Controller Filters

Provided Filters

Note

The filter $aliases that Shield provides are automatically added for you by the Registrar class located at src/Config/Registrar.php. So you don't need to add in your app/Config/Filters.php.

The Controller Filters you can use to protect your routes Shield provides are:

$aliases = [
    'session'     => \CodeIgniter\Shield\Filters\SessionAuth::class,
    'tokens'      => \CodeIgniter\Shield\Filters\TokenAuth::class,
    'hmac'        => \CodeIgniter\Shield\Filters\HmacAuth::class,
    'chain'       => \CodeIgniter\Shield\Filters\ChainAuth::class,
    'auth-rates'  => \CodeIgniter\Shield\Filters\AuthRates::class,
    'group'       => \CodeIgniter\Shield\Filters\GroupFilter::class,
    'permission'  => \CodeIgniter\Shield\Filters\PermissionFilter::class,
    'force-reset' => \CodeIgniter\Shield\Filters\ForcePasswordResetFilter::class,
    'jwt'         => \CodeIgniter\Shield\Filters\JWTAuth::class,
];

Filters	Description
session	Restricts access to users who are not authenticated by the Session authenticator.
tokens	Restricts access to users who are not authenticated by the AccessTokens authenticator.
chain	The filter will check authenticators in sequence to see if the user is logged in through either of authenticators, allowing a single API endpoint to work for both an SPA using session auth, and a mobile app using access tokens.
jwt	Restricts access to users who are not authenticated by the JWT authenticator. See JWT Authentication.
hmac	Restricts access to users who are not authenticated by the HMAC authenticator. See HMAC Authentication.
auth-rates	Provides a good basis for rate limiting of auth-related routes.
group	Checks if the user is in one of the groups passed in.
permission	Checks if the user has the passed permissions.
force-reset	Checks if the user requires a password reset.

These can be used in any of the normal filter config settings, or within the routes file.

Configure Controller Filters

Protect All Pages

If you want to limit all routes (e.g. localhost:8080/admin, localhost:8080/panel and ...), you need to add the following code in the app/Config/Filters.php file.

public $globals = [
    'before' => [
        // ...
        'session' => ['except' => ['login*', 'register', 'auth/a/*', 'logout']],
    ],
    // ...
];

Rate Limiting

To help protect your authentication forms from being spammed by bots, it is recommended that you use the auth-rates filter on all of your authentication routes. This can be done with the following filter setup:

public $filters = [
    'auth-rates' => [
        'before' => [
            'login*', 'register', 'auth/*'
        ]
    ]
];

Forcing Password Reset

If your application requires a force password reset functionality, ensure that you exclude the auth pages and the actual password reset page from the before global. This will ensure that your users do not run into a too many redirects error. See:

public $globals = [
    'before' => [
        //...
        //...
        'force-reset' => ['except' => ['login*', 'register', 'auth/a/*', 'change-password', 'logout']]
    ]
];

In the example above, it is assumed that the page you have created for users to change their password after successful login is change-password.

Note

If you have grouped or changed the default format of the routes, ensure that your code matches the new format(s) in the app/Config/Filter.php file.

For example, if you configured your routes like so:

$routes->group('accounts', static function($routes) {
    service('auth')->routes($routes);
});

Then the global before filter for session should look like so:

public $globals = [
    'before' => [
        // ...
        'session' => ['except' => ['accounts/login*', 'accounts/register', 'accounts/auth/a/*', 'accounts/logout']]
    ]
]

The same should apply for the Rate Limiting and Forcing Password Reset.