Session timeout leads to Access Denied in Spring MVC when CSRF integration with Spring Security

I have Integrated CSRF token with Spring Security in my Spring MVC Project. Everything works properly with CSRF token, token will be sent from client side to server side.

I have changed my logout process to make its POST method send CSRF token and it works fine.

I have faced a problem when session timeout is occurred, it needs to be redirected to spring default logout URL but it gives me Access Denied on that URL.

How to override this behavior?

I have included below line in Security config file

   <http>
         //Other config parameters
        <csrf/>
   </http>

Please let me know if anyone needs more information.

Solution

The question is a bit old, but answers are always useful.

First, this is a known issue with session-backed CSRF tokens, as described in the docs: CSRF Caveats - Timeouts.

To solve it, use some Javascript to detect imminent timeouts, use a session-independent CSRF token repository or create a custom AccessDeniedHandler route. I chose the latter:

Config XML:

<http>
    <!-- ... -->
    <access-denied-handler ref="myAccessDeniedHandler"/>
</http>

<bean id="myAccessDeniedHandler" class="package.MyAccessDeniedHandler">
    <!-- <constructor-arg ref="myInvalidSessionStrategy" /> -->
</bean>

MyAccessDeniedHandler:

public class MyAccessDeniedHandler implements AccessDeniedHandler {
    /* ... */
    @Override
    public void handle(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, AccessDeniedException exception)
            throws IOException, ServletException {
        if (exception instanceof MissingCsrfTokenException) {
            /* Handle as a session timeout (redirect, etc).
            Even better if you inject the InvalidSessionStrategy
            used by your SessionManagementFilter, like this:
            invalidSessionStrategy.onInvalidSessionDetected(request, response);
            */
        } else {
            /* Redirect to a error page, send HTTP 403, etc. */
        }
    }
}

Alternatively, you can define the custom handler as a DelegatingAccessDeniedHandler:

<bean id="myAccessDeniedHandler" class="org.springframework.security.web.access.DelegatingAccessDeniedHandler">
    <constructor-arg name="handlers">
        <map>
            <entry key="org.springframework.security.web.csrf.MissingCsrfTokenException">
                <bean class="org.springframework.security.web.session.InvalidSessionAccessDeniedHandler">
                    <constructor-arg name="invalidSessionStrategy" ref="myInvalidSessionStrategy" />
                </bean>
            </entry>
        </map>
    </constructor-arg>
    <constructor-arg name="defaultHandler">
        <bean class="org.springframework.security.web.access.AccessDeniedHandlerImpl">
            <property name="errorPage" value="/my_error_page"/>
        </bean>
    </constructor-arg>
</bean>