Can't convert to basic authentication w/ tomcat successfully

Daniel Cox (426●1●16●8) | asked Sep 03 '08, 2:52 p.m.

Hi All,

I apologize for asking a question which is most likely just my lack of knowledge of tomcat. In order to enable feed readers I am trying to switch our implementation on top of tomcat to basic authentication. I've made the relevant change in server/tomcat/webapps/jazz/WEB-INF/web.xml:


	&lt;login&gt;

		&lt;auth&gt;BASIC&lt;/auth&gt;

	&lt;/login&gt;

&lt;!--

	&lt;login&gt;

		&lt;auth&gt;FORM&lt;/auth&gt;

		&lt;form&gt;

    		&lt;form&gt;/auth/authrequired&lt;/form&gt;

    		&lt;form&gt;/auth/authfailed&lt;/form&gt;

  		&lt;/form&gt;

	&lt;/login&gt;	

--&gt;

I've shutdown and restarted the server - however I end up with the following exception in the logs:

Sep 3, 2008 12&#58;15&#58;57 PM org.apache.catalina.authenticator.FormAuthenticator forwardToLoginPage

WARNING&#58; Unexpected error forwarding to login page

java.lang.NullPointerException

	at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.FormAuthenticator.forwardToLoginPage&#40;FormAuthenticator.java&#58;316&#41;

	at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.FormAuthenticator.authenticate&#40;FormAuthenticator.java&#58;244&#41;

It's obviously still trying to forward to the login page - but that should no longer be being used.

What have I missed?

BTW - everything does work when using form-based authentication. I am using an LDAP realm as well in case there is a remote likelihood that it might affect the situation.

3 answers

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permanent link

Matt Lavin (2.7k●2) | answered Sep 03 '08, 3:54 p.m.
FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER

There is a Tech Note that included instructions on how to setup Basic
auth for Jazz Team Server. The instructions are in the "Configuring the
authentication method" section of:

https://jazz.net/learn/LearnItem.jsp?href=content/tech-notes/jazz-team-server-0_6-authentication-explained/index.html

Matt Lavin
Jazz Server Team

xdcx11 wrote:

Hi All,

I apologize for asking a question which is most likely just my lack of
knowledge of tomcat. In order to enable feed readers I am trying to
switch our implementation on top of tomcat to basic authentication.
I've made the relevant change in
server/tomcat/webapps/jazz/WEB-INF/web.xml:

<login
<auth>BASIC</auth
</login
!--
<login
<auth>FORM</auth
<form
<form>/auth/authrequired</form
<form>/auth/authfailed</form
</form
</login>
-->

I've shutdown and restarted the server - however I end up with the
following exception in the logs:
Sep 3, 2008 12:15:57 PM
org.apache.catalina.authenticator.FormAuthenticator
forwardToLoginPage
WARNING: Unexpected error forwarding to login page
java.lang.NullPointerException
	at
org.apache.catalina.authenticator.FormAuthenticator.forwardToLoginPage(FormAuthenticator.java:316)
	at
org.apache.catalina.authenticator.FormAuthenticator.authenticate(FormAuthenticator.java:244)
It's obviously still trying to forward to the login page - but that
should no longer be being used.

What have I missed?

BTW - everything does work when using form-based authentication. I am
using an LDAP realm as well in case there is a remote likelihood that
it might affect the situation.

permanent link

Daniel Cox (426●1●16●8) | answered Sep 03 '08, 4:37 p.m.

Thanks for the pointer! I see this detail is what I was missing:

If you are using Tomcat, you must also modify "jazz\server\tomcat\conf\Catalina\localhost\jazz.xml" and change the className attribute on the "Valve" element from:

org.apache.catalina.authenticator.FormAuthenticator

to

org.apache.catalina.authenticator.BasicAuthenticator

Apparently the technotes don't get indexed by the search engine as I had carefully searched and reviewed all content with "local-config" and "basic authentication" that had search results.

0	permanent link Daniel Cox (426●1●16●8) \| answered Sep 03 '08, 4:52 p.m. Oh and BTW - if anyone else does come by this the answer is that BASIC and tomcat will authenticate with every request - so unless you want to flood your LDAP server switch to WebSphere if you must have secure feeds.

It's all about the answers!

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Can't convert to basic authentication w/ tomcat successfully

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