Authentication

This plugin uses the new CakePHP Authentication plugin cakephp/authentication instead of CakePHP Authentication component, but don't worry, the default configuration should be enough for your projects.

We've tried to simplify configuration as much as possible using defaults, but keep the ability to override them when needed.

Authentication Component

The default behavior is to load the authentication component at UsersController, defining the default URLs for loginAction, loginRedirect, logoutRedirect but not requiring the request to have an identity.

If you prefer to load the component yourself you can set Auth.AuthenticationComponent.load:

Configure:write('Auth.AuthenticationComponent.load', false);

And load the component at any controller:

$authenticationConfig = Configure::read('Auth.AuthenticationComponent');
$this->loadComponent('Authentication.Authentication', $authenticationConfig);
$userId = $this->Authentication->getIdentity()->getIdentifier();
$user = $this->Authentication->getIdentity()->getOriginalData();

The default configuration for Auth.AuthenticationComponent is:

[
    'load' => true,
    'loginRedirect' => '/',
    'requireIdentity' => false
]

Check the component options at the its source code for more infomation.

Authenticators

The cakephp/authentication plugin provides the main structure for the authenticators used in this plugin, we also use some custom authenticators to work with social providers, reCaptcha and cookie. The default list of authenticators includes:

• Authentication.Session
• CakeDC/Auth.Form
• Authentication.Token
• CakeDC/Auth.Cookie
• CakeDC/Users.Social which works with the SocialAuthMiddleware
• CakeDC/Users.SocialPendingEmail

If you enable OneTimePasswordAuthenticator.login we also load the CakeDC/Auth.TwoFactor

These authenticators should be enough for your application, but you can easily customize it setting the Auth.Authenticators config key.

These authenticators are loaded by the \CakeDC\Users\Loader\AuthenticationServiceLoader class in the loadAuthenticators method. See Authentication Service Loader on how to adjust it to your needs.

For example, if you want to add the JWT authenticator you must add the following to your config/users.php file:

'Auth.Authenticators.Jwt' => [
    'queryParam' => 'token',
    'skipTwoFactorVerify' => true,
    'className' => 'Authentication.Jwt',
],

The skipTwoFactorVerify option is used to skip the two factor flow for a given authenticator

Identifiers

The identifiers are defined to work correctly with the default authenticators. We are using these identifiers:

• Authentication.Password, for Form authenticator
• CakeDC/Users.Social, for Social and SocialPendingEmail authenticators
• Authentication.Token, for Token authenticator

As you add more authenticators you may also need to add other identifiers. Please see the identifiers available in the official CakePHP Authentication plugin documentation.

Note: Configuring identifiers globally via Auth.Identifiers is deprecated. Please move each identifier's configuration into the identifier key within its specific authenticator under Auth.Authenticators.

The default list for Auth.Authenticators.Form.identifier is:

'identifier' => [
    'Authentication.Password' => [
        'className' => 'Authentication.Password',
        'fields' => [
            'username' => ['username', 'email'],
            'password' => 'password'
        ],
        'resolver' => [
            'className' => 'Authentication.Orm',
            'finder' => 'active'
        ],
    ],
]

These identifiers are loaded by the \CakeDC\Users\Loader\AuthenticationServiceLoader class. See Authentication Service Loader on how to adjust it to your needs.

Account lockout policy

Lock a users account after a number of failed password attempts in a certain time window.

To enable this, update your config/users.php file with:

'Auth.Authenticators.Form.identifier.Authentication.Password.className' => 'CakeDC/Users.PasswordLockout',
'Auth.PasswordRehash' => [
    'identifiers' => ['PasswordLockout'],
],

Additionally, you can set the number of attempts until lock, lockout time, time window and more, e.g.:

