Welcome to Apache Shiro

Dear Apache Shiro Community,

The Shiro team is pleased to announce the release of Apache Shiro version 1.2.0!

This release includes a number of bug fixes and new features since the 1.1.0 release.  The 1.2.0 release is available from the Download page.

All binaries (.jars) are available in Maven Central already.  Please note that the Apache mirrors are still updating to reflect the source distribution, but some mirrors may not be updated yet.  If a mirror download link does not work, please try another or wait another 12 to 24 hours.

New Features

• The ability to disable sessions per filter chain or entirely for an application.
• Servlet Context Listener initialization in web apps (to allow components to utilize Shiro before Filter initialization)
• A command line program to securely hash passwords (or any url, file or stream input for that matter).
• New secure password hash formats that adhere to Modular Crypt Format conventions.  These secure password hashes can be computed with the above named command line program and saved in text config (e.g. shiro.ini) directly.  Plaintext passwords should never be stored.  For those familiar with the Apache HTTPD passwd program, this achieves the same benefits.
• A new LogoutFilter, as many apps don't need to show a view during logout (just logout and redirect to some known location).
• Shiro filters can be enabled or disabled without removing them from the filter chain - useful in development (e.g. turn ssl requirement off in dev, but keep it on in production).
• A lot of work has gone into making secure password hash storage and comparison a much simpler task in Shiro, focused around the new concept of a PasswordService.  You can use a PasswordService directly in your application code to hash passwords securely.  You can then configure a PasswordMatcher on your Realm(s) to use the same PasswordService for password comparisons.  See the PasswordService JavaDoc for example .ini configuration:
  • PasswordService: http://shiro.apache.org/static/current/apidocs/org/apache/shiro/authc/credential/PasswordService.html
  • PasswordMatcher: http://shiro.apache.org/static/current/apidocs/org/apache/shiro/authc/credential/PasswordMatcher.html

More complete PasswordService and related config documentation will be added to the Shiro website in the next few days - it was better to release now for the many who are waiting on the release, and follow up with this part of the documentation shortly.

• Three new 'support' modules:
  • Apache Karaf features (shiro-features-1.2.0.jar)
  • Google Guice: http://shiro.apache.org/guice.html
  • Jasig CAS: http://shiro.apache.org/cas.html

And even more new features!  See the 'Resolved Issues' below for a complete list.

Backwards-incompatible or potential breaking changes

There are only a few small cases where breakage could occur - please view the release notes to ensure you mitigate any potential breaking change - particularly if you are using the SecureRandomNumberGenerator
or Shiro's Block Cipher Services (AES, Blowfish):

https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/shiro/tags/shiro-root-1.2.0/RELEASE-NOTES

Resolved Issues

Jira resolved issue report:

https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?projectId=12310950&version=12315478

Enjoy!

The Apache Shiro Team

Matt Raible has posted a really nice blog article and video demonstrating a login use case with Apache Shiro. Check out the Java Web Application Security - Part III: Apache Shiro Login Demo blog post and the video:

Hi Shiro community,

The following article helps explain the differences in role-based vs resource-based access control and why Shiro's permission construct (which is based on resources) can be much better for an application:

The New RBAC: Resource-Based Access Control

http://www.infoq.com/articles/apache-shiro

In our effort to improve the documentation you need to get started with Shiro, we've written a quick Java Authorization Guide for your review. Check out and tell us what you think. And if you haven't already, check out our previous post, the Java Authentication Guide.