silverstripe-framework/docs/en/02_Developer_Guides/02_Controllers/03_Access_Control.md

title: Access Control summary: Define allowed behavior and add permission based checks to your Controllers.

Access Control

Within your controllers you should declare and restrict what people can see and do to ensure that users cannot run actions on the website they shouldn't be able to.

Allowed Actions

Any action you define on a controller must be defined in a $allowed_actions static array. This prevents users from directly calling methods that they shouldn't.

    use SilverStripe\Control\Controller;

    class MyController extends Controller 
    {
        
        private static $allowed_actions = [
            // someaction can be accessed by anyone, any time
            'someaction', 

            // So can otheraction
            'otheraction' => true, 
            
            // restrictedaction can only be people with ADMIN privilege
            'restrictedaction' => 'ADMIN', 

            // restricted to uses that have the 'CMS_ACCESS_CMSMain' access
            'cmsrestrictedaction' => 'CMS_ACCESS_CMSMain',
            
            // complexaction can only be accessed if $this->canComplexAction() returns true.
            'complexaction' => '->canComplexAction',

            // complexactioncheck can only be accessed if $this->canComplexAction("MyRestrictedAction", false, 42) is true.
            'complexactioncheck' => '->canComplexAction("MyRestrictedAction", false, 42)',
        ];
    }

If the permission check fails, SilverStripe will return a `403` Forbidden HTTP status.

An action named "index" is white listed by default, unless allowed_actions is defined as an empty array, or the action is specifically restricted.

    use SilverStripe\Control\Controller;

    <?php 
    class MyController extends Controller 
    {

        public function index() 
        {
            // allowed without an $allowed_action defined
        }
    }

$allowed_actions can be defined on Extension classes applying to the controller.

    use SilverStripe\Core\Extension;

    class MyExtension extends Extension 
    {

        private static $allowed_actions = [
            'mycustomaction'
        ];
    }

Only public methods can be made accessible.

    use SilverStripe\Control\Controller;

    class MyController extends Controller 
    {

        private static $allowed_actions = [
            'secure',
            // secureaction won't work as it's private.
        ];

        public function secure() 
        {
            // ..
        }

        private function secureaction() 
        {
            // ..
        }
    }

If a method on a parent class is overwritten, access control for it has to be redefined as well.

    use SilverStripe\Control\Controller;

    class MyController extends Controller 
    {

        private static $allowed_actions = [
            'action',
        ];

        public function action() 
        {
            // ..
        }
    }
    class MyChildController extends MyController 
    {

        private static $allowed_actions = [
            'action', // required as we are redefining action
        ];

        public function action() 
        {

        }
    }

Access checks on parent classes need to be overwritten via the [Configuration API](../configuration).

Forms

Form action methods should not be included in $allowed_actions. However, the form method should be included as an allowed_action.

    use SilverStripe\Forms\Form;
    use SilverStripe\Control\Controller;

    class MyController extends Controller 
    {

        private static $allowed_actions = [
            'ContactForm' // use the Form method, not the action
        ];

        public function ContactForm() 
        {
            return new Form(..);
        }

        public function doContactForm($data, $form) 
        {
            // ..
        }
    }

Action Level Checks

Each method responding to a URL can also implement custom permission checks, e.g. to handle responses conditionally on the passed request data.

    use SilverStripe\Control\Controller;

    class MyController extends Controller 
    {
        
        private static $allowed_actions = [
            'myaction'
        ];
        
        public function myaction($request) 
        {
            if(!$request->getVar('apikey')) {
                return $this->httpError(403, 'No API key provided');
            } 
                
            return 'valid';
        }
    }

This is recommended as an addition for `$allowed_actions`, in order to handle more complex checks, rather than a replacement.

Controller Level Checks

After checking for allowed_actions, each controller invokes its init() method, which is typically used to set up common state, If an init() method returns a HTTPResponse with either a 3xx or 4xx HTTP status code, it'll abort execution. This behavior can be used to implement permission checks.

`init` is called for any possible action on the controller and before any specific method such as `index`.

```php use SilverStripe\Security\Permission; use SilverStripe\Control\Controller;

class MyController extends Controller 
{
    
    private static $allowed_actions = [];
    
    public function init() 
    {
        parent::init();

        if(!Permission::check('ADMIN')) {
            return $this->httpError(403);
        }
    }
}

## Related Documentation

* [Security](../security)

## API Documentation

* [Controller](api:SilverStripe\Control\Controller)