.. index:: single: Security
Screencast
Do you prefer video tutorials? Check out the Symfony Security screencast series.
Symfony's security system is incredibly powerful, but it can also be confusing to set up. Don't worry! In this article, you'll learn how to set up your app's security system step-by-step:
- :ref:`Installing security support <security-installation>`;
- :ref:`Create your User Class <create-user-class>`;
- :ref:`Authentication & Firewalls <security-yaml-firewalls>`;
- :ref:`Denying access to your app (authorization) <security-authorization>`;
- :ref:`Fetching the current User object <retrieving-the-user-object>`.
A few other important topics are discussed after.
In applications using :doc:`Symfony Flex </setup/flex>`, run this command to install the security feature before using it:
$ composer require symfony/security-bundle
No matter how you will authenticate (e.g. login form or API tokens) or where your user data will be stored (database, single sign-on), the next step is always the same: create a "User" class. The easiest way is to use the MakerBundle.
Let's assume that you want to store your user data in the database with Doctrine:
$ php bin/console make:user
The name of the security user class (e.g. User) [User]:
> User
Do you want to store user data in the database (via Doctrine)? (yes/no) [yes]:
> yes
Enter a property name that will be the unique "display" name for the user (e.g.
email, username, uuid [email]
> email
Does this app need to hash/check user passwords? (yes/no) [yes]:
> yes
created: src/Entity/User.php
created: src/Repository/UserRepository.php
updated: src/Entity/User.php
updated: config/packages/security.yaml
That's it! The command asks several questions so that it can generate exactly what
you need. The most important is the User.php
file itself. The only rule about
your User
class is that it must implement :class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Core\\User\\UserInterface`.
Feel free to add any other fields or logic you need. If your User
class is
an entity (like in this example), you can use the :ref:`make:entity command <doctrine-add-more-fields>`
to add more fields. Also, make sure to make and run a migration for the new entity:
$ php bin/console make:migration
$ php bin/console doctrine:migrations:migrate
In addition to your User
class, you also need a "User provider": a class that
helps with a few things, like reloading the User data from the session and some
optional features, like :doc:`remember me </security/remember_me>` and
:doc:`impersonation </security/impersonating_user>`.
Fortunately, the make:user
command already configured one for you in your
security.yaml
file under the providers
key.
If your User
class is an entity, you don't need to do anything else. But if
your class is not an entity, then make:user
will also have generated a
UserProvider
class that you need to finish. Learn more about user providers
here: :doc:`User Providers </security/user_provider>`.
Not all apps have "users" that need passwords. If your users have passwords,
you can control how those passwords are encoded in security.yaml
. The make:user
command will pre-configure this for you:
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: yaml # config/packages/security.yaml security: # ... encoders: # use your user class name here App\Entity\User: # bcrypt or argon2i are recommended # argon2i is more secure, but requires PHP 7.2 or the Sodium extension algorithm: bcrypt cost: 12 .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/packages/security.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <srv:container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/security" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:srv="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd"> <config> <!-- ... --> <encoder class="App\Entity\User" algorithm="bcrypt" cost="12"/> <!-- ... --> </config> </srv:container> .. code-block:: php // config/packages/security.php $container->loadFromExtension('security', [ // ... 'encoders' => [ 'App\Entity\User' => [ 'algorithm' => 'bcrypt', 'cost' => 12, ] ], // ... ]);
Now that Symfony knows how you want to encode the passwords, you can use the
UserPasswordEncoderInterface
service to do this before saving your users to
the database.
For example, by using :ref:`DoctrineFixturesBundle <doctrine-fixtures>`, you can create dummy database users:
$ php bin/console make:fixtures
The class name of the fixtures to create (e.g. AppFixtures):
> UserFixtures
Use this service to encode the passwords:
// src/DataFixtures/UserFixtures.php
+ use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\Encoder\UserPasswordEncoderInterface;
// ...
class UserFixtures extends Fixture
{
+ private $passwordEncoder;
+ public function __construct(UserPasswordEncoderInterface $passwordEncoder)
+ {
+ $this->passwordEncoder = $passwordEncoder;
+ }
public function load(ObjectManager $manager)
{
$user = new User();
// ...
+ $user->setPassword($this->passwordEncoder->encodePassword(
+ $user,
+ 'the_new_password'
+ ));
// ...
