Full companion repo for the ankurm.com post "Spring Security Context Propagation: The Complete Guide" -- every code example the post discusses now has a corresponding runnable, verified demo (JDK 25, Spring Security 7.1.1, Spring Boot 4.1.1 dependency versions), not just the virtual-thread/structured-concurrency sections: - Demo1PlainThreadLocal: InheritableThreadLocal across thread models (no Spring) - Demo2AsyncVirtualThreads: @Async on a virtual-thread SimpleAsyncTaskExecutor (DelegatingSecurityContextExecutor vs ContextPropagatingTaskDecorator) - Demo3StructuredConcurrency: StructuredTaskScope.fork() propagation - Demo4ExecutorWrapping: DelegatingSecurityContextExecutorService/Executor/ AsyncTaskExecutor on a classic pooled platform-thread executor -- the post's "Using @Async" / "Using ExecutorService" / "Using CompletableFuture" sections - Demo5ReactiveContext: ReactiveSecurityContextHolder vs. ThreadLocal across a Reactor scheduler hop -- the post's WebFlux/getProfile() section - Demo6ScheduledSystemIdentity: DelegatingSecurityContextTaskScheduler's actual per-call capture semantics (confirmed via bytecode before writing the demo) and the createSystemContext() pattern -- the post's scheduled-tasks section - Demo7ServletFilterPersistence: SecurityContextHolderFilter (load-only) vs. SecurityContextPersistenceFilter (load+auto-save), against real filter instances and a real HttpSession -- the post's servlet-environment section - SecurityContextPropagationContractTest: 10 JUnit tests pinning the above as assertions instead of printed lines, including a TestSecurityContextHolder-based test reproducing the post's own "Testing Security Context Propagation" section Thirteen edge cases discovered along the way are indexed in docs/08 with links into the chapter that reproduces each one -- a reused pool worker NOT leaking under the Delegating* wrappers (unlike Demo1's InheritableThreadLocal), the common ForkJoinPool trap, why there's no DelegatingSecurityContextStructuredTaskScope and never will be, a real NullPointerException from Reactor's map() hit while writing the reactive test, per-call (not per-construction) context capture in DelegatingSecurityContextTaskScheduler, and the precise load-vs-save split between the two servlet filters, among others. docs/01-08 are numbered, cross-linked chapters with prev/next navigation; README indexes all demos, chapters, captured output, and the edge-case list. scripts/run-all.sh regenerates every docs/output/*.txt and the test suite output from one command.
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68 lines
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Markdown
# 2. @Async, DelegatingSecurityContextExecutor, and virtual threads on Boot 4.1
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[← Prev: InheritableThreadLocal](01-inheritable-threadlocal.md) | [Next: Structured concurrency →](03-structured-concurrency.md)
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`Demo2AsyncVirtualThreads.java` reproduces the exact executor bean Spring Boot 4.1 wires up
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when you set `spring.threads.virtual.enabled=true`: a `SimpleAsyncTaskExecutor` with
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`setVirtualThreads(true)`. That bean backs `@Async`, MVC async request handling, and WebFlux's
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blocking-execution support. It is not a `ThreadPoolTaskExecutor` and never has a fixed pool of
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workers to reuse -- see [Chapter 1](01-inheritable-threadlocal.md) for why that matters.
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Four scenarios, same question each time: does the async task see the `Authentication` that was
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active on the calling thread? Full output in [`docs/output/demo2.txt`](output/demo2.txt).
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## A) Default mode, unwrapped executor -- loses it
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`SecurityContextHolder`'s default strategy, `MODE_THREADLOCAL`, does not travel to any new
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thread, virtual or not. This is the exact symptom reported against Spring Security as
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[gh-15040](https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-security/issues/15040): swap in a raw
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virtual-thread executor and `@Async` methods start throwing `AccessDeniedException` because
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`SecurityContextHolder.getContext().getAuthentication()` is `null`.
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## B) MODE_INHERITABLETHREADLOCAL, unwrapped executor -- works
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This is the finding from Chapter 1 applied to Spring Security directly. Because the virtual
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thread the executor spins up is fresh every time, `MODE_INHERITABLETHREADLOCAL` propagates the
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context correctly with **zero extra wrapping code**. The reference docs' warning against this
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mode predates virtual threads and is about pooled platform threads specifically -- it does not
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apply to this executor shape. This is still a global JVM-wide setting, so weigh that against the
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next two options, which are scoped to one executor bean.
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## C) DelegatingSecurityContextExecutor -- still works, unconditionally
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`DelegatingSecurityContextExecutor` doesn't rely on thread-local inheritance at all -- it wraps
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the submitted `Runnable`, and the wrapper explicitly calls
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`SecurityContextHolder.setContext(...)` / `clearContext()` around the delegate's `run()`,
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wherever that `run()` happens to execute. That is why it has worked, unchanged, since long
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before virtual threads existed, and why it is still the correct choice for library code that
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cannot assume the application has set `MODE_INHERITABLETHREADLOCAL` globally.
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## D) ContextPropagatingTaskDecorator -- the mechanism that's actually new
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This is the one that did not exist when the [original version of this
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post](https://ankurm.com/spring-security-context-propagation-complete-guide/) went up.
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Spring Security 6.5 (GA 2025-05-19) added `SecurityContextHolderThreadLocalAccessor`, which
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self-registers with Micrometer's `ContextRegistry` via `ServiceLoader` the moment
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`io.micrometer:context-propagation` is on the classpath -- no bean, no configuration. Spring
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Framework's `ContextPropagatingTaskDecorator` (since 6.1) uses that registry to snapshot and
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restore every registered `ThreadLocalAccessor` around a task. Set it as the executor's task
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decorator and `@Async` methods get the `SecurityContext` back **without any
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`DelegatingSecurityContext*` wrapper at all** -- and the same decorator simultaneously restores
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MDC and tracing context, which the `Delegating*` classes never touched.
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```java
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SimpleAsyncTaskExecutor executor = new SimpleAsyncTaskExecutor();
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executor.setVirtualThreads(true);
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executor.setTaskDecorator(new ContextPropagatingTaskDecorator());
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```
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Spring Security's own [Concurrency Support
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page](https://docs.spring.io/spring-security/reference/features/integrations/concurrency.html)
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still only documents the `Delegating*` family as of 7.1.1 -- this pattern is real and shipped,
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just not yet reflected in that page.
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`io.micrometer:context-propagation` is already on the classpath of any Boot 4.1 app that pulls
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in `micrometer-observation` (actuator, tracing, or `spring-boot-starter-micrometer-*`). If your
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app doesn't have a Micrometer dependency anywhere, add
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`io.micrometer:context-propagation:1.2.1` (the version Boot 4.1.1's BOM manages) explicitly.
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