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Security realms allow you to secure your web applications against unauthorized access. Protection is based on authentication that identifies who is requesting access to the webapp and access control that restricts what can be accessed and how it is accessed within the webapp.


A webapp statically declares its security requirements in its web.xml file. Authentication is controlled by the <login-config> element. Access controls are specified by <security-constraint> and <security-role-ref> elements. When a request is received for a protected resource, the web container checks if the user performing the request is authenticated, and if the user has a role assignment that permits access to the requested resource.

The Servlet Specification does not address how the static security information in the WEB-INF/web.xml file is mapped to the runtime environment of the container. Jetty does this with the "realm" concept.

A realm has a unique name, and is composed of a set of users. Each user has authentication information (e.g. a password) and a set of roles associated with him/herself.

You may configure one or many different realms depending on your needs. A single realm would indicate that you wish to share common security information across all of your web applications. Distinct realms allow you to partition your security information webapp by webapp.

When a request to a web application requires authentication or authorization, Jetty will use the <realm-name> sub-element inside <login-config> element in the web.xml file to perform an *exact match* to a realm defined in a jetty xml configuration file (or programmatically).

Additional Resources

See Configuring Security Realms tutorial for information on how to configure Jetty security realms.