswordEncoder with XML-based configuration. For demos or just getting started, you can choose to prefix the password with {noop} to indicate no encoding should be used:

<user-service> {noop} XML Configuration

<user-service>
	<user name="user"
		password="{noop}password"
		authorities="ROLE_USER" />
	<user name="admin"
		password="{noop}password"
		authorities="ROLE_USER,ROLE_ADMIN" />
</user-service>