How to set same-site cookie flag in Spring Boot? - spring-boot

Question

Is it possible to set Same-Site Cookie flag in Spring Boot?
My problem in Chrome:
A cookie associated with a cross-site resource at http://google.com/
was set without the SameSite attribute. A future release of Chrome
will only deliver cookies with cross-site requests if they are set
with SameSite=None and Secure. You can review cookies in developer
tools under Application>Storage>Cookies and see more details at
https://www.chromestatus.com/feature/5088147346030592 and
https://www.chromestatus.com/feature/5633521622188032.
How to solve this problem?

Answer 1

Spring Boot 2.6.0
Spring Boot 2.6.0 now supports configuration of SameSite cookie attribute:
Configuration via properties
server.servlet.session.cookie.same-site=strict
Configuration via code
import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.server.CookieSameSiteSupplier;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
#Configuration(proxyBeanMethods = false)
public class MySameSiteConfiguration {
#Bean
public CookieSameSiteSupplier applicationCookieSameSiteSupplier() {
return CookieSameSiteSupplier.ofStrict();
}
}
Spring Boot 2.5.0 and below
Spring Boot 2.5.0-SNAPSHOT doesn't support SameSite cookie attribute and there is no setting to enable it.
The Java Servlet 4.0 specification doesn't support the SameSite cookie attribute. You can see available attributes by opening javax.servlet.http.Cookie java class.
However, there are a couple of workarounds. You can override Set-Cookie attribute manually.
The first approach (using custom Spring HttpFirewall) and wrapper around request:
You need to wrap request and adjust cookies right after session is created. You can achieve it by defining the following classes:
one bean (You can define it inside SecurityConfig if you want to hold everything in one place. I just put #Component annotation on it for brevity)
package hello.approach1;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import org.springframework.security.web.firewall.FirewalledRequest;
import org.springframework.security.web.firewall.HttpFirewall;
import org.springframework.security.web.firewall.RequestRejectedException;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
#Component
public class CustomHttpFirewall implements HttpFirewall {
#Override
public FirewalledRequest getFirewalledRequest(HttpServletRequest request) throws RequestRejectedException {
return new RequestWrapper(request);
}
#Override
public HttpServletResponse getFirewalledResponse(HttpServletResponse response) {
return new ResponseWrapper(response);
}
}
first wrapper class
package hello.approach1;
import java.util.Collection;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpSession;
import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
import org.springframework.security.web.firewall.FirewalledRequest;
import org.springframework.web.context.request.RequestContextHolder;
import org.springframework.web.context.request.ServletRequestAttributes;
/**
* Wrapper around HttpServletRequest that overwrites Set-Cookie response header and adds SameSite=None portion.
*/
public class RequestWrapper extends FirewalledRequest {
/**
* Constructs a request object wrapping the given request.
*
* #param request The request to wrap
* #throws IllegalArgumentException if the request is null
*/
public RequestWrapper(HttpServletRequest request) {
super(request);
}
/**
* Must be empty by default in Spring Boot. See FirewalledRequest.
*/
#Override
public void reset() {
}
#Override
public HttpSession getSession(boolean create) {
HttpSession session = super.getSession(create);
if (create) {
ServletRequestAttributes ra = (ServletRequestAttributes) RequestContextHolder.getRequestAttributes();
if (ra != null) {
overwriteSetCookie(ra.getResponse());
}
}
return session;
}
#Override
public String changeSessionId() {
String newSessionId = super.changeSessionId();
ServletRequestAttributes ra = (ServletRequestAttributes) RequestContextHolder.getRequestAttributes();
if (ra != null) {
overwriteSetCookie(ra.getResponse());
}
return newSessionId;
}
private void overwriteSetCookie(HttpServletResponse response) {
if (response != null) {
Collection<String> headers = response.getHeaders(HttpHeaders.SET_COOKIE);
boolean firstHeader = true;
for (String header : headers) { // there can be multiple Set-Cookie attributes
if (firstHeader) {
response.setHeader(HttpHeaders.SET_COOKIE, String.format("%s; %s", header, "SameSite=None")); // set
firstHeader = false;
continue;
}
