Authentication¶

Password Hashing¶

The automatic hashing of your password input field happens only if posted data also contains username and password fields

When posting information to an action via a form, the Auth component automatically hashes the contents of your password input field if posted data also contains username field. So, if you are trying to create some sort of registration page, make sure to have the user fill out a ‘confirm password’ field so that you can compare the two. Here’s some sample code:

<?php
function register() {
    if ($this->data) {
        if ($this->data['User']['password'] == $this->Auth->password($this->data['User']['password_confirm'])) {
            $this->User->create();
            $this->User->save($this->data);
        }
    }
}
?>

action¶

action (string $action = ':controller/:action')

If you are using ACO’s as part of your ACL structure, you can get the path to the ACO node bound to a particular controller/action pair:

$acoNode = $this->Auth->action('users/delete');

If you don’t pass in any values, it uses the current controller / action pair

allow¶

If you have some actions in your controller that you don’t have to authenticate against (such as a user registration action), you can add methods that the AuthComponent should ignore. The following example shows how to allow an action named ‘register’.

function beforeFilter() {
    ...
    $this->Auth->allow('register');
}

If you wish to allow multiple actions to skip authentication, you supply them as parameters to the allow() method:

function beforeFilter() {
    ...
    $this->Auth->allow('foo', 'bar', 'baz');
}

Shortcut: you may also allow all the actions in a controller by using ‘*’.

function beforeFilter() {
    ...
    $this->Auth->allow('*');
}

If you are using requestAction in your layout or elements you should allow those actions in order to be able to open login page properly.

The auth component assumes that your actions names CakePHP Conventions and are underscored.

deny¶

There may be times where you will want to remove actions from the list of allowed actions (set using $this->Auth->allow()). Here’s an example:

function beforeFilter() {
    $this->Auth->authorize = 'controller';
    $this->Auth->allow('delete');
}

function isAuthorized() {
    if ($this->Auth->user('role') != 'admin') {
        $this->Auth->deny('delete');
    }

    ...
}

hashPasswords¶

hashPasswords ($data)

This method checks if the $data contains the username and password fields as specified by the variable $fields indexed by the model name as specified by $userModel. If the $data array contains both the username and password, it hashes the password field in the array and returns the data array in the same format. This function should be used prior to insert or update calls of the user when the password field is affected.

$data['User']['username'] = 'me@me.com';
$data['User']['password'] = 'changeme';
$hashedPasswords = $this->Auth->hashPasswords($data);
pr($hashedPasswords);
/* returns:
Array
(
    [User] => Array
    (
        [username] => me@me.com
        [password] => 8ed3b7e8ced419a679a7df93eff22fae
    )
)

*/

The $hashedPasswords[‘User’][‘password’] field would now be hashed using the password function of the component.

If your controller uses the Auth component and posted data contains the fields as explained above, it will automatically hash the password field using this function.

mapActions¶

If you are using Acl in CRUD mode, you may want to assign certain non-default actions to each part of CRUD.

$this->Auth->mapActions(
    array(
        'create' => array('someAction'),
        'read' => array('someAction', 'someAction2'),
        'update' => array('someAction'),
        'delete' => array('someAction')
    )
);

login¶

login($data = null)

If you are doing some sort of Ajax-based login, you can use this method to manually log someone into the system. If you don’t pass any value for $data, it will automatically use POST data passed into the controller.

for example, in an application you may wish to assign a user a password and auto log them in after registration. In an over simplified example:

View:

echo $this->Form->create('User',array('action'=>'register'));
echo $this->Form->input('username');
echo $this->Form->end('Register');

Controller:

function register() {
    if(!empty($this->data)) {
        $this->User->create();
        $assigned_password = 'password';
        $this->data['User']['password'] = $assigned_password;
        if($this->User->save($this->data)) {
            // send signup email containing password to the user
            $this->Auth->login($this->data);
            $this->redirect('home');
    }
}

One thing to note is that you must manually redirect the user after login as loginRedirect is not called.

