Security enablement followed by errors

Use this information if you are experiencing errors after security is enabled.

What kind of error are you seeing?

For general tips on diagnosing and resolving security-related problems, see the topic Troubleshooting the security component.

IBM® Support has documents and tools that can save you time gathering information needed to resolve problems as described in Troubleshooting help from IBM. Before opening a problem report, see the Support page:

Authentication error accessing a Web page

Possible causes for authentication errors include:
  • Incorrect user name or passwords. Check the user name and password and make sure that they are correct.
  • Security configuration error : User registry type is not set correctly. Check the user registry property in administrative security settings in the administrative console. Verify that the user registry property is the intended user registry.
  • Internal program error. If the client application is a Java™ standalone program, this program might not gather or send credential information correctly.

If the user registry configuration, user ID, and password appear correct, use the WebSphere® Application Server trace to determine the cause of the problem. To enable security trace, use the com.ibm.ws.security.*=all=enabled trace specification.

Authorization error accessing a Web page

If a user who is supposed to have access to a resource does not, a configuration step is probably missing. Review Authorizing access to administrative roles.

Specifically:
  • Check the required roles for the accessed Web resource.
  • Check the authorization table to make sure that the user, or the groups to which the user belongs, is assigned to one of the required roles.
  • View required roles for the Web resource in the deployment descriptor of the Web resource.
  • View the authorization table for the application that contains the Web resource, using the administrative console.
  • Test with a user who is granted the required roles, to see if the user can access the problem resources.
  • If the user is required to have one or more of the required roles, use the administrative console to assign that user to required roles, stop, and restart the application.

If the user is granted required roles, but still fails to access the secured resources, enable security trace, using com.ibm.ws.security.*=all=enabled as the trace specification. Collect trace information for further resolution.

Authentication fails when code pages differ between the client and the server

When a client uses a code page that is different from the server, and non-US-ASCII characters are used for the user ID and password during basic authentication, the login does not succeed. The HTTP header does not include the encoding method information that is necessary to translate the encoded data, so the server does not know how to decode the information correctly.
Use a login form that relies on POST parameters, which are in the HTML body text. The encoding for the text is sent by the browser and so is capable of being decoded properly.
Note: Web services customers are not able to use form login to resolve this problem. Users must ensure there is consistency in the code pages between the client and the server.

Error Message: CWSCJ0314E: Current Java 2 security policy reported a potential violation on server

If you find errors on your server similar to:
Error Message: CWSCJ0314E: Current® Java 2 Security policy reported a potential violation of 
Java 2 Security Permission. Please refer to Problem Determination Guide for further information.
{0}Permission/:{1}Code/:{2}{3}Stack Trace/:{4}Code Base Location/:{5}
The Java security manager checkPermission method has reported a SecurityException exception .

The reported exception might be critical to the secure system. Turn on security trace to determine the potential code that might have violated the security policy. Once the violating code is determined, verify if the attempted operation is permitted with respect to Java 2 Security, by examining all applicable Java 2 security policy files and the application code.

A more detailed report is enabled by either configuring RAS trace into debug mode, or specifying a Java property.
  • Check the Tracing and logging configuration article for instructions on how to configure Reliability Availability Serviceability (RAS) trace into debug mode, or
  • Specify the following property in the Application Servers > server_name > ProcessDefinition > Java Virtual Machine panel from the administrative console in the Generic JVM arguments panel:
    • Add the java.security.debug run-time flag
    • Valid values:
      access
      Print all debug information including required permission, code, stack, and code base location.
      stack
      Print debug information including required permission, code, and stack.
      failure
      Print debug information including required permission, and code.

For a review of Java security policies, see the Java 2 Security documentation at http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/guide/security/index.html.

Tip: If the application is running with a Java Mail application programming interface (API), this message might be benign. You can update the installed Enterprise Application root/META-INF/was.policy file to grant the following permissions to the application:
  • permission java.io.FilePermission "${user.home}${/}.mailcap", "read";
  • permission java.io.FilePermission "${user.home}${/}.mime.types", "read";
  • permission java.io.FilePermission "${java.home}${/}lib${/}mailcap", "read";
  • permission java.io.FilePermission "${java.home}${/}lib${/}mime.types", "read";

Error message: CWMSG0508E: The JMS Server security service was unable to authenticate user ID:" error displayed in SystemOut.log when starting an application server

This error can result from installing the Java Message Service (JMS) API sample and then enabling security. You can follow the instructions in the Configure and Run page of the corresponding JMS sample documentation to configure the sample to work with WebSphere Application Server security.

