ESAPI - Getting NoClassDefFoundError (LoggerFactory) with banned dependency

Question

I am using espaiESAPI to encode string value to resolve cross site scripting issue as shown below (code snippet).

String encodedString = ESAPI.encoder().encodeForHTML(value);

Exception Trace

org.owasp.esapi.errors.ConfigurationException: java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException Encoder class (org.owasp.esapi.reference.DefaultEncoder) CTOR threw exception.
    at org.owasp.esapi.util.ObjFactory.make(ObjFactory.java:129)
    at org.owasp.esapi.ESAPI.encoder(ESAPI.java:99)