'Auth.Authenticators.Form.identifier.Authentication.Password' => [
    'className' => 'CakeDC/Users.PasswordLockout',
    'lockoutHandler' => [
        'timeWindowInSeconds' => 30 * 60, // 30 minutes (default is 15 minutes)
        'lockoutTimeInSeconds' => 100 * 60, // 100 minutes (default is 30 minutes)
        'numberOfAttemptsFail' => 4, // default is 6 attempts
        'failedPasswordAttemptsModel' => 'CakeDC/Users.FailedPasswordAttempts',
        'userLockoutField' => 'lockout_time', // Field in user entity used to lock the user.
        'usersModel' => 'Users',
        'userForeignKeyField' => 'user_id', // Field defined in the 'failed_password_attempts' table as foreignKey of the model Users.
    ],
],
'Auth.PasswordRehash' => [
    'identifiers' => ['PasswordLockout'],
],

Handling Login Result

For both form login and social login we use a base component CakeDC/Users.Login to handle the login. It checks the result of the authentication service and either redirects the user or shows an authentication error. It provides some error messages for specific authentication results. Please check the config/users.php file.

To use a custom component to handle the login you should update your config/users.php file with:

'Auth.SocialLoginFailure.component' => 'MyLoginA',
'Auth.FormLoginFailure.component' => 'MyLoginB',

The default configuration is:

[
    ...
    'Auth' => [
        ...
        'SocialLoginFailure' => [
            'component' => 'CakeDC/Users.Login',
            'defaultMessage' => __d('cake_d_c/users', 'Could not proceed with social account. Please try again'),
            'messages' => [
                'FAILURE_USER_NOT_ACTIVE' => __d(
                    'cake_d_c/users',
                    'Your user has not been validated yet. Please check your inbox for instructions'
                ),
                'FAILURE_ACCOUNT_NOT_ACTIVE' => __d(
                    'cake_d_c/users',
                    'Your social account has not been validated yet. Please check your inbox for instructions'
                )
            ],
            'targetAuthenticator' => 'CakeDC\Users\Authenticator\SocialAuthenticator'
        ],
        'FormLoginFailure' => [
            'component' => 'CakeDC/Users.Login',
            'defaultMessage' => __d('cake_d_c/users', 'Username or password is incorrect'),
            'messages' => [
                'FAILURE_INVALID_RECAPTCHA' => __d('cake_d_c/users', 'Invalid reCaptcha'),
            ],
            'targetAuthenticator' => 'CakeDC\Auth\Authenticator\FormAuthenticator'
        ]
        ...
    ]
]

Authentication Service Loader

To make the integration with CakePHP Authenication plugin easier we load the authenticators and identifiers defined at the Auth configuration key.

If the default configuration is not enough for your project's needs you may create a custom loader extending the default loader provided.

For example, create a file src/Loader/AppAuthenticationServiceLoader.php:

<?php
namespace App\Loader;

use \CakeDC\Users\Loader\AuthenticationServiceLoader;

class AppAuthenticationServiceLoader extends AuthenticationServiceLoader
{
    /**
     * Load the authenticators with my custom condition
     *
     * @param \CakeDC\Auth\Authentication\AuthenticationService $service Authentication service to load identifiers
     *
     * @return void
     */
    protected function loadAuthenticators($service)
    {
        parent::loadAuthenticators($service);

        if (\Cake\Core\Configure::read('MyApp.enabledCustom')) {
            $service->loadAuthenticator('MyCustom', []);
        }
    }
}

Add the following to your config/users.php configuration to change the authentication service loader:

'Auth.Authentication.serviceLoader' => \App\Loader\AppAuthenticationServiceLoader::class,

Password Reset

When a user requests to reset their password, the plugin needs to find their account. By default, it searches using both the username and email fields. You can customize which fields are used for this lookup by configuring the Users.PasswordReset.findWith setting in your config/users.php file.

The value should be an array of column names that exist in your users table. The system will dynamically build a query to search using these fields.

For example, if your application only uses email for identification, you can restrict the search to just the email column to avoid errors and improve performance:

// in config/users.php
'Users' => [
    'PasswordReset' => [
        'findWith' => ['email']
    ],
]

If you need to search by username and another custom field, you could configure it like this:

// in config/users.php
'Users' => [
    'PasswordReset' => [
        'findWith' => ['username', 'legacy_user_id']
    ],
]