Programmatic Java EE 6 login: how to catch the LoginException?

Question

Hey guys I have implemented a login using a backing bean and request.login() function. It works fine but if the login fails it throws a nasty error. It's fine because I have caught a differnt error before hand(ServletException) and I am able to move to the correct page. It still throws the LoginException in the background. So it fills up the logs with this error.

Here is my method.

  public String login() {

    FacesContext context = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
    HttpServletRequest request = (HttpServletRequest) context.getExternalContext().getRequest();

    try {
        request.login(this.userName, this.password);
        return "index?faces-redirect=true";
    } catch (Exception e) {
        return "error?faces-redirect=true";
    }

This is the stack trace of the error if the user login fails.

    WARNING: Exception
com.sun.enterprise.security.auth.login.common.LoginException: Login failed: Security Exception
    at com.sun.enterprise.security.auth.login.LoginContextDriver.doPasswordLogin(LoginContextDriver.java:394)
    at com.sun.enterprise.security.auth.login.LoginContextDriver.login(LoginContextDriver.java:240)
    at com.sun.enterprise.security.auth.login.LoginContextDriver.login(LoginContextDriver.java:153)
    at com.sun.web.security.RealmAdapter.authenticate(RealmAdapter.java:483)
    at com.sun.web.security.RealmAdapter.authenticate(RealmAdapter.java:425)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.Request.login(Request.java:1916)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.Request.login(Request.java:1879)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.RequestFacade.login(RequestFacade.java:1146)
    at com.atlanticpkg.must.view.LoginBean.login(LoginBean.java:32)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
    at com.sun.el.parser.AstValue.invoke(AstValue.java:234)
    at com.sun.el.MethodExpressionImpl.invoke(MethodExpressionImpl.java:297)
    at org.jboss.weld.util.el.ForwardingMethodExpression.invoke(ForwardingMethodExpression.java:43)
    at org.jboss.weld.el.WeldMethodExpression.invoke(WeldMethodExpression.java:56)
    at com.sun.faces.facelets.el.TagMethodExpression.invoke(TagMethodExpression.java:105)
    at javax.faces.component.MethodBindingMethodExpressionAdapter.invoke(MethodBindingMethodExpressionAdapter.java:88)
    at com.sun.faces.application.ActionListenerImpl.processAction(ActionListenerImpl.java:102)
    at javax.faces.component.UICommand.broadcast(UICommand.java:315)
    at javax.faces.component.UIViewRoot.broadcastEvents(UIViewRoot.java:794)
    at javax.faces.component.UIViewRoot.processApplication(UIViewRoot.java:1259)
    at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.InvokeApplicationPhase.execute(InvokeApplicationPhase.java:81)
    at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.Phase.doPhase(Phase.java:101)
    at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.execute(LifecycleImpl.java:118)
    at javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.service(FacesServlet.java:409)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.service(StandardWrapper.java:1534)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:281)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:175)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.doInvoke(StandardPipeline.java:655)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:595)
    at com.sun.enterprise.web.WebPipeline.invoke(WebPipeline.java:98)
    at com.sun.enterprise.web.PESessionLockingStandardPipeline.invoke(PESessionLockingStandardPipeline.java:91)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:162)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.doService(CoyoteAdapter.java:326)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:227)
    at com.sun.enterprise.v3.services.impl.ContainerMapper.service(ContainerMapper.java:170)
    at com.sun.grizzly.http.ProcessorTask.invokeAdapter(ProcessorTask.java:822)
    at com.sun.grizzly.http.ProcessorTask.doProcess(ProcessorTask.java:719)
    at com.sun.grizzly.http.ProcessorTask.process(ProcessorTask.java:1013)
    at com.sun.grizzly.http.DefaultProtocolFilter.execute(DefaultProtocolFilter.java:225)
    at com.sun.grizzly.DefaultProtocolChain.executeProtocolFilter(DefaultProtocolChain.java:137)
    at com.sun.grizzly.DefaultProtocolChain.execute(DefaultProtocolChain.java:104)
    at com.sun.grizzly.DefaultProtocolChain.execute(DefaultProtocolChain.java:90)
    at com.sun.grizzly.http.HttpProtocolChain.execute(HttpProtocolChain.java:79)
    at com.sun.grizzly.ProtocolChainContextTask.doCall(ProtocolChainContextTask.java:54)
    at com.sun.grizzly.SelectionKeyContextTask.call(SelectionKeyContextTask.java:59)
    at com.sun.grizzly.ContextTask.run(ContextTask.java:71)
    at com.sun.grizzly.util.AbstractThreadPool$Worker.doWork(AbstractThreadPool.java:532)
    at com.sun.grizzly.util.AbstractThreadPool$Worker.run(AbstractThreadPool.java:513)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)
Caused by: javax.security.auth.login.LoginException: Security Exception
    at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.invoke(LoginContext.java:856)
    at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.access$000(LoginContext.java:186)
    at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext$4.run(LoginContext.java:683)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.invokePriv(LoginContext.java:680)
    at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.login(LoginContext.java:579)
    at com.sun.enterprise.security.auth.login.LoginContextDriver.doPasswordLogin(LoginContextDriver.java:382)
    ... 51 more
Caused by: java.lang.SecurityException
    at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.invoke(LoginContext.java:857)

I can't seem to catch this error. If I try to catch it, Netbeans gives me the error that it is never thrown.

Answer 1

You cannot catch it because it is not been thrown. It is just been catched and logged by the container's internal code.

Open the file /domains/domain1/config/logging.properties and add the following line

com.sun.enterprise.security.level=SEVERE

to let it log SEVERE logs only, which is the highest level, higher than WARNING.