CSRF token not available to FreeMarker templates

[ardetrick]

Hi Team!

After upgrading to SpringBoot 3 a freemarker form no longer renders because the _csrf attribute is null.

Sample app (technically it's not rendering _csrf in a form, but it's the same problem): https://github.com/ardetrick/springboot3-freemarker-csrf-issue

There is a work-around where setting spring.freemarker.expose-request-attributes=true resolves the issue, however, this does not seem like the correct fix.

I recognize that there have been a few changes to Spring Security and CSRF as part of upgrading Spring Security from 5 to 6, however, the spring security team does not believe this issue is related. spring-projects/spring-security#12462 (comment).

In addition, at least one other person has also noted this issue: spring-projects/spring-security#12462 (comment).

Thanks for the help!

[petenattress]

Thanks for raising this @ardetrick. I agree the workaround isn't ideal (and for me it has caused another issue where redirects now attempt to add duplicate attributes to the model) but at least it demonstrates the underlying cause.

PS for the benefit of the Spring Boot team, I believe this is the change which caused the regression.

[wilkinsona]

Thanks, both. I agree, the behavior appears to be due to changes to the buildTemplateModel of Spring Framework's FreeMarkerView that were made as part of d84ca2b.

In Spring Framework 5.3.x, that model is an AllHttpScopesHashModel but in 6.0.x it's a SimpleHash. Interestingly, a comment states that it will "expose all standard FreeMarker hash models" which is no longer the case. We'll transfer this issue to the Framework team for further investigation.