Spring Boot 3 with Okta - permit to /actuator/health endpoint

Questions
1

I’m curious is there any way to allow access to /actuator/health without Okta authentication?

In my spring application, I set the following security filter chain but it seems not working:

@Bean
public SecurityFilterChain filterChain(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
DefaultRelyingPartyRegistrationResolver relyingPartyRegistrationResolver = new DefaultRelyingPartyRegistrationResolver(
this.relyingPartyRegistrationRepository);
Saml2MetadataFilter filter = new Saml2MetadataFilter(relyingPartyRegistrationResolver,
new OpenSamlMetadataResolver());
http.addFilterBefore(filter, Saml2WebSsoAuthenticationFilter.class);

            http.authorizeHttpRequests(authorize -> authorize
                            .requestMatchers("/actuator/health").permitAll()
                            .anyRequest().authenticated())
                            .saml2Login(saml2 -> saml2.loginPage("/saml2/authenticate/okta").defaultSuccessUrl("/")
                                            .failureUrl("/"))
                            .saml2Logout(withDefaults());
            return http.build();
    }

I want to deploy this microservice to AWS ECS, using ALB, but the health check fails. Does anyone have a similar issue, or is it something I missed during configuration?

2

Hello,
You’re almost there with allowing access to /actuator/health without Okta in your Spring app! Here are the solutions (pick the one that works best for you):
Option 1: Fix the Order

  • Right now, your code checks for authentication even for /actuator/health. Simply move the line that allows all requests (permitAll) for this endpoint before the line that requires authentication for everything else.

Option 2: Separate Security Chain

  • Create a special security chain just for /actuator endpoints. This gives you more control.

Option 3: Special Health Check User

  • Make a user with access only to the health endpoint and configure Spring Security to allow this user.

Important:

  • Whichever option you choose, test it carefully to make sure it works.
  • Exposing the health endpoint without authentication can be risky, so choose the solution that keeps your app secure.

Bonus Tip: Double-check your AWS ECS health check configuration to ensure it targets the correct URL (/actuator/health).

By trying these options, you should be able to get your health checks working without Okta!

3

Thanks for the detailed information; I’ll try these options and consider which should be the best for my case.

4

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