[HADOOP-12284] UserGroupInformation doAs can throw misleading exception

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Trivial
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 2.8.0, 3.0.0-alpha1
• Component/s: security
• Target Version/s: 2.8.0
• Flags: Patch
• Assignee: Aaron Blake Niskode-Dossett
• Reporter: Aaron Dossett
• Created: 30/Jul/15 03:00
• Updated: 30/Aug/16 01:24
• Resolved: 06/Oct/15 20:40

Description

If doAs() catches a PrivilegedActionException it extracts the underlying cause through getCause and then re-throws an exception based on the class of the Cause. If getCause returns null, this is how it gets re-thrown:

else

{ throw new UndeclaredThrowableException(cause); }

If cause == null that seems misleading. I have seen actual instances where cause is null, so this isn't just a theoretical concern.