CakePHP TinyAuth Plugin

A CakePHP plugin to handle authentication and user authorization the easy way.

This branch is for CakePHP 5.1+. For details see version map.

Why use TinyAuth as a wrapper for Authentication/Authorization plugins?

TinyAuth now acts as a powerful wrapper around CakePHP's official Authentication and Authorization plugins, providing significant advantages:

🚀 Zero-Code Configuration

• INI-based setup: Define all your authentication and authorization rules in simple INI files
• No controller modifications: Unlike vanilla plugins that require code in every controller
• Plugin-friendly: Automatically works with third-party plugins without modifications

⚡ Lightning Fast Setup

• 5-minute integration: Get authentication and authorization working in minutes, not hours
• Sensible defaults: Pre-configured settings that work for 90% of use cases
• Quick setups: Built-in configurations for common scenarios (public non-prefixed, admin areas, etc.)

🛠️ Developer Experience

• Centralized management: All auth rules in one place, not scattered across controllers
• Easy maintenance: Change access rules without touching code
• Cache optimized: Built-in caching for maximum performance
• DebugKit panel: Visualize auth status, identity, and permissions in real-time

🔧 Flexibility

• Adapter pattern: Use INI files, database, or custom adapters for rule storage
• Progressive enhancement: Start simple, add complexity only when needed
• Stand-alone components: Use AuthUser component/helper independently if needed

📊 When to Choose TinyAuth

Choose TinyAuth when you want:

• ✅ Simple role-based access control (RBAC)
• ✅ Quick setup without extensive configuration
• ✅ Controller-action level permissions
• ✅ Easy-to-manage access rules
• ✅ Minimal code changes

Since this plugin just further extends the official ones, you can skip the plugin's authentication and authorization components, and use the original plugins' functionality if you want:

• ❌ Complex policy-based authorization
• ❌ Resource-level permissions (per-entity authorization)
• ❌ Middleware/routing level authentication
• ❌ Custom authentication flows

You can still use the other helpers of this plugin, however.

What's the idea?

Default CakePHP authentication and authorization depends on code changes in at least each controller, maybe more classes. This plugin hooks in with a single line of change and manages all that using config files and there is no need to touch all those controllers, including plugin controllers.

It is also possible to manage the config files without the need to code. And it can with adapters also be moved completely to the DB and managed by CRUD backend.

Ask yourself: Do you need the overhead and complexity involved with a full blown (RBAC DB) ACL or very specific Policy approaches? See also my post acl-access-control-lists-revised/. If not, then this plugin could very well be your answer and a super quick solution to your auth problem :)

But even if you don't leverage the full authentication or authorization potential, the available AuthUserComponent and AuthUserHelper can be very useful when dealing with role based decisions in your controller or view level. They also work stand-alone.

Demo

See https://sandbox.dereuromark.de/auth-sandbox

auth_allow.ini

Define the public actions (accessible by anyone) per controller:

Users = index,view
Admin/Maintenance = pingCheck
PluginName.SomeController = *
MyPlugin.Api/V1 = *

auth_acl.ini

Define what actions may be accessed by what logged-in user role:

[Users]
index = *
add,edit = user,super-user

[Admin/Users]
* = admin

[Translate.Admin/Languages]
* = *

AuthUser component and helper

$currentId = $this->AuthUser->id();

$isMe = $this->AuthUser->isMe($userEntity->id);

if ($this->AuthUser->hasRole('mod')) {
}

if ($this->AuthUser->hasAccess(['action' => 'secretArea'])) {
}

// Helper only
echo $this->AuthUser->link('Admin Backend', ['prefix' => 'Admin', 'action' => 'index']);
echo $this->AuthUser->postLink('Delete', ['action' => 'delete', $id], ['confirm' => 'Sure?']);

Installation

Including the plugin is pretty much as with every other CakePHP plugin:

composer require dereuromark/cakephp-tinyauth

Then, to load the plugin:

bin/cake plugin load TinyAuth

That's it. It should be up and running.

Docs

For setup and usage see Docs.

Also note the original blog post and how it all started.