How to disable Spring Security for static resources

To disable Spring Security for static resources in a Spring Boot application, you can configure Spring Security to ignore specific paths or patterns. Here are the steps:

1. Configure Spring Security to Ignore Static Resources: You can use the WebSecurityCustomizer to ignore specific paths or patterns. For example, to ignore all requests to the /static/** path, you can add the following configuration:

   @Configuration
   @EnableWebSecurity
   public class SecurityConfig extends WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter {
       @Override
       public void configure(WebSecurity web) {
           web.ignoring().antMatchers("/static/**");
       }
   }

1. Using requestMatchers in Spring Security 6: If you are using Spring Security 6, you need to use requestMatchers instead of antMatchers. Here is an example:

   @Configuration
   @EnableWebSecurity
   public class SecurityConfig extends WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter {
       @Override
       public void configure(WebSecurity web) {
           web.ignoring().requestMatchers(PathRequest.toStaticResources());
       }
   }

1. Customizing Resource Handling: You can also customize how static resources are handled by Spring Boot by configuring the ResourceHandlerRegistry in a WebMvcConfigurer implementation:

   @Configuration
   public class WebConfig implements WebMvcConfigurer {
       @Override
       public void addResourceHandlers(ResourceHandlerRegistry registry) {
           registry.addResourceHandler("/static/**")
                   .addResourceLocations("classpath:/static/")
                   .setCachePeriod(3600)
                   .resourceChain(true)
                   .addResolver(new VersionResourceResolver().addContentVersionStrategy("/**"));
       }
   }

1. Using Cache-Control Headers: If you need to set specific Cache-Control headers for static resources, you can do so by setting the headers directly in the HttpServletResponse from a controller method:

   @Controller
   public class MyController {
       @RequestMapping(...)
       public String myMethod(HttpServletResponse response) {
           response.setHeader("Cache-Control", "max-age=14400");
           // ...
       }
   }

By following these steps, you can ensure that Spring Security does not interfere with the serving of static resources in your Spring Boot application.

Citations:
[1] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/76097411/how-can-i-configure-spring-security-6-to-ignore-the-static-resources-folder
[2] https://www.codejava.net/frameworks/spring-boot/spring-security-allow-static-resources
[3] https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/serve-static-resources-with-spring/
[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/javahelp/comments/125ds72/spring_security_not_allowing_static_folder_access/
[5] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33214501/how-to-add-cache-control-header-to-static-resource-in-spring-boot