Granular Authorization in Spring Boot: Beyond Role Checks

Role-based authorization in Spring Boot is often dangerously oversimplified. This post walks through the evolution from scattered if-statements and over-abstracted security strategies to a clean, declarative approach using Spring Security's Method Security. Key techniques covered include configuring a RoleHierarchy bean to eliminate redundant role checks, using SpEL with @PreAuthorize for ownership and simple domain rules, and implementing a custom PermissionEvaluator for complex domain-specific authorization logic. Practical actionable steps are provided for auditing and refactoring existing authorization code.