[WSS-205] WSS4J Handler passes null to MessageContext.setProperty

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 1.5.7, 1.5.8
• Fix Version/s: 1.5.9, 1.6
• Component/s: WSS4J Handlers
• Environment: IBM WebSphere Application Server v6, IBM WebServices Engine
• Assignee: Colm O hEigeartaigh
• Reporter: Scott Heaberlin
• Created: 07/Aug/09 02:15
• Updated: 10/Aug/09 10:22
• Resolved: 10/Aug/09 10:22

Description

WSS4JHandler cannot be used in an IBM WebSphere web services engine runtime because it attempts to set a MessageContext property to null instead of calling MessageContext.removeProperty(). Doing so raises an exception while using UsernameToken (perhaps more) functionality with the WebSphere error "WSWS3211E: Error: Null property value specified."

I was able to track this down in a debugger session to (WSS4J 1.5.7, 1.5.8) WSS4JHandler, line 314:

mc.setProperty(WSHandlerConstants.SND_SECURITY, null);

As it turns out, the WebSphere implementation of MessageContext is a descendant of java.util.Hashtable, which does not allow null values.

I will attach a patch (passes all unit tests in the maven2 build) with a proposed fix, which is to use MessageContext.removeProperty() instead of setProperty(..., null).