$this->Auth->login($data) returns 1 on successful login, 0 on a failure

logout¶

Provides a quick way to de-authenticate someone, and redirect them to where they need to go. This method is also useful if you want to provide a ‘Log me out’ link inside a members’ area of your application.

Example:

$this->redirect($this->Auth->logout());

password¶

password (string $password)

Pass in a string, and you can get what the hashed password would look like. This is an essential functionality if you are creating a user registration screen where you have users enter their password a second time to confirm it.

if ($this->data['User']['password'] ==
    $this->Auth->password($this->data['User']['password2'])) {

    // Passwords match, continue processing
    ...
} else {
    $this->flash('Typed passwords did not match', 'users/register');
}

The auth component will automatically hash the password field if the username field is also present in the submitted data

Cake appends your password string to a salt value and then hashes it. The hashing function used depends on the one set by the core utility class Security (sha1 by default). You can use the Security::setHash function to change the hashing method. The salt value is used from your application’s configuration defined in your core.php

user¶

user(string $key = null)

This method provides information about the currently authenticated user. The information is taken from the session. For example:

if ($this->Auth->user('role') == 'admin') {
    // Do something
}

It can also be used to return the whole user session data like so:

$data['User'] = $this->Auth->user();

If this method returns null, the user is not logged in.

In the view you can use the Session helper to retrieve the currently authenticated user’s information:

$this->Session->read('Auth.User'); // returns complete user record
$this->Session->read('Auth.User.first_name') //returns particular field value

The session key can be different depending on which model Auth is configured to use. Eg. If you use model Account instead of User, then the session key would be Auth.Account

userModel¶

Don’t want to use a User model to authenticate against? No problem, just change it by setting this value to the name of the model you want to use.

<?php
    $this->Auth->userModel = 'Member';
?>

fields¶

Overrides the default username and password fields used for authentication.

<?php
    $this->Auth->fields = array('username' => 'email', 'password' => 'passwd');
?>

userScope¶

Use this to provide additional requirements for authentication to succeed.

<?php
    $this->Auth->userScope = array('User.active' => true);
?>

loginAction¶

You can change the default login from /users/login to be any action of your choice.

<?php
    $this->Auth->loginAction = array('admin' => false, 'controller' => 'members', 'action' => 'login');
?>

loginRedirect¶

The AuthComponent remembers what controller/action pair you were trying to get to before you were asked to authenticate yourself by storing this value in the Session, under the Auth.redirect key. However, if this session value is not set (if you’re coming to the login page from an external link, for example), then the user will be redirected to the URL specified in loginRedirect.

Example:

<?php
    $this->Auth->loginRedirect = array('controller' => 'members', 'action' => 'home');
?>

logoutRedirect¶

You can also specify where you want the user to go after they are logged out, with the default being the login action.

<?php
    $this->Auth->logoutRedirect = array(Configure::read('Routing.admin') => false, 'controller' => 'members', 'action' => 'logout');
?>

loginError¶

Change the default error message displayed when someone does not successfully log in.

<?php
    $this->Auth->loginError = "No, you fool!  That's not the right password!";
?>

authError¶

Change the default error message displayed when someone attempts to access an object or action to which they do not have access.

<?php
    $this->Auth->authError = "Sorry, you are lacking access.";
?>

autoRedirect¶

Normally, the AuthComponent will automatically redirect you as soon as it authenticates. Sometimes you want to do some more checking before you redirect users:

<?php
    function beforeFilter() {
        ...
        $this->Auth->autoRedirect = false;
    }

    ...

    function login() {
    //-- code inside this function will execute only when autoRedirect was set to false (i.e. in a beforeFilter).
        if ($this->Auth->user()) {
            if (!empty($this->data['User']['remember_me'])) {
                $cookie = array();
                $cookie['username'] = $this->data['User']['username'];
                $cookie['password'] = $this->data['User']['password'];
                $this->Cookie->write('Auth.User', $cookie, true, '+2 weeks');
                unset($this->data['User']['remember_me']);
            }
            $this->redirect($this->Auth->redirect());
        }
        if (empty($this->data)) {
            $cookie = $this->Cookie->read('Auth.User');
            if (!is_null($cookie)) {
                if ($this->Auth->login($cookie)) {
                    //  Clear auth message, just in case we use it.
                    $this->Session->delete('Message.auth');
                    $this->redirect($this->Auth->redirect());
                }
            }
        }
    }
?>

The code in the login function will not execute unless you set $autoRedirect to false in a beforeFilter. The code present in the login function will only execute after authentication was attempted. This is the best place to determine whether or not a successful login occurred by the AuthComponent (should you desire to log the last successful login timestamp, etc.).