}
}
You can manually encode a password by running:
$ php bin/console security:encode-password
The security system is configured in config/packages/security.yaml
. The most
important section is firewalls
:
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: yaml # config/packages/security.yaml security: firewalls: dev: pattern: ^/(_(profiler|wdt)|css|images|js)/ security: false main: anonymous: ~ .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/packages/security.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <srv:container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/security" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:srv="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd"> <config> <firewall name="dev" pattern="^/(_(profiler|wdt)|css|images|js)/" security="false"/> <firewall name="main"> <anonymous/> </firewall> </config> </srv:container> .. code-block:: php // config/packages/security.php $container->loadFromExtension('security', [ 'firewalls' => [ 'dev' => [ 'pattern' => '^/(_(profiler|wdt)|css|images|js)/', 'security' => false, ), 'main' => [ 'anonymous' => null, ], ], ]);
A "firewall" is your authentication system: the configuration below it defines how your users will be able to authenticate (e.g. login form, API token, etc).
Only one firewall is active on each request: Symfony uses the pattern
key
to find the first match (you can also :doc:`match by host or other things </security/firewall_restriction>`).
The dev
firewall is really a fake firewall: it just makes sure that you don't
accidentally block Symfony's dev tools - which live under URLs like /_profiler
and /_wdt
.
All real URLs are handled by the main
firewall (no pattern
key means
it matches all URLs). But this does not mean that every URL requires authentication.
Nope, thanks to the anonymous
key, this firewall is accessible anonymously.
In fact, if you go to the homepage right now, you will have access and you'll see
that you're "authenticated" as anon.
. Don't be fooled by the "Yes" next to
Authenticated. The firewall verified that it does not know your identity, and so,
you are anonymous:
You'll learn later how to deny access to certain URLs or controllers.
Note
If you do not see the toolbar, install the :doc:`profiler </profiler>` with:
$ composer require --dev symfony/profiler-pack
Now that we understand our firewall, the next step is to create a way for your users to authenticate!
Authentication in Symfony can feel a bit "magic" at first. That's because, instead of building a route & controller to handle login, you'll activate an authentication provider: some code that runs automatically before your controller is called.
Symfony has several :doc:`built-in authentication providers </security/auth_providers>`. If your use-case matches one of these exactly, great! But, in most cases - including a login form - we recommend building a Guard Authenticator: a class that allows you to control every part of the authentication process (see the next section).
Tip
If your application logs users in via a third-party service such as Google, Facebook or Twitter (social login), check out the HWIOAuthBundle community bundle.
A Guard authenticator is a class that gives you complete control over your authentication process. There are many different ways to build an authenticator, so here are a few common use-cases:
For the most detailed description of authenticators and how they work, see :doc:`/security/guard_authentication`.
Users can now log in to your app using your login form. Great! Now, you need to learn how to deny access and work with the User object. This is called authorization, and its job is to decide if a user can access some resource (a URL, a model object, a method call, ...).
The process of authorization has two different sides:
- The user receives a specific set of roles when logging in (e.g.
ROLE_ADMIN
). - You add code so that a resource (e.g. URL, controller) requires a specific
"attribute" (most commonly a role like
ROLE_ADMIN
) in order to be accessed.
When a user logs in, Symfony calls the getRoles()
method on your User
object to determine which roles this user has. In the User
class that we
generated earlier, the roles are an array that's stored in the database, and
every user is always given at least one role: ROLE_USER
:
// src/Entity/User.php // ... /** * @ORM\Column(type="json") */ private $roles = []; public function getRoles(): array { $roles = $this->roles; // guarantee every user at least has ROLE_USER $roles[] = 'ROLE_USER'; return array_unique($roles); }
This is a nice default, but you can do whatever you want to determine which roles a user should have. Here are a few guidelines:
- Every role must start with
ROLE_
(otherwise, things won't work as expected) - Other than the above rule, a role is just a string and you can invent what you
need (e.g.
ROLE_PRODUCT_ADMIN
).
You'll use these roles next to grant access to specific sections of your site. You can also use a :ref:`role hierarchy <security-role-hierarchy>` where having some roles automatically give you other roles.
There are two ways to deny access to something:
- :ref:`access_control in security.yaml <security-authorization-access-control>`
allows you to protect URL patterns (e.g.
