How do I return a 403 Forbidden in Spring MVC?

Question

I want my controller to return the right HTTP response code when the user lacks permission to view a particular page.

Answer 1

Create an Exception annotated with @ResponseStatus e.g. like this:

@ResponseStatus(HttpStatus.FORBIDDEN)
public class ForbiddenException extends RuntimeException {
}

Now just throw that Exception in your handler method and the response will have status 403.