With autoRedirect set to false, you can also inject additional code such as keeping track of the last successful login timestamp

<?php
    function login() {
        if( !(empty($this->data)) && $this->Auth->user() ){
            $this->User->id = $this->Auth->user('id');
            $this->User->saveField('last_login', date('Y-m-d H:i:s') );
            $this->redirect($this->Auth->redirect());
        }
    }
?>

authorize¶

Normally, the AuthComponent will attempt to verify that the login credentials you’ve entered are accurate by comparing them to what’s been stored in your user model. However, there are times where you might want to do some additional work in determining proper credentials. By setting this variable to one of several different values, you can do different things. Here are some of the more common ones you might want to use.

<?php
    $this->Auth->authorize = 'controller';
?>

When authorize is set to ‘controller’, you’ll need to add a method called isAuthorized() to your controller. This method allows you to do some more authentication checks and then return either true or false.

<?php
    function isAuthorized() {
        if ($this->action == 'delete') {
            if ($this->Auth->user('role') == 'admin') {
                return true;
            } else {
                return false;
            }
        }

        return true;
    }
?>

Remember that this method will be checked after you have already passed the basic authentication check against the user model.

<?php
    $this->Auth->authorize = array('model'=>'User');
?>

Don’t want to add anything to your controller and might be using ACO’s? You can get the AuthComponent to call a method in your user model called isAuthorized() to do the same sort of thing:

<?php
    class User extends AppModel {
        ...

        function isAuthorized($user, $controller, $action) {

            switch ($action) {
                case 'default':
                    return false;
                    break;
                case 'delete':
                    if ($user['User']['role'] == 'admin') {
                        return true;
                    }
                    break;
            }
        }
    }
?>

Lastly, you can use authorize with actions such as below

<?php
    $this->Auth->authorize = 'actions';
?>

By using actions, Auth will make use of ACL and check with AclComponent::check(). An isAuthorized function is not needed.

<?php
    $this->Auth->authorize = 'crud';
?>

By using crud, Auth will make use of ACL and check with AclComponent::check(). Actions should be mapped to CRUD (see mapActions).

sessionKey¶

Name of the session array key where the record of the current authed user is stored.

Defaults to “Auth”, so if unspecified, the record is stored in “Auth.{$userModel name}”.

<?php
    $this->Auth->sessionKey = 'Authorized';
?>

ajaxLogin¶

If you are doing Ajax or Javascript based requests that require authenticated sessions, set this variable to the name of a view element you would like to be rendered and returned when you have an invalid or expired session.

As with any part of CakePHP, be sure to take a look at AuthComponent class for a more in-depth look at the AuthComponent.

authenticate¶

This variable holds a reference to the object responsible for hashing passwords if it is necessary to change/override the default password hashing mechanism. See Changing the Encryption Type for more info.

actionPath¶

If using action-based access control, this defines how the paths to action ACO nodes is computed. If, for example, all controller nodes are nested under an ACO node named ‘Controllers’, $actionPath should be set to ‘Controllers/’.

flashElement¶

In case you want to have another layout for your Authentication error message you can define with the flashElement variable that another element will be used for display.

<?php
    $this->Auth->flashElement    = "message_error";
?>

In this newly defined element to ensure your authError and loginError messages are displayed ensure you echo $message. Here’s an example:

//    Code in /app/views/elements/message_error.ctp

<div class="ui-state-error">
    <?php echo $message; ?>
</div>

Now authError & loginError messages will be displayed using jQuery UI’s custom theme. Obviously, you can change the HTML element to fit whatever need you have. The important thing here being that the $message variable was echo’d and the user will see the appropriate information...instead of a blank div.