cosec-custom-matcher

CoSec Custom Matcher Development

This skill helps you create custom ActionMatcher and ConditionMatcher implementations to extend CoSec's policy evaluation logic. CoSec uses Java SPI (ServiceLoader) to discover matcher factories.

Architecture Overview

Policy matching has two sides:

• ActionMatcher — determines if a request's action (path + method) matches a policy pattern
• ConditionMatcher — determines if contextual conditions are met (user attributes, request properties, etc.)

Both extend RequestMatcher and are created by corresponding factory classes registered via SPI.

Policy
├── condition: ConditionMatcher (policy-level gate)
└── statements[]
    ├── Statement (effect: DENY)
    │   ├── action: ActionMatcher
    │   └── condition: ConditionMatcher
    └── Statement (effect: ALLOW)
        ├── action: ActionMatcher
        └── condition: ConditionMatcher

Creating a Custom ConditionMatcher

Step 1: Implement the ConditionMatcher

package com.example.cosec.condition

import me.ahoo.cosec.api.context.SecurityContext
import me.ahoo.cosec.api.context.request.Request
import me.ahoo.cosec.api.policy.ConditionMatcher
import me.ahoo.cosec.api.configuration.Configuration

class PremiumUserConditionMatcher(
    override val configuration: Configuration
) : ConditionMatcher {

    override val type: String = "premiumUser"

    override fun match(request: Request, securityContext: SecurityContext): Boolean {
        val isPremium = securityContext.principal.attributes["premium"]
        return isPremium == "true"
    }
}

Key points:

• type — unique string identifier used in policy JSON
• configuration — arbitrary key-value config passed from the policy JSON
• match() — return true if the condition is satisfied

Step 2: Implement the Factory

package com.example.cosec.condition

import me.ahoo.cosec.api.configuration.Configuration
import me.ahoo.cosec.api.policy.ConditionMatcher
import me.ahoo.cosec.policy.condition.ConditionMatcherFactory

class PremiumUserConditionMatcherFactory : ConditionMatcherFactory {

    override val type: String = "premiumUser"

    override fun create(configuration: Configuration): ConditionMatcher {
        return PremiumUserConditionMatcher(configuration)
    }
}

Step 3: Register via SPI

Create file: src/main/resources/META-INF/services/me.ahoo.cosec.policy.condition.ConditionMatcherFactory

com.example.cosec.condition.PremiumUserConditionMatcherFactory

Step 4: Use in Policy JSON

{
  "name": "PremiumEndpoints",
  "action": "/api/premium/**",
  "condition": {
    "premiumUser": {}
  }
}

With configuration:

{
  "name": "TieredAccess",
  "action": "/api/**",
  "condition": {
    "premiumUser": {
      "minTier": "gold"
    }
  }
}

Access configuration in the matcher:

val minTier = configuration.getRequiredString("minTier")

Creating a Custom ActionMatcher

Step 1: Implement the ActionMatcher

package com.example.cosec.action

import me.ahoo.cosec.api.context.SecurityContext
import me.ahoo.cosec.api.context.request.Request
import me.ahoo.cosec.api.policy.ActionMatcher
import me.ahoo.cosec.api.configuration.Configuration

class HttpMethodActionMatcher(
    override val configuration: Configuration
) : ActionMatcher {

    override val type: String = "httpMethod"

    private val allowedMethods: Set<String> = configuration.getRequiredString("methods")
        .split(",")
        .map { it.trim().uppercase() }
        .toSet()

    override fun match(request: Request, securityContext: SecurityContext): Boolean {
        return request.method.uppercase() in allowedMethods
    }
}

Step 2: Implement the Factory

package com.example.cosec.action

import me.ahoo.cosec.api.configuration.Configuration
import me.ahoo.cosec.api.policy.ActionMatcher
import me.ahoo.cosec.policy.action.ActionMatcherFactory

class HttpMethodActionMatcherFactory : ActionMatcherFactory {

    override val type: String = "httpMethod"

    override fun create(configuration: Configuration): ActionMatcher {
        return HttpMethodActionMatcher(configuration)
    }
}

Step 3: Register via SPI

Create file: src/main/resources/META-INF/services/me.ahoo.cosec.policy.action.ActionMatcherFactory

com.example.cosec.action.HttpMethodActionMatcherFactory

Step 4: Use in Policy JSON

{
  "name": "ReadOnlyAccess",
  "action": {
    "httpMethod": {
      "methods": "GET,HEAD,OPTIONS"
    }
  }
}

Accessing Configuration Values

The Configuration interface provides typed accessors:

// Required (throws if missing)
val value: String = configuration.getRequiredString("key")

// Optional with default
val value: String = configuration.get("key", "default")

// Nested configuration
val nested: Configuration = configuration.getRequiredConfiguration("nested")

Accessing Request and Context Data

Request properties

request.path           // URL path
request.method         // HTTP method
request.remoteIp       // client IP
request.origin         // Origin header
request.referer        // Referer header
request.appId          // application ID
request.spaceId        // space ID
request.deviceId       // device ID
request.requestId      // request ID
request.getHeader("X-Custom")    // any header
request.getQuery("param")        // query parameter
request.getCookieValue("name")   // cookie value

SecurityContext properties

securityContext.principal                    // CoSecPrincipal
securityContext.principal.id                 // user ID
securityContext.principal.authenticated      // boolean
securityContext.principal.anonymous          // boolean
securityContext.principal.roles              // Set<String>
securityContext.principal.policies           // Set<String>
securityContext.principal.attributes         // Map<String, String>
securityContext.tenant                       // Tenant info
securityContext.attributes                   // MutableMap<String, Any>

Built-in ConditionMatcher Types Reference

For reference, here are all built-in types:

Type	Description	Key Config
authenticated	User must be logged in	—
inRole	User must have role	value: role name
inTenant	Must be from tenant	value: tenant ID
eq	Exact match	part, value
contains	Substring match	part, value
startsWith	Prefix match	part, value
endsWith	Suffix match	part, value
in	Value in list	part, value: array
regular	Regex match	part, pattern, negate
path	Path pattern match	part, pattern, options
bool	Boolean logic	and: array, or: array
spel	Spring Expression	expression
ognl	OGNL expression	expression
rateLimiter	Rate limiting	permitsPerSecond
groupedRateLimiter	Grouped rate limit	permitsPerSecond, groupKey

Built-in ActionMatcher Types Reference

Type	Description	Key Config
path	URL path matching	pattern, method, options
all	Wildcard	method (optional)
composite	OR combination	array of matchers

Spring Registration (Alternative to SPI)

You can also register matcher factories as Spring beans. The MatcherFactoryRegister auto-configuration picks them up from the ApplicationContext:

@Configuration
class CustomMatcherConfig {

    @Bean
    fun premiumUserConditionMatcherFactory(): ConditionMatcherFactory {
        return PremiumUserConditionMatcherFactory()
    }

    @Bean
    fun httpMethodActionMatcherFactory(): ActionMatcherFactory {
        return HttpMethodActionMatcherFactory()
    }
}

This approach is simpler when your matcher needs Spring dependencies (e.g., a database or external service).