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Stateless session configuration for REST APIs

In the context of securing RESTful web services with frameworks like Spring Security, stateless session configuration ensures that the application does not create or use HTTP sessions to store user state between requests.^[001-TODO__code-getway.md] This is a critical architectural requirement for REST APIs to ensure scalability and reduce server-side memory overhead, as the server should not maintain the client's state.

Implementation

This configuration is typically enforced by setting the SessionCreationPolicy to NEVER (or STATELESS) within the security configuration chain.^[001-TODO__code-getway.md] This instructs the security filter chain to strictly prohibit the creation of an HTTP session, forcing the application to authenticate and authorize every request individually based on the credentials (such as JWT tokens) provided in the request headers.

In a standard Spring WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter, the configuration explicitly disables CSRF protection (which often relies on sessions) and defines the session management strategy before applying authorization rules.^[001-TODO__code-getway.md]

@Override
protected void configure(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
    http
            .csrf().disable()
            .sessionManagement().sessionCreationPolicy(SessionCreationPolicy.NEVER)
            .and()
            .authorizeRequests()
            .anyRequest()
            .permitAll();
}
^[001-TODO__code-getway.md]

Interaction with Custom Validators

Because there is no session to cache user roles or permissions, validation logic must often inspect the raw security context on every request.^[001-TODO__code-getway.md]

For example, a custom validator might be invoked to check if a user possesses a specific permission required to perform a sensitive action, such as generating a report.^[001-TODO__code-getway.md] This involves retrieving the current Authentication object from the SecurityContextHolder, extracting the principal's granted authorities, and matching them against the required permission string derived from the request parameters.^[001-TODO__code-getway.md]

Sources

^[001-TODO__code-getway.md]