Roles vs. Authorities: The Distinction That Matters Spring Security uses one interface for both roles and authorities: GrantedAuthority. Both are just strings. The difference is convention. Authority: a fine-grained permission string — user:read, report:export, order:cancel Role: a coarse-grained label that groups authorities — ROLE_ADMIN, ROLE_MANAGER, ROLE_USER The ROLE_ prefix is the only mechanical difference. When you call hasRole("ADMIN"), Spring Security prepends ROLE_ automatically and checks for ROLE_ADMIN. When you call hasAuthority("ROLE_ADMIN") you must include the prefix yourself.

Roles and permissions control what authenticated users can do. This article implements a complete RBAC system — from URL-level rules to method-level security and resource ownership checks. Roles vs Permissions Roles are coarse-grained groupings (USER, MANAGER, ADMIN). Permissions are fine-grained actions (READ_ORDERS, WRITE_PRODUCTS, DELETE_USERS). Assign permissions to roles: ADMIN → all permissions MANAGER → READ_ORDERS, WRITE_ORDERS, READ_PRODUCTS, WRITE_PRODUCTS USER → READ_OWN_ORDERS, WRITE_OWN_ORDERS, READ_PRODUCTS Model permissions as a typed enum: public enum Permission { // Order permissions READ_ORDERS, WRITE_ORDERS, DELETE_ORDERS, READ_OWN_ORDERS, WRITE_OWN_ORDERS, // Product permissions READ_PRODUCTS, WRITE_PRODUCTS, DELETE_PRODUCTS, // User management READ_USERS, WRITE_USERS, DELETE_USERS } public enum Role { USER(Set.