You can verify the installation of the message-driven bean sample by launching the installation program, selecting Custom, and browsing the components which are already installed in the Select the features you like to install panel. The JMS sample is shown as Message-Driven Bean Sample, under Embedded Messaging.

You can also verify this installation by using the administrative console to open the properties of the application server that contains the samples. Select MDBSamples and click uninstall.

Error message: CWSCJ0237E: One or more vital LTPAServerObject configuration attributes are null or not available after enabling security and starting the application server

This error message can result from selecting Lightweight Third Party Authentication (LTPA) as the authentication mechanism, but not generating the LTPA keys. The LTPA keys encrypt the LTPA token.

To resolve this problem:
  1. Click Security > Global security > Authentication > Authentication mechanisms and expiration> LTPA
  2. Enter a password, which can be anything.
  3. Enter the same password in Confirm Password.
  4. Click Apply.
  5. Click Generate Keys.
  6. Click Save.

The AccessControlException exception, is reported in the SystemOut.log

The problem is related to the Java 2 security feature of WebSphere Application Server, the API-level security framework that is implemented in WebSphere Application Server. An exception similar to the following example displays. The error message and number can vary.
CWSRV0020E: [Servlet Error]-[validator]: Failed to load servlet: 
java.security.AccessControlException: access denied 
(java.io.FilePermission 
app_server_root/systemApps/isclite.ear/isclite.war/WEB-INF/validation.xml read) 

For an explanation of Java 2 security, how and why to enable or disable it, how it relates to policy files, and how to edit policy files, see the Java 2 security topic in the information center navigation. The topic explains that Java 2 security is not only used by this product, but developers can also implement it for their business applications. Administrators might need to involve developers, if this exception is created when a client tries to access a resource that is hosted by WebSphere Application Server.

Possible causes of these errors include:
  • Syntax errors in a policy file.
  • Syntax errors in permission specifications in the ra.xml file that is bundled in a .rar file. This case applies to resource adapters that support connector access to CICS® or other resources.
  • An application is missing the specified permission in a policy file, or in permission specifications in ra.xml file bundled in a .rar file.
  • The class path is not set correctly, preventing the permissions for the resource.xml file for Service Provider Programming Interface (SPI) from being correctly created.
  • A library called by an application, or the application, is missing a doPrivileged block to support access to a resource.
  • Permission is specified in the wrong policy file.
To resolve these problems:
  • Check all of the related policy files to verify that the permission shown in the exception, for example java.io.FilePermission, is specified.
  • Look for a related ParserException exception in the SystemOut.log file which reports the details of the syntax error.
    For example:
    CWSCJ0189E: Caught ParserException while creating template for application policy
    
    profile_root/config/cells/cell_name/nodes/node_name/app.policy
    Where:
    • cell_name represents the name of your cell.
    • profile_name represents the name of your profile.
    • node_name represents the name of your node.
    The exception is com.ibm.ws.security.util.ParserException: line 18: expected ';', found 'grant'
  • Look for a message similar to: CWSCJ0325W: The permission permission specified in the policy file is unresolved.
  • Check the call stack to determine which method does not have the permission. Identify the class path of this method. If it is hard to identify the method, enable the Java2 security Report.
    • Configuring RAS trace by specifying com.ibm.ws.security.core.*=all=enabled, or specifying a Java property.java.security.debug property. Valid values for the java.security.debug property are:
      access
      Print all debug information including: required permission, code, stack, and code base location.
      stack
      Print debug information including: required permission, code, and stack.
      failure
      Print debug information including: required permission and code.
    • The report shows:
      Permission
      The missing permission.
      Code
      Which method has the problem.
      Stack Trace
      Where the access violation occurred.
      CodeBaseLocation
      The detail of each stack frame.
      Usually, permission and code are enough to identify the problem. The following example illustrates a report:
      Permission: 
      app_server_root/logs/server1/SystemOut_02.08.20_11.19.53.log : 
      access denied (java.io.FilePermission 
      app_server_root/logs/server1/SystemOut_02.08.20_11.19.53.log delete) 
      
      Code: 
       com.ibm.ejs.ras.RasTestHelper$7  in  
      {file:app_server_root/installedApps/app1/JrasFVTApp.ear/RasLib.jar
      } 
      
