In this tutorial, we will discuss the difference between Spring Security provided built-in basic authentication and form-based authentication.

Difference Between Basic Authentication and Form Based Authentication

Although both Basic Authentication and Form-Based Authentication use a username and password to authenticate a client, there is a difference between how they both work and how Spring Security implements them.

1. Basic Authentication uses an HTTP header in order to provide the username and password when making a request to a server. For example:

Form-based authentication uses standard HTML form (Login Form) fields to pass the username and password values to the server via a POST request. For example:

2. Basic Authentication DO NOT use cookies, hence there is no concept of a session or logging out a user, which means each request has to carry that header in order to be authenticated. In Form-based authentication, the server validates the credentials provided and creates a “session” tied to a unique token stored in a cookie and passed between the client and the server on each HTTP request. If the cookie is invalid or the user is logged out, the server then usually redirects to a login page.

3. In the case of Basic Authentication, a browser popup is used to collect the user's credentials. This appearance and behavior are consistent and browser-specific. On the other hand, the Form-Based authentication look and feel of the login form can be customized to fit the design and branding of the application. This allows for a more integrated and user-friendly experience.

Check out the Complete Spring Security Basic Authentication Example

Check out the Complete Spring Security Form-Based Authentication Example

Related Tutorials

• Spring Security Basic Authentication

• Spring Security In-Memory Authentication

• Spring Security Form-Based Authentication

• Difference Between Basic Authentication and Form Based Authentication

• Spring Security Custom Login Page

• Spring Security Login Form Example with Database Authentication
  

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• Login and Registration REST API using Spring Boot, Spring Security, Hibernate, and MySQL Database

• Spring Boot User Registration and Login Example Tutorial