ClassCastException when using Xerces in an application
I use Picketlink 2.1.4 SAML on JBoss 7.1.0 in a project. One of the libraries I use (jena) has Apache Xerces as a dependency.
When I use Deploy my applications and start JBoss everything works fine. However when I redeploy the application without restarting JBoss I get the following exception:
{code:java}
14:47:09,897 ERROR [org.picketlink.identity.federation] (http-localhost-127.0.0.1-8080-2) org.picketlink.identity.federation.core.exceptions.ProcessingException: PLFED000102: Processing Exception
14:47:09,897 ERROR [org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter] (http-localhost-127.0.0.1-8080-2) An exception or error occurred in the container during the request processing: java.lang.RuntimeException: PLFED000146: Error during processing the SAML Handler Chain.
at org.picketlink.identity.federation.PicketLinkLoggerImpl.samlHandlerChainProcessingError(PicketLinkLoggerImpl.java:1120) [picketlink-jbas7-2.1.4.Final.jar:2.1.4.Final]
at org.picketlink.identity.federation.web.process.ServiceProviderBaseProcessor.process(ServiceProviderBaseProcessor.java:182) [picketlink-core-2.1.4.Final.jar:2.1.4.Final]
at org.picketlink.identity.federation.bindings.tomcat.sp.AbstractSPFormAuthenticator.generalUserRequest(AbstractSPFormAuthenticator.java:555) [picketlink-jbas7-2.1.4.Final.jar:2.1.4.Final]
at org.picketlink.identity.federation.bindings.tomcat.sp.AbstractSPFormAuthenticator.authenticate(AbstractSPFormAuthenticator.java:293) [picketlink-jbas7-2.1.4.Final.jar:2.1.4.Final]
at org.picketlink.identity.federation.bindings.tomcat.sp.AbstractSPFormAuthenticator.authenticate(AbstractSPFormAuthenticator.java:253) [picketlink-jbas7-2.1.4.Final.jar:2.1.4.Final]
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:455) [jbossweb-7.0.10.Final.jar:]
at org.jboss.as.web.security.SecurityContextAssociationValve.invoke(SecurityContextAssociationValve.java:154) [jboss-as-web-7.1.0.Final.jar:7.1.0.Final]
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:155) [jbossweb-7.0.10.Final.jar:]
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102) [jbossweb-7.0.10.Final.jar:]
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109) [jbossweb-7.0.10.Final.jar:]
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:368) [jbossweb-7.0.10.Final.jar:]
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:877) [jbossweb-7.0.10.Final.jar:]
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:671) [jbossweb-7.0.10.Final.jar:]
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:930) [jbossweb-7.0.10.Final.jar:]
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:679) [rt.jar:1.6.0_24]
Caused by: org.picketlink.identity.federation.core.exceptions.ProcessingException: PLFED000102: Processing Exception
at org.picketlink.identity.federation.PicketLinkLoggerImpl.processingError(PicketLinkLoggerImpl.java:85) [picketlink-jbas7-2.1.4.Final.jar:2.1.4.Final]
at org.picketlink.identity.federation.web.handlers.saml2.SAML2AuthenticationHandler$SPAuthenticationHandler.generateSAMLRequest(SAML2AuthenticationHandler.java:393) [picketlink-core-2.1.4.Final.jar:2.1.4.Final]
at org.picketlink.identity.federation.web.handlers.saml2.SAML2AuthenticationHandler.generateSAMLRequest(SAML2AuthenticationHandler.java:147) [picketlink-core-2.1.4.Final.jar:2.1.4.Final]
at org.picketlink.identity.federation.web.process.ServiceProviderBaseProcessor.process(ServiceProviderBaseProcessor.java:176) [picketlink-core-2.1.4.Final.jar:2.1.4.Final]
... 13 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassCastException: org.apache.xerces.parsers.XIncludeAwareParserConfiguration cannot be cast to org.apache.xerces.xni.parser.XMLParserConfiguration
at org.apache.xerces.parsers.DOMParser.<init>(Unknown Source) [xercesImpl-2.7.1.jar:]
at org.apache.xerces.parsers.DOMParser.<init>(Unknown Source) [xercesImpl-2.7.1.jar:]
at org.apache.xerces.jaxp.DocumentBuilderImpl.<init>(Unknown Source) [xercesImpl-2.7.1.jar:]
at org.apache.xerces.jaxp.DocumentBuilderFactoryImpl.newDocumentBuilder(Unknown Source) [xercesImpl-2.7.1.jar:]
at __redirected.__DocumentBuilderFactory.newDocumentBuilder(__DocumentBuilderFactory.java:119) [jboss-modules.jar:1.1.1.GA]
at org.picketlink.identity.federation.core.saml.v2.util.DocumentUtil.getDocument(DocumentUtil.java:155) [picketlink-core-2.1.4.Final.jar:2.1.4.Final]
at org.picketlink.identity.federation.core.saml.v2.util.DocumentUtil.getDocument(DocumentUtil.java:139) [picketlink-core-2.1.4.Final.jar:2.1.4.Final]
at org.picketlink.identity.federation.api.saml.v2.request.SAML2Request.convert(SAML2Request.java:270) [picketlink-core-2.1.4.Final.jar:2.1.4.Final]
at org.picketlink.identity.federation.web.handlers.saml2.SAML2AuthenticationHandler$SPAuthenticationHandler.generateSAMLRequest(SAML2AuthenticationHandler.java:377) [picketlink-core-2.1.4.Final.jar:2.1.4.Final]
... 15 more
{code}
I have read that this is a know problem when using Xerces in an environment that uses multiple classloaders.
http://xerces.apache.org/xerces2-j/faq-general.html#faq-5
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/0310_searle/searle.html
There was a similar problem in JBoss 5 when loading the configuration. It was fixed in JBoss 6 by switching the classloader. https://issues.jboss.org/browse/JBAS-7210 Maybe something similar would help here.