      Stack Trace: 
      
      java.security.AccessControlException: access denied (java.io.FilePermission 
      app_server_root/logs/server1/SystemOut_02.08.20_11.19.53.log delete
      ) 
              at java.security.AccessControlContext.checkPermission
                                    (AccessControlContext.java(Compiled Code)) 
              at java.security.AccessController.checkPermission
                                    (AccessController.java(Compiled Code))
              at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkPermission
                                    (SecurityManager.java(Compiled Code)) 
                                     . 
      Code Base Location: 
      
      com.ibm.ws.security.core.SecurityManager : 
      file:/app_server_root/plugins/com.ibm.ws.runtime_6.1.0.jar
      
        ClassLoader: com.ibm.ws.bootstrap.ExtClassLoader 
        Permissions granted to CodeSource 
      (file:/app_server_root/plugins/com.ibm.ws.runtime_6.1.0.jar <no certificates>
      
        { 
          (java.util.PropertyPermission java.vendor read); 
          (java.util.PropertyPermission java.specification.version read); 
          (java.util.PropertyPermission line.separator read); 
          (java.util.PropertyPermission java.class.version read); 
          (java.util.PropertyPermission java.specification.name read); 
          (java.util.PropertyPermission java.vendor.url read); 
          (java.util.PropertyPermission java.vm.version read); 
          (java.util.PropertyPermission os.name read); 
          (java.util.PropertyPermission os.arch read); 
         } 
         ( This list continues.)
      
      Where:
      • app1 represents the name of your application.
      • app_server_root represents the installation root directory for WebSphere Application Server, Network Deployment.
      • profile_root represents the location and name of a particular profile in your system.
      • profile1 or profile_name represents the name of your profile.
      • server1 or server_namerepresents the name of your application server.
  • If the method is SPI, check the resources.xml file to ensure that the class path is correct.
  • To confirm that all of the policy files are loaded correctly, or what permission each class path is granted, enable the trace with com.ibm.ws.security.policy.*=all=enabled. All loaded permissions are listed in the trace.log file. Search for the app.policy, was.policy and ra.xml files. To check the permission list for a class path, search for Effective Policy for classpath.
  • If there are any syntax errors in the policy file or the ra.xml file, correct them with the policytool. Avoid editing the policy manually, because syntax errors can result.

  • If a permission is listed as Unresolved, it does not take effect. Verify that the specified permission name is correct.
  • If the class path that is specified in the resource.xml file is not correct, correct it.
  • If a required permission does not exist in either the policy files or the ra.xml file, examine the application code to see if you need to add this permission. If so, add it to the proper policy file or the ra.xml file.
  • If the permission is not granted outside of the specific method that is accessing this resource, modify the code needs to use a doPrivileged block.
  • If this permission does exist in a policy file or a ra.xml file and the permission was loaded correctly, but the class path still does not have the permission in its list, the location of the permission might not be correct. Read Java 2 security in the information center navigation carefully to determine in which policy file or ra.xml file to specify that permission.
Tip: If the application is running with the Java Mail API, you can update the installed Enterprise Application root/META-INF/was.policy file to grant the following permissions to the application:
  • permission java.io.FilePermission "${user.home}${/}.mailcap", "read";
  • permission java.io.FilePermission "${user.home}${/}.mime.types", "read";
  • permission java.io.FilePermission "${java.home}${/}lib${/}mailcap", "read";
  • permission java.io.FilePermission "${java.home}${/}lib${/}mime.types", "read";

Error Message: CWSCJ0336E: Authentication failed for user {0} because of the following exception {1}

This error message results if the user ID that is indicated is not found in the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) user registry. To resolve this problem:
  1. Verify that your user ID and password are correct.
  2. Verify that the user ID exists in the registry.
  3. Verify that the base distinguished name (DN) is correct.
  4. Verify that the user filter is correct.
  5. Verify that the bind DN and the password for the bind DN are correct. If the bind DN and password are not specified, add the missing information and retry.
  6. Verify that the host name and LDAP type are correct.
Consult with the administrator of the user registry if the problem persists.