response.addHeader(HttpHeaders.SET_COOKIE, String.format("%s; %s", header, "SameSite=None")); // add
}
}
}
}
second wrapper class
package hello.approach1;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponseWrapper;
/**
* Dummy implementation.
* To be aligned with RequestWrapper.
*/
public class ResponseWrapper extends HttpServletResponseWrapper {
/**
* Constructs a response adaptor wrapping the given response.
*
* #param response The response to be wrapped
* #throws IllegalArgumentException if the response is null
*/
public ResponseWrapper(HttpServletResponse response) {
super(response);
}
}
The second approach (using Spring's AuthenticationSuccessHandler):
This approach doesn't work for basic authentication.
In case basic authentication, response is flushed/committed right after controller returns response object, before SameSiteFilter#addSameSiteCookieAttribute is called.
package hello.approach2;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Collection;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
import org.springframework.security.core.Authentication;
import org.springframework.security.web.authentication.AuthenticationSuccessHandler;
public class AuthenticationSuccessHandlerImpl implements AuthenticationSuccessHandler {
#Override
public void onAuthenticationSuccess(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, Authentication authentication) throws IOException {
addSameSiteCookieAttribute(response); // add SameSite=strict to Set-Cookie attribute
response.sendRedirect("/hello"); // redirect to hello.html after success auth
}
private void addSameSiteCookieAttribute(HttpServletResponse response) {
Collection<String> headers = response.getHeaders(HttpHeaders.SET_COOKIE);
boolean firstHeader = true;
for (String header : headers) { // there can be multiple Set-Cookie attributes
if (firstHeader) {
response.setHeader(HttpHeaders.SET_COOKIE, String.format("%s; %s", header, "SameSite=Strict"));
firstHeader = false;
continue;
}
response.addHeader(HttpHeaders.SET_COOKIE, String.format("%s; %s", header, "SameSite=Strict"));
}
}
}
The third approach (using javax.servlet.Filter):
This approach doesn't work for basic authentication.
In case basic authentication, response is flushed/committed right after controller returns response object, before SameSiteFilter#addSameSiteCookieAttribute is called.
package hello.approach3;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Collection;
import javax.servlet.FilterChain;
import javax.servlet.FilterConfig;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.ServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.ServletResponse;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import org.springframework.http.HttpHeaders;
public class SameSiteFilter implements javax.servlet.Filter {
#Override
public void init(FilterConfig filterConfig) throws ServletException {
}
#Override
public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response, FilterChain chain) throws IOException, ServletException {
chain.doFilter(request, response);
addSameSiteCookieAttribute((HttpServletResponse) response); // add SameSite=strict cookie attribute
}
private void addSameSiteCookieAttribute(HttpServletResponse response) {
Collection<String> headers = response.getHeaders(HttpHeaders.SET_COOKIE);
boolean firstHeader = true;
for (String header : headers) { // there can be multiple Set-Cookie attributes
if (firstHeader) {
response.setHeader(HttpHeaders.SET_COOKIE, String.format("%s; %s", header, "SameSite=Strict"));
firstHeader = false;
continue;
}
response.addHeader(HttpHeaders.SET_COOKIE, String.format("%s; %s", header, "SameSite=Strict"));
}
}
#Override
public void destroy() {
}
}
You can look at this demo project on the GitHub for more details on the configuration for org.springframework.security.web.authentication.AuthenticationSuccessHandler or javax.servlet.Filter.
The SecurityConfig contains all the necessary configuration.
Using addHeader is not guaranteed to work because basically the
Servlet container manages the creation of the Session and Cookie. For
example, the second and third approaches won't work in case you return JSON in
response body because application server will overwrite Set-Cookie
header during flushing of response. However, second and third approaches will
work in cases, when you redirect a user to another page after successful
authentication.
Pay attention that Postman doesn't render/support SameSite cookie attribute under Cookies section (at least at the time of writing). You can look at Set-Cookie response header or use curl to see if SameSite cookie attribute was added.

