How to add bouncycastle to JBoss AS 7.1

[john.genoese]

What is the appropriate way to add bouncycastle (  bcprov-jdk16-1.46.jar ) to JBoss AS7 in such a way so as to use it as a security provider? I've tried doing the conventional JDK-level install and that doesn't work. Putting the jar in ear/lib doesn't work, either (some sort of VFS error). When I leave it out of ear/lib I get

java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.bouncycastle.jce.provider.BouncyCastleProvider from [Module "deployment.waimap.ear:main" from Service Module Loader]

What am I missing?

Thanks for any help.

[john.genoese]

I'm not sure what I was doing wrong before, but the following works beautifully, without having to alter the JVM in any way.

1. Create an 'org.bouncycastle' module in the following manner:
   1. Under $JBOSS_HOME/modules, create directory 'org/bouncycastle/main'. Directory 'org' will already be there.
   2. Copy bcprov-jdk16-1.46.jar into org/bouncycastle/main
   3. Create file 'bcprov-jdk16-1.46.jar.index' in org/bouncycastle/main, which is basically the output of a "jar -tf" command without the ".class" lines. I put a blank line at the top because these .index files always seem to have one. I have attached this file as "bcprov-jdk16-1.46.jar.index".
   4. Create a file called "module.xml", also in org/bouncycastle/main, which will point to the jar file and reference module "javax.api" as a dependency. I have attached this file as 'module.xml'.
   5. The module is complete.
2. Since I am deploying in an EAR file, I had to add a module dependency entry to my EAR's META-INF/jboss-deployment-structure.xml file, under the <deployment><dependencies> section, like so:

   {code:xml}
   
   <deployment>
   
   
   
   <dependencies>
   
   
   
   
   <module name="org.bouncycastle" slot="main" export="true"/>
   {code} 

3. Make certain that the ear's /lib directory does NOT contain bcprov-jdk16-1.46.jar.

Notes:

• The 'slot="main" and 'export="true" parameters are very important in the jboss-dependency-structure.xml file. I spent a few iterations getting that corrected. For example, my app couldn't see the bouncycastle classes when I omitted 'slot="main" from the org.bouncycastle dependency. Ugh!
• Using the JVM option "-verbose:class" helped a lot in debugging this. In one permutation, I actually was able to see the same Bouncy Castle classes loaded under two different class loaders! That was when I had the JVM itself configured AND has the classes in EAR/lib -- twice wrong!

I think that's it.

My deepest thanks to the JBoss and Bouncy Castle communities for creating these world-class platforms. I had grumblings about JBoss Modules at first, but now that I understand it a bit better, I realize that it's a good approach. One could easily envision the creation of canonical modules in various problem domains. I just hope that somehow it coordinates with maven (unless it already does and It just got by me).

[vinprabhuu]

Perfect solution.. Thanks alot

[nscavell]

Another option, if you want to bundle bouncycastle in the WAR instead of having to add a module to as7, is have jboss-deployment-structure.xml file as such

<jboss-deployment-structure>
   <deployment>
      <resources>
         <resource-root path="WEB-INF/lib/bcprov-jdk16-1.46.jar" use-physical-code-source="true"/>
      </resources>
   </deployment>
</jboss-deployment-structure>

This gets around the VFS error that you mention. I believe it's a non-issue if you use openjdk.

[alexc099]

Dude, I was this close to asking if anyone knew how to do this for a WAR deployment. (Seriously, I was typing in a post when I started getting "Internal Server Error" popups and reloaded the page.) That totally fixed my problem. You rock.

[nscavell]

Haha that's funny. Glad I could help

[ldtung.it]

Hello Nick Scavelli,

Thanks for your help and I followed exactly what you mentioned but I got this case:

- Build Application.ear

- Start JBOSS AS 7 standalone server

- upload Application.ear to jboss AS 7 server

-> then the bouncyCastle not get loaded

- Restart JBOSS AS 7 server

- This time, bouncyCastle get loaded and everything went fine.

Do you have any idea about this?

[ldtung.it]

I forgot to mention my ear structure

Application.EAR

                    -----lib         

                    -----META-INF    

                    -----Application.war         

And my jboss-deployment-structure.xml

<jboss-deployment-structure>

  <ear-subdeployments-isolated>false</ear-subdeployments-isolated>

  <resources>

        <resource-root path="WEB-INF/lib/bcprov-jdk15on-1.47.jar" use-physical-code-source="true"/>

        <resource-root path="WEB-INF/lib/bcpkix-jdk15on-1.47.jar" use-physical-code-source="true"/>

        <resource-root path="WEB-INF/lib/bcmail-jdk15on-1.47.jar" use-physical-code-source="true"/>

      </resources>

  </deployment>

</jboss-deployment-structure>

[tullio0106]

Bad idea in such way I'm forced to use different wars for different  Application Servers also when is not needed or usefull.

Why such problem with Bouncy Castel ?

Is there an alternative solution ?

Tks

Tullio

[valsaraj007]

How can I bundle bouncycastle in the EAR? The libraries are in app.ear/lib folder.