Error Message: SECJ0352E: Could not get the users matching the pattern {0} because of the following exception {1}

This authentication failure message displays when an external user account repository is corrupted or unavailable, and WebSphere Application Server is unable to authenticate the user name in the repository. Generally, authentication error messages are followed by additional information that indicates the nature or root cause of the problem, such as:
Make sure the users matching the pattern exist in the registry. Contact your service representative if the problem persists.
This additional information might not provide a clear user action if the user account repository is corrupted or the user loses connectivity between WebSphere Application Server and an external user account repository. The external user account repository, which is referred to as a repository in this document, might be a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) product.
To resolve this problem, you might need to re-install the repository and verify that it installs successfully by testing the connection.
CAUTION:
Proceed with the following steps only if you have ensured that all WebSphere Application Server-related configuration settings are accurate.
Complete the following steps to resolve the issue:
  1. Restart both the repository and WebSphere Application Server.
  2. Test the connection to the repository. If the connection attempt still fails, it might be necessary to re-install the repository.
  3. If diagnostics are provided with the repository, run them to avoid having to re-install the repository.
    Attention: If the previous steps do not fix the problem, you might need to re-install the repository. Before proceeding, generate a complete list of all the configured users and groups; you will need to re-populate these fields after the re-installation.
  4. If necessary, re-install the corrupted repository.
  5. Populate the users and groups from your list into the newly installed repository.
  6. Restart both the repository and WebSphere Application Server.
  7. In the administrative console, navigate to Security > Global security, and select the appropriate user account repository. For example, select Standalone LDAP registry if you are using a standalone Lightweight Directory Access Protocol repository.
  8. Click Test connection to ensure that WebSphere Application Server can connect to the repository.

Generate keys error when using the Profile Management tool to create a new profile

When you create a new profile using either the Profile Management tool or the command-line manageprofiles utility, an error message displays that indicates either partial success or failure. The error message, which is located in the install_dir/logs/manageprofiles/profile_name_create.log file, might point to an error in either the generateKeysforSingleProfile task or the generateKeysForCellProfile task.

The Profile Creation tool and the manageprofiles utility invoke several tasks. The generateKeysForSingleProfile task is invoked when you create a stand-alone application server or a deployment manager profile. The generateKeysForCellProfile task is invoked when you create a cell profile. Both of these tasks are the first tasks to invoke the wsadmin commands. Although the log indicates an error in one of these tasks, the error might actually result from a wsadmin command failure and not an error in the security tasks.

To determine the actual cause of the problem, review the information that is provided in the following log files:

Some security roles are not immediately available for a secured application where LDAP has Tivoli Access Manager enabled

In some instances, some security roles might not be immediately available when you deploy a secured application where LDAP has Tivoli Access Manager enabled.

You might see an error such as the following:
"Exception: java.lang.OutOfMemoryError"
You might be able to address this issue by doing the following:
  1. Allocate more memory to the minimum and maximum java heap size.
    1. In the administrative console, select Servers/server types/WebSphere Application Servers --> server1.
    2. Select Server Infrastructure/Java and Process Management/Process Definition.
    3. Select Java Virtual Machine.
    4. Set the initial heap size to 512 MB and the maximum heap size to 1024 MB.
    5. Select OK and then Save.
    6. Restart WebSphere Application Server.
  2. While WebSphere Application Sever is stopped, add some performance tuning properties for embedded Tivoli Access Manager.
    1. In the config/cells/CELLNAME directory, edit the amwas.amjacc.template.properties file by adding the following properties to it:
      com.tivoli.pd.as.jacc.DBRefresh=0
      com.tivoli.pd.as.jacc.AuthTableRemoteMode=yes
      com.tivoli.pd.as.rbpf.NoUncheckedRoles=true

      This helps when embedded Tivoli Access Manager is re-configured

    2. Because embedded Tivoli Access Manager is already configured, you can update the generated configuration files with the above properties. For each WebSphere Application Server instance in the ND (dmgr, NAs and servers), go to the profiles/NAME/etc/tam directory and do the following.
      For each file that ends in amjacc.properties, add the 3 properties above:
      com.tivoli.pd.as.jacc.DBRefresh=0
      com.tivoli.pd.as.jacc.AuthTableRemoteMode=yes
      com.tivoli.pd.as.rbpf.NoUncheckedRoles=true
      For each file that ends in pdperm.properties, update the appsvr-dbrefresh property to be:
      appsvr-dbrefresh=0
      For each file that ends in authztable.pdperm.properties, update the appsvr-mode property to be:
      appsvr-mode=remote
  3. Restart the cell.



Related concepts
Troubleshooting and support
Related tasks
Troubleshooting security configurations
Related reference
Access problems after enabling security
Reference topic    

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Last updated: Oct 20, 2010 7:53:43 PM CDT
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