Answer 2

This is an open issue with Spring Security (https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-security/issues/7537)
As I inspected in Spring-Boot (2.1.7.RELEASE), By Default it uses DefaultCookieSerializer which carry a property sameSite defaulting to Lax.
You can modify this upon application boot, through the following code.
Note: This is a hack until a real fix (configuration) is exposed upon next spring release.
#Component
#AllArgsConstructor
public class SameSiteInjector {
private final ApplicationContext applicationContext;
#EventListener
public void onApplicationEvent(ContextRefreshedEvent event) {
DefaultCookieSerializer cookieSerializer = applicationContext.getBean(DefaultCookieSerializer.class);
log.info("Received DefaultCookieSerializer, Overriding SameSite Strict");
cookieSerializer.setSameSite("strict");
}
}

Answer 3

From spring boot version 2.6.+ you may specify your samesite cookie either programatically or via configuration file.
Spring boot 2.6.0 documentation
If you would like to set samesite to lax via configuration file then:
server.servlet.session.cookie.same-site=lax
Or programatically
#Configuration
public class MySameSiteConfiguration {
#Bean
public CookieSameSiteSupplier applicationCookieSameSiteSupplier() {
return CookieSameSiteSupplier.ofLax();
}
}

Answer 4

Ever since the last update, chrome started showing that message to me too. Not really an answer regarding spring, but you can add the cookie flag to the header of the session. In my case, since I'm using spring security, I intend to add it when the user logs in, since I'm already manipulating the session in order to add authentication data.
For more info, check this answer to a similar topic: https://stackoverflow.com/a/43250133
To add the session header right after the user logs in, you can base your code on this topic (by creating a spring component that implements AuthenticationSuccessHandler): Spring Security. Redirect to protected page after authentication

Answer 5

For me none of the above worked. My problem was, that after a login, the SameSite flag created with other methods mentioned in this post was simply ignored by redirect mechanizm.
In our spring boot 2.4.4 application I managed to get it done with custom SameSiteHeaderWriter:
import org.springframework.security.web.header.HeaderWriter;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import static javax.ws.rs.core.HttpHeaders.SET_COOKIE;
/**
* This header writer just adds "SameSite=None;" to the Set-Cookie response header
*/
public class SameSiteHeaderWriter implements HeaderWriter {
private static final String SAME_SITE_NONE = "SameSite=None";
private static final String SECURE = "Secure";
#Override
public void writeHeaders(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) {
if (response.containsHeader(SET_COOKIE)) {
var setCookie = response.getHeader(SET_COOKIE);
var toAdd = new ArrayList<String>();
toAdd.add(setCookie);
if (! setCookie.contains(SAME_SITE_NONE)) {
toAdd.add(SAME_SITE_NONE);
}
if (! setCookie.contains(SECURE)) {
toAdd.add(SECURE);
}
response.setHeader(SET_COOKIE, String.join("; ", toAdd));
}
}
}
then in my WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter#configure I just added this header writer to the list using:
if (corsEnabled) {
httpSecurity = httpSecurity
.cors()
.and()
.headers(configurer -> {
configurer.frameOptions().disable();
configurer.addHeaderWriter(new SameSiteHeaderWriter());
});
}
This feature have to be explicitly enabled in our app by user knowing the risks.
Just thought this might help someone in the future.

Answer 6

Starting from Spring Boot 2.6.0 this is now possible and easy:
import org.springframework.http.ResponseCookie;
ResponseCookie springCookie = ResponseCookie.from("refresh-token", "000")
.sameSite("Strict")
.build();
and return it in a ResponseEntity, could be like this :
ResponseEntity
.ok()
.header(HttpHeaders.SET_COOKIE, springCookie.toString())
.build();

Answer 7

If you use spring-redis-session, you can customize the Cookie (🍪) by creating a bean like the following:
#Bean
public CookieSerializer cookieSerializer() {
DefaultCookieSerializer serializer = new DefaultCookieSerializer();
serializer.setCookieName("JSESSIONID");
serializer.setCookiePath("/");
serializer.setDomainNamePattern("^.+?\\.(\\w+\\.[a-z]+)$");
serializer.setSameSite(null);
return serializer;
}
You can look here more detail information.

Answer 8

Follow the documentation to solve this issue:
https://github.com/GoogleChromeLabs/samesite-examples
It has examples with different languages