/admin/*
). Simpler, but less flexible; - :ref:`in your controller (or other code) <security-securing-controller>`.
The most basic way to secure part of your app is to secure an entire URL pattern
in security.yaml
. For example, to require ROLE_ADMIN
for all URLs that
start with /admin
, you can:
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: yaml # config/packages/security.yaml security: # ... firewalls: # ... main: # ... access_control: # require ROLE_ADMIN for /admin* - { path: ^/admin, roles: ROLE_ADMIN } .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/packages/security.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <srv:container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/security" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:srv="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd"> <config> <!-- ... --> <firewall name="main"> <!-- ... --> </firewall> <!-- require ROLE_ADMIN for /admin* --> <rule path="^/admin" role="ROLE_ADMIN"/> </config> </srv:container> .. code-block:: php // config/packages/security.php $container->loadFromExtension('security', [ // ... 'firewalls' => [ // ... 'main' => [ // ... ], ], 'access_control' => [ // require ROLE_ADMIN for /admin* ['path' => '^/admin', 'role' => 'ROLE_ADMIN'], ], ]);
You can define as many URL patterns as you need - each is a regular expression. BUT, only one will be matched per request: Symfony starts at the top of the list and stops when it finds the first match:
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: yaml # config/packages/security.yaml security: # ... access_control: # matches /admin/users/* - { path: ^/admin/users, roles: ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN } # matches /admin/* except for anything matching the above rule - { path: ^/admin, roles: ROLE_ADMIN } .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/packages/security.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <srv:container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/security" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:srv="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd"> <config> <!-- ... --> <rule path="^/admin/users" role="ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN"/> <rule path="^/admin" role="ROLE_ADMIN"/> </config> </srv:container> .. code-block:: php // config/packages/security.php $container->loadFromExtension('security', [ // ... 'access_control' => [ ['path' => '^/admin/users', 'role' => 'ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN'], ['path' => '^/admin', 'role' => 'ROLE_ADMIN'], ], ]);
Prepending the path with ^
means that only URLs beginning with the
pattern are matched. For example, a path of /admin
(without the ^
)
would match /admin/foo
but would also match URLs like /foo/admin
.
Each access_control
can also match on IP address, hostname and HTTP methods.
It can also be used to redirect a user to the https
version of a URL pattern.
See :doc:`/security/access_control`.
You can deny access from inside a controller:
// src/Controller/AdminController.php // ... public function adminDashboard() { $this->denyAccessUnlessGranted('ROLE_ADMIN'); // or add an optional message - seen by developers $this->denyAccessUnlessGranted('ROLE_ADMIN', null, 'User tried to access a page without having ROLE_ADMIN'); }
That's it! If access is not granted, a special :class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Core\\Exception\\AccessDeniedException` is thrown and no more code in your controller is executed. Then, one of two things will happen:
- If the user isn't logged in yet, they will be asked to log in (e.g. redirected to the login page).
- If the user is logged in, but does not have the
ROLE_ADMIN
role, they'll be shown the 403 access denied page (which you can :ref:`customize <controller-error-pages-by-status-code>`).
Thanks to the SensioFrameworkExtraBundle, you can also secure your controller using annotations:
// src/Controller/AdminController.php
// ...
+ use Sensio\Bundle\FrameworkExtraBundle\Configuration\IsGranted;
+ /**
+ * Require ROLE_ADMIN for *every* controller method in this class.
+ *
+ * @IsGranted("ROLE_ADMIN")
+ */
class AdminController extends AbstractController
{
+ /**
+ * Require ROLE_ADMIN for only this controller method.
+ *
+ * @IsGranted("ROLE_ADMIN")
+ */
public function adminDashboard()
{
// ...
}
}
For more information, see the FrameworkExtraBundle documentation.
If you want to check if the current access inside a template, use
the built-in is_granted()
helper function:
{% if is_granted('ROLE_ADMIN') %}
<a href="...">Delete</a>
{% endif %}
See :doc:`/security/securing_services`.
If you only want to check if a user is logged in (you don't care about roles),
you have two options. First, if you've given every user ROLE_USER
, you can
just check for that role. Otherwise, you can use a special "attribute" in place
of a role:
// ... public function adminDashboard() { $this->denyAccessUnlessGranted('IS_AUTHENTICATED_FULLY'); // ... }
You can use IS_AUTHENTICATED_FULLY
anywhere roles are used: like access_control
or in Twig.
