CXF web service client: “Cannot create a secure XM

Question

I am wrote and deployed a CXF web service into a Tomcat server using the instructions here. The web service deploys fine as I can see the WSDL file in a web browser.

My standalone Java client program doesn't work though. Here is the code:

System.out.println("Creating client");
Properties properties = System.getProperties();
properties.put("org.apache.cxf.stax.allowInsecureParser", "1");
System.setProperties(properties);
JaxWsProxyFactoryBean factory = new JaxWsProxyFactoryBean();
factory.setServiceClass(ExampleWebService.class);
factory.setAddress("http://X.X.X.X:9090/WebServices/ExampleWebService");
ExampleWebService exampleWebService = (ExampleWebService)factory.create();
System.out.println("Done creating client");
exampleWebService.method1("test");
System.out.println("After calling method1");

I copied all the jar files (including the woodstox-core-asl-4.2.0.jar file) from the CXF 2.7.7 distribution into the client program's classpath, and when I run the client I get the following exception:

Creating client
Nov 20, 2013 8:05:26 PM org.apache.cxf.service.factory.ReflectionServiceFactoryBean buildServiceFromClass
INFO: Creating Service {http://webservices.server/}ExampleWebServiceService from class server.webservices.ExampleWebService
Done creating client
javax.xml.ws.soap.SOAPFaultException: Cannot create a secure XMLInputFactory
    at org.apache.cxf.jaxws.JaxWsClientProxy.invoke(JaxWsClientProxy.java:157)
    at $Proxy38.printString(Unknown Source)
    at ExampleNmsWebServiceClient.printString(ExampleNmsWebServiceClient.java:29)
    at ExampleNmsWebServiceClient.main(ExampleNmsWebServiceClient.java:40)
Caused by: org.apache.cxf.binding.soap.SoapFault: Cannot create a secure XMLInputFactory
    at org.apache.cxf.binding.soap.interceptor.Soap11FaultInInterceptor.unmarshalFault(Soap11FaultInInterceptor.java:84)
    at org.apache.cxf.binding.soap.interceptor.Soap11FaultInInterceptor.handleMessage(Soap11FaultInInterceptor.java:51)
    at org.apache.cxf.binding.soap.interceptor.Soap11FaultInInterceptor.handleMessage(Soap11FaultInInterceptor.java:40)
    at org.apache.cxf.phase.PhaseInterceptorChain.doIntercept(PhaseInterceptorChain.java:272)
    at org.apache.cxf.interceptor.AbstractFaultChainInitiatorObserver.onMessage(AbstractFaultChainInitiatorObserver.java:113)
    at org.apache.cxf.binding.soap.interceptor.CheckFaultInterceptor.handleMessage(CheckFaultInterceptor.java:69)
    at org.apache.cxf.binding.soap.interceptor.CheckFaultInterceptor.handleMessage(CheckFaultInterceptor.java:34)
    at org.apache.cxf.phase.PhaseInterceptorChain.doIntercept(PhaseInterceptorChain.java:272)
    at org.apache.cxf.endpoint.ClientImpl.onMessage(ClientImpl.java:835)
    at org.apache.cxf.transport.http.HTTPConduit$WrappedOutputStream.handleResponseInternal(HTTPConduit.java:1606)
    at org.apache.cxf.transport.http.HTTPConduit$WrappedOutputStream.handleResponse(HTTPConduit.java:1502)
    at org.apache.cxf.transport.http.HTTPConduit$WrappedOutputStream.close(HTTPConduit.java:1309)
    at org.apache.cxf.transport.AbstractConduit.close(AbstractConduit.java:56)
    at org.apache.cxf.transport.http.HTTPConduit.close(HTTPConduit.java:627)
    at org.apache.cxf.interceptor.MessageSenderInterceptor$MessageSenderEndingInterceptor.handleMessage(MessageSenderInterceptor.java:62)
    at org.apache.cxf.phase.PhaseInterceptorChain.doIntercept(PhaseInterceptorChain.java:272)
    at org.apache.cxf.endpoint.ClientImpl.doInvoke(ClientImpl.java:565)
    at org.apache.cxf.endpoint.ClientImpl.invoke(ClientImpl.java:474)
    at org.apache.cxf.endpoint.ClientImpl.invoke(ClientImpl.java:377)
    at org.apache.cxf.endpoint.ClientImpl.invoke(ClientImpl.java:330)
    at org.apache.cxf.frontend.ClientProxy.invokeSync(ClientProxy.java:96)
    at org.apache.cxf.jaxws.JaxWsClientProxy.invoke(JaxWsClientProxy.java:135)
    ... 3 more

I found a page saying the "Cannot create a secure XMLInputFactory" can be fixed by setting the org.apache.cxf.stax.allowInsecureParser property to "1", which is why I tried to set it in the System properties, but that didn't work. I also tried to add -Dorg.apache.cxf.stax.allowInsecureParser=1 to the java command that runs the client, but that didn't work either. (Nor did setting it to "true" instead of 1.) Any ideas on how to solve this error?

Answer 1

1: -Dorg.apache.cxf.stax.allowInsecureParser=1 to the JAVA_OPTIONS
or
2: rename woodstox-core-asl-4.4.1.jar -> awoodstox-core-asl-4.4.1.jar

Answer 2

from my end, I had to do both remove the stax-api-1.0-2.jar (leaving stax2-api-3.1.4.jar & woodstock 4.4 jar) and specify in the weblogic-application.xml at the end of it:

     .
     .
     <package-name>com.ctc.wstx.*</package-name>  
     <package-name>org.codehaus.stax2.*</package-name>
 </prefer-application-packages>

Answer 3

I can solve this problem by adding weblogic.xml in the WEB-INF folder of my app with the following code:

<prefer-web-inf-classes>false</prefer-web-inf-classes>

<prefer-application-packages>
    <package-name>com.ctc.*</package-name>
</prefer-application-packages>

Answer 4

I had the same problem whenI upgraded CXF to 2.7.x. I resolved this by adding following dependencies in POM

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.codehaus.woodstox</groupId>
    <artifactId>stax2-api</artifactId>
    <version>4.0.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.codehaus.woodstox</groupId>
    <artifactId>woodstox-core-asl</artifactId>
    <version>4.4.1</version>
</dependency>

Answer 5

There was not an answer here that describes the root cause of this error message for my issue. We had transitive dependencies on both a new version woodstox-core-asl-4.2.0.jar and and old wstx-asl-3.2.1.jar

Excluding the old version from our build did the trick.

If you dig into the bowels of the old version, you'll find that it fails with an exception that ends up getting wrapped in another exception with this generic message that is not very informative.

Answer 6

Since version 2.7.4, CXF added a feature in order to ensure that the XMLInputFactory is secured and loaded from woodstox (>= 4.2.x packages, see StaxUtil implementation) in order to deal with a Denial of Service vulnerability

But the fact is that in a J2EE environment, by default, webservices-rt.jar has the priority over war libs (and then over the woodstock jar). That is why the non-secure implementation is loaded, triggering the exception.

Turning off the org.apache.cxf.stax.allowInsecureParser property, is not an option as it brings back the DOS vulnerability.

In order to make the class loader to prefer woodstox (ear/war lib) over webservices-rt.jar (j2ee lib), the solution depends on your application server and is described in CXF application server specific configuration guide