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There are three levels of control when REST requests are issued:

• URI access
• JCR access
• Command-level access

Permissions to issue REST requests are controlled using Magnolia's standard role-based security mechanism.

Security strategy

REST endpoints are a powerful tool but can also make your site very vulnerable. Make sure you understand how to implement a strong security strategy to safeguard your system.

Web access security

Web access security is checked by the 

Web permissions are granted with web access lists - they grant access to a path for Get or Get & Post. You can grant web access per role.

• Get – Grants the HTTP method GET for a given URI.
• Get & Post – Grants the HTTP methods GET, PUT, POST and DELETE for a given URI.

Web access is checked for every endpoint.

JCR access security

JCR access security is a feature of the JCR standard (defined by JCR JSR-170 and JSR-283). JCR access is granted per workspace on path level. It can grant Read-only or Read/Write permission. You can grant JCR access per role.

When using endpoints dealing with JCR repositories (nodes and properties to read and write, delivery to read only) the user must have an appropriate role that provides JCR permissions for the given method.

JCR access security is checked on every endpoint dealing which reads or writes JCR data.

Role-based security for commands

Command level security access only applies to the commands endpoint. 

Role-based access to specific commands are configured in the rest-services module: /modules/rest-services/rest-endpoints/commands/enabledCommands/ 

Security for endpoints - summary

Endpoints always require URI access, they may also require JCR access or a specific role defined at a command level.

When you request a REST URL, URI security is checked first:

• If the URI security check fails, the request is redirected to the login page by default.
• If the the URI security check is passed, the request is delegated to the endpoint in question.

If the endpoint concerns JCR access, JCR access security is checked too:

• If the user is not granted access to the requested node, the endpoint responds with an HTTP error.
• If JCR security access is granted, the endpoint responds with an HTTP response code 200 and a response body if appropriate.

If the endpoint triggers commands, the command definition grants access via specifically defined roles defined per command:

REST roles

The REST module installs four default roles with the following permissions:

• rest-admin – The REST administrator role grants GET/POST permissions to all Magnolia's REST APIs.
• rest-editor – The REST editor role grants GET/POST permissions to REST services APIs (nodes, properties), for a limited set of workspaces.
• rest-anonymous – The REST anonymous consumer role grants GET permissions to Magnolia's content delivery REST API.
• rest-backup – The REST backup role grants permission to execute the backup command from a running Magnolia instance.

The superuser account has the rest-admin role by default so you can use superuser to test your requests. However, for production use, you should create a custom REST role. The anonymous role is specifically denied access to the REST endpoints.

Custom REST roles

Magnolia recommends you create custom REST roles granting specific access for specific use cases.