IS_AUTHENTICATED_FULLY
isn't a role, but it kind of acts like one, and every
user that has logged in will have this. Actually, there are 3 special attributes
like this:
IS_AUTHENTICATED_REMEMBERED
: All logged in users have this, even if they are logged in because of a "remember me cookie". Even if you don't use the :doc:`remember me functionality </security/remember_me>`, you can use this to check if the user is logged in.IS_AUTHENTICATED_FULLY
: This is similar toIS_AUTHENTICATED_REMEMBERED
, but stronger. Users who are logged in only because of a "remember me cookie" will haveIS_AUTHENTICATED_REMEMBERED
but will not haveIS_AUTHENTICATED_FULLY
.IS_AUTHENTICATED_ANONYMOUSLY
: All users (even anonymous ones) have this - this is useful when whitelisting URLs to guarantee access - some details are in :doc:`/security/access_control`.
Imagine you are designing a blog where users can comment on your posts. You also want a user to be able to edit their own comments, but not those of other users. Also, as the admin user, you want to be able to edit all comments.
:doc:`Voters </security/voters>` allow you to write whatever business logic you need (e.g. the user can edit this post because they are the creator) to determine access. That's why voters are officially recommended by Symfony to create ACL-like security systems.
If you still prefer to use traditional ACLs, refer to the Symfony ACL bundle.
After authentication, the User
object of the current user can be accessed
via the getUser()
shortcut:
public function index() { // usually you'll want to make sure the user is authenticated first $this->denyAccessUnlessGranted('IS_AUTHENTICATED_FULLY'); // returns your User object, or null if the user is not authenticated // use inline documentation to tell your editor your exact User class /** @var \App\Entity\User $user */ $user = $this->getUser(); // Call whatever methods you've added to your User class // For example, if you added a getFirstName() method, you can use that. return new Response('Well hi there '.$user->getFirstName()); }
If you need to get the logged in user from a service, use the :class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Core\\Security` service:
// src/Service/ExampleService.php // ... use Symfony\Component\Security\Core\Security; class ExampleService { private $security; public function __construct(Security $security) { // Avoid calling getUser() in the constructor: auth may not // be complete yet. Instead, store the entire Security object. $this->security = $security; } public function someMethod() { // returns User object or null if not authenticated $user = $this->security->getUser(); } }
In a Twig Template the user object can be accessed via the :ref:`app.user <reference-twig-global-app>` key:
{% if is_granted('IS_AUTHENTICATED_FULLY') %}
<p>Email: {{ app.user.email }}</p>
{% endif %}
To enable logging out, activate the logout
config parameter under your firewall:
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: yaml # config/packages/security.yaml security: # ... firewalls: main: # ... logout: path: app_logout # where to redirect after logout # target: app_any_route .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/packages/security.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <srv:container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/security" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:srv="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd"> <config> <!-- ... --> <firewall name="secured_area"> <!-- ... --> <logout path="app_logout"/> </firewall> </config> </srv:container> .. code-block:: php // config/packages/security.php $container->loadFromExtension('security', [ // ... 'firewalls' => [ 'secured_area' => [ // ... 'logout' => ['path' => 'app_logout'], ], ], ]);
Next, you'll need to create a route for this URL (but not a controller):
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: php-annotations // src/Controller/SecurityController.php namespace App\Controller; use Symfony\Bundle\FrameworkBundle\Controller\AbstractController; use Symfony\Component\Routing\Annotation\Route; class SecurityController extends AbstractController { /** * @Route("/logout", name="app_logout", methods={"GET"}) */ public function logout() { // controller can be blank: it will never be executed! throw new \Exception('Don\'t forget to activate logout in security.yaml'); } } .. code-block:: yaml # config/routes.yaml app_logout: path: /logout methods: GET .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/routes.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <routes xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/routing" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/routing https://symfony.com/schema/routing/routing-1.0.xsd"> <route id="app_logout" path="/logout" methods="GET"/> </routes> .. code-block:: php // config/routes.php namespace Symfony\Component\Routing\Loader\Configurator; return function (RoutingConfigurator $routes) { $routes->add('logout', '/logout') ->methods(['GET']) ; };
And that's it! By sending a user to the app_logout
route (i.e. to /logout
)
Symfony will un-authenticate the current user and redirect them.
