Invalid CSRF Token 'null' was found on the request parameter '_csrf' or header 'X-CSRF-TOKEN'

Question

After configuring Spring Security 3.2, _csrf.token is not bound to a request or a session object.

This is the spring security config:

<http pattern="/login.jsp" security="none"/>

<http>
    <intercept-url pattern="/**" access="ROLE_USER"/>
    <form-login login-page="/login.jsp"
                authentication-failure-url="/login.jsp?error=1"
                default-target-url="/index.jsp"/>
    <logout/>
    <csrf />
</http>

<authentication-manager>
    <authentication-provider>
        <user-service>
            <user name="test" password="test" authorities="ROLE_USER/>
        </user-service>
    </authentication-provider>
</authentication-manager>

The login.jsp file

<form name="f" action="${contextPath}/j_spring_security_check" method="post" >
    <input type="hidden" name="${_csrf.parameterName}" value="${_csrf.token}" />
    <button id="ingresarButton"
            name="submit"
            type="submit"
            class="right"
            style="margin-right: 10px;">Ingresar</button>
    <span>
        <label for="usuario">Usuario :</label>
        <input type="text" name="j_username" id="u" class="" value=''/>
    </span>
    <span>
        <label for="clave">Contrase&ntilde;a :</label>

        <input type="password"
               name="j_password"
               id="p"
               class=""
               onfocus="vc_psfocus = 1;"
               value="">
    </span>
</form>

And it renders the next html:

<input type="hidden" name="" value="" />

The result is 403 HTTP status:

Invalid CSRF Token 'null' was found on the request parameter '_csrf' or header 'X-CSRF-TOKEN'.

UPDATE After some debug, the request object gets out fine form DelegatingFilterProxy, but in the line 469 of CoyoteAdapter it executes request.recycle(); that erases all the attributes...

I test in Tomcat 6.0.36, 7.0.50 with JDK 1.7.

I have not understood this behavior, rather than, it would be possible if someone point me in the direction of some application sample war with Spring Security 3.2 that works with CSRF.

Answer 1

It looks like the CSRF (Cross Site Request Forgery) protection in your Spring application is enabled. Actually it is enabled by default.

According to spring.io:

When should you use CSRF protection? Our recommendation is to use CSRF protection for any request that could be processed by a browser by normal users. If you are only creating a service that is used by non-browser clients, you will likely want to disable CSRF protection.

So to disable it:

@Configuration
public class RestSecurityConfig extends WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter {
  @Override
  protected void configure(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
    http.csrf().disable();
  }
}

If you want though to keep CSRF protection enabled then you have to include in your form the csrftoken. You can do it like this:

<form .... >
  ....other fields here....
  <input type="hidden"  name="${_csrf.parameterName}"   value="${_csrf.token}"/>
</form>

You can even include the CSRF token in the form's action:

<form action="./upload?${_csrf.parameterName}=${_csrf.token}" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">

Answer 2

Shouldn't you add to the login form?;

<input type="hidden" name="${_csrf.parameterName}" value="${_csrf.token}"/> 

As stated in the here in the Spring security documentation

Answer 3

If you will apply security="none" then no csrf token will be generated. The page will not pass through security filter. Use role ANONYMOUS.

I have not gone in details, but it is working for me.

 <http auto-config="true" use-expressions="true">
   <intercept-url pattern="/login.jsp" access="hasRole('ANONYMOUS')" />
   <!-- you configuration -->
   </http>

Answer 4

Try to change this: <csrf /> to this : <csrf disabled="true"/>. It should disable csfr.

Answer 5

With thymeleaf you may add:

<input type="hidden" th:name="${_csrf.parameterName}" th:value="${_csrf.token}"/>

Answer 6

Spring documentation to disable csrf: https://docs.spring.io/spring-security/site/docs/current/reference/html/csrf.html#csrf-configure

@EnableWebSecurity
public class WebSecurityConfig extends
WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter {

   @Override
   protected void configure(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
      http.csrf().disable();
   }
}

Answer 7

I used to have the same problem.

Your config use security="none" so cannot generate _csrf:

<http pattern="/login.jsp" security="none"/>

you can set access="IS_AUTHENTICATED_ANONYMOUSLY" for page /login.jsp replace above config：

<http>
    <intercept-url pattern="/login.jsp*" access="IS_AUTHENTICATED_ANONYMOUSLY"/>
    <intercept-url pattern="/**" access="ROLE_USER"/>
    <form-login login-page="/login.jsp"
            authentication-failure-url="/login.jsp?error=1"
            default-target-url="/index.jsp"/>
    <logout/>
    <csrf />
</http>

Answer 8

i think csrf only works with spring forms

<%@ taglib prefix="form" uri="http://www.springframework.org/tags/form" %>

change to form:form tag and see it that works.

Answer 9

Please see my working sample application on Github and compare with your set up.

Answer 10

Neither one of the solutions worked form me. The only one that worked for me in Spring form is:

action="./upload?${_csrf.parameterName}=${_csrf.token}"

REPLACED WITH:

action="./upload?_csrf=${_csrf.token}"

(Spring 5 with enabled csrf in java configuration)

Answer 11

In your controller add the following:

@RequestParam(value = "_csrf", required = false) String csrf

And on jsp page add

<form:form modelAttribute="someName" action="someURI?${_csrf.parameterName}=${_csrf.token}

Answer 12

I have used Spring 4.2.3 version jar for spring security but I got the same error. Then I downgraded to 3.1.4 and this work perfectly.

Here is my dependencies from pom.xml:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.3.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-beans</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.3.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.3.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-jdbc</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.3.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.3.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.3.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
    <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
    <version>1.2</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>mysql</groupId>
    <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
    <version>5.1.26</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>javax.validation</groupId>
    <artifactId>validation-api</artifactId>
    <version>1.1.0.Final</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate</artifactId>
    <version>3.5.4-Final</version>
    <type>pom</type>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.hibernate</groupId>
    <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
    <version>5.0.1.Final</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>commons-validator</groupId>
    <artifactId>commons-validator</artifactId>
    <version>1.4.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-security-core</artifactId>
    <version>3.1.4.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-security-web</artifactId>
    <version>3.1.4.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.security</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-security-config</artifactId>
    <version>3.1.4.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>