Java cryptography library sporadically fails to start.

Question

We have a Java web application that sporadically fails to find cryptographic libraries. Currently restarting the application fixes the issue.

The following expections appear in the logs, see below for full stack trace.

java.lang.InternalError: Could not start up the CDSA libraries.
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class com.apple.crypto.provider.HmacMD5

The application is built using Java 1.6.0_15 and is deployed to 1.6.0_13 running on Mac OS X Server 10.5.8 (9L30)

Any ideas ?

Cheers

Jono

Build Java version
java version "1.6.0_13"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_13-b03-211)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.3-b02-83, mixed mode)

Deployed Jave version
java version "1.6.0_15"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_15-b03-226)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 14.1-b02-92, mixed mode)

Full stack trace:

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class com.apple.crypto.provider.HmacMD5
       at java.lang.ClassLoader$NativeLibrary.load(Native Method)
       at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary0(ClassLoader.java:1881)
       at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibrary(ClassLoader.java:1782)
       at java.lang.Runtime.loadLibrary0(Runtime.java:823)
       at java.lang.System.loadLibrary(System.java:1047)
       at com.apple.crypto.provider.HmacCore.<clinit>(HmacCore.java:26)
       at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
       at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:39)
       at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:27)
       at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:513)
       at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:355)
       at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:308)
       at java.security.Provider$Service.newInstance(Provider.java:1221)
       at javax.crypto.Mac.a(DashoA13*..)
       at javax.crypto.Mac.init(DashoA13*..)
       at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.MAC.<init>(MAC.java:94)
       at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.CipherSuite$MacAlg.newMac(CipherSuite.java:429)
       at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.newWriteMAC(Handshaker.java:407)
       at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.changeWriteCiphers(SSLSocketImpl.java:1791)
       at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.sendChangeCipherSpec(Handshaker.java:607)
       at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.ClientHandshaker.sendChangeCipherAndFinish(ClientHandshaker.java:868)
       at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.ClientHandshaker.serverHelloDone(ClientHandshaker.java:794)
       at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.ClientHandshaker.processMessage(ClientHandshaker.java:226)
       at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.processLoop(Handshaker.java:516)
       at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.Handshaker.process_record(Handshaker.java:454)
       at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:884)
       at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.performInitialHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:1112)
       at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.writeRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:623)
       at com.sun.net.ssl.internal.ssl.AppOutputStream.write(AppOutputStream.java:59)
       at java.io.BufferedOutputStream.flushBuffer(BufferedOutputStream.java:65)
       at java.io.BufferedOutputStream.flush(BufferedOutputStream.java:123)
       at org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods.EntityEnclosingMethod.writeRequestBody(EntityEnclosingMethod.java:506)
       at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethodBase.writeRequest(HttpMethodBase.java:2114)
       at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethodBase.execute(HttpMethodBase.java:1096)
       at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethodDirector.executeWithRetry(HttpMethodDirector.java:398)
       at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethodDirector.executeMethod(HttpMethodDirector.java:171)
       at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient.executeMethod(HttpClient.java:397)
       at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient.executeMethod(HttpClient.java:323)

Answer 1

Your error doesn't mean the class is not found. "Could not initialize class com.apple.crypto.provider.HmacMD5" means that the static intizializer block (static { ... }) caused an exception. Do you have access to the source code of MmacMD5?

We once had a similar problem where the static block failed due to a non-reachable X server - but only if no X-forwarding-enabled SSH session to the server was available. (The class was registering fonts to later use them for rendering images)

Answer 2

As "sfussenegger" wrote, it is related to the static {} method. If you can't find a helpful documentation or source code, try a decompiler (if the license is fine with that of course only). I saw problems with crypto libraries also related to the seed produced by secure random (System halts, till it obtains enough randomness). Maybe something like this is part of the problem.

Anyway, if you can't get rid of the problem, there is still bouncy castle as a free or IAIK as a commercial alternative. Not much, but maybe that helps...