Tip
Need more control of what happens after logout? Add a success_handler
key
under logout
and point it to a service id of a class that implements
:class:`Symfony\\Component\\Security\\Http\\Logout\\LogoutSuccessHandlerInterface`.
Instead of giving many roles to each user, you can define role inheritance rules by creating a role hierarchy:
.. configuration-block:: .. code-block:: yaml # config/packages/security.yaml security: # ... role_hierarchy: ROLE_ADMIN: ROLE_USER ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN: [ROLE_ADMIN, ROLE_ALLOWED_TO_SWITCH] .. code-block:: xml <!-- config/packages/security.xml --> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <srv:container xmlns="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/security" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:srv="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services" xsi:schemaLocation="http://symfony.com/schema/dic/services https://symfony.com/schema/dic/services/services-1.0.xsd"> <config> <!-- ... --> <role id="ROLE_ADMIN">ROLE_USER</role> <role id="ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN">ROLE_ADMIN, ROLE_ALLOWED_TO_SWITCH</role> </config> </srv:container> .. code-block:: php // config/packages/security.php $container->loadFromExtension('security', [ // ... 'role_hierarchy' => [ 'ROLE_ADMIN' => 'ROLE_USER', 'ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN' => [ 'ROLE_ADMIN', 'ROLE_ALLOWED_TO_SWITCH', ], ], ]);
Users with the ROLE_ADMIN
role will also have the
ROLE_USER
role. And users with ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN
, will automatically have
ROLE_ADMIN
, ROLE_ALLOWED_TO_SWITCH
and ROLE_USER
(inherited from ROLE_ADMIN
).
For role hierarchy to work, do not try to call $user->getRoles()
manually.
For example, in a controller extending from the :ref:`base controller <the-base-controller-class-services>`:
// BAD - $user->getRoles() will not know about the role hierarchy $hasAccess = in_array('ROLE_ADMIN', $user->getRoles()); // GOOD - use of the normal security methods $hasAccess = $this->isGranted('ROLE_ADMIN'); $this->denyAccessUnlessGranted('ROLE_ADMIN');
Note
The role_hierarchy
values are static - you can't, for example, store the
role hierarchy in a database. If you need that, create a custom
:doc:`security voter </security/voters>` that looks for the user roles
in the database.
See :doc:`/security/security_checker`.
- Can I have Multiple Firewalls?
- Yes! But it's usually not necessary. Each firewall is like a separate security system. And so, unless you have very different authentication needs, one firewall usually works well. With :doc:`Guard authentication </security/guard_authentication>`, you can create various, diverse ways of allowing authentication (e.g. form login, API key authentication and LDAP) all under the same firewall.
- Can I Share Authentication Between Firewalls?
- Yes, but only with some configuration. If you're using multiple firewalls and you authenticate against one firewall, you will not be authenticated against any other firewalls automatically. Different firewalls are like different security systems. To do this you have to explicitly specify the same :ref:`reference-security-firewall-context` for different firewalls. But usually for most applications, having one main firewall is enough.
- Security doesn't seem to work on my Error Pages
- As routing is done before security, 404 error pages are not covered by any firewall. This means you can't check for security or even access the user object on these pages. See :doc:`/controller/error_pages` for more details.
- My Authentication Doesn't Seem to Work: No Errors, but I'm Never Logged In
Sometimes authentication may be successful, but after redirecting, you're logged out immediately due to a problem loading the
User
from the session. To see if this is an issue, check your log file (var/log/dev.log
) for the log message:> Cannot refresh token because user has changed.
If you see this, there are two possible causes. First, there may be a problem loading your User from the session. See :ref:`user_session_refresh`. Second, if certain user information was changed in the database since the last page refresh, Symfony will purposely log out the user for security reasons.
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1 security/form_login_setup security/guard_authentication security/auth_providers security/user_provider security/ldap security/remember_me security/impersonating_user security/user_checkers security/named_encoders security/multiple_guard_authenticators security/firewall_restriction security/csrf security/custom_authentication_provider
.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1 security/voters security/securing_services security/access_control security/access_denied_handler security/acl security/force_https security/security_checker