Authentication and Authorization Design Patterns

Authentication and Authorization Design Patterns in Spring Boot 3 with Cloud Providers and Mainframes

Authentication and Authorization Design Patterns in Spring Boot 3 with Spring Cloud for Azure, GCP, AWS Integrated with Mainframes

Author: Naveen Kumar Gayar

Published on: June 10, 2025

Introduction

With enterprises transitioning to microservices and multi-cloud strategies, designing robust authentication and authorization (AuthN/AuthZ) mechanisms is critical. Spring Boot 3 and Spring Cloud offer powerful tools for building secure, cloud-integrated services. This whitepaper explores best practices and design patterns for implementing AuthN/AuthZ across cloud platforms (Azure, GCP, AWS) while maintaining secure communication with legacy mainframe systems.

Architecture Overview

The typical architecture includes:

  • Spring Boot 3 microservices using Spring Security
  • Cloud-native identity providers (Azure AD, Google IAM, AWS Cognito)
  • Spring Cloud Gateway for API security
  • Secure adapters to communicate with mainframe services (via MQ, API, or gateway)

Authentication Patterns

1. OAuth2/OpenID Connect (OIDC)

Use Spring Security's OAuth2 client and resource server capabilities to integrate with:

  • Azure: Azure Active Directory (Azure AD)
  • GCP: Identity Platform or Firebase Auth
  • AWS: AWS Cognito or IAM Identity Center

Implementation: 


spring:
  security:
    oauth2:
      client:
        registration:
          azure:
            client-id: your-client-id
            client-secret: your-secret
            scope: openid profile email
        provider:
          azure:
            issuer-uri: https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant-id}/v2.0
    resource-server:
      jwt:
        issuer-uri: https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant-id}/v2.0

2. JWT Propagation

Once the user is authenticated, propagate the JWT token across microservices using Spring Cloud Gateway filters and interceptors.

Authorization Patterns

1. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Define roles and permissions in cloud IAM (e.g., Azure AD groups or AWS IAM roles) and map them to Spring Security authorities.

2. Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC)

Use token claims (like department, job title) and evaluate policies using Spring Security expressions or external policy engines like OPA (Open Policy Agent).

3. API Gateway-Level Authorization

Offload basic authorization to Spring Cloud Gateway using prefilters.

Integration with Mainframes

Legacy mainframe systems can be integrated securely with Spring Boot applications using:

  • IBM MQ or JMS: Secure message queues with identity context
  • REST Adapters: Mainframe-exposed REST APIs secured via mutual TLS
  • Session tokens: Translate cloud tokens into mainframe session identifiers

Token Mediation Layer

Implement a mediation service that validates JWT, maps it to a mainframe credential or RACF ID, and maintains a session state.

Security Best Practices

  • Use mutual TLS between microservices and mainframe interfaces
  • Rotate secrets using Vault or cloud-native secrets managers
  • Monitor and log all auth requests via centralized tools (e.g., Azure Monitor, CloudWatch, Stackdriver)
  • Apply zero-trust principles and least privilege access

Conclusion

By leveraging the robust capabilities of Spring Boot 3, Spring Cloud, and cloud-native IAM services, developers can build secure, scalable, and interoperable authentication and authorization layers — even when integrating with mainframes. The patterns outlined here serve as foundational blueprints for enterprise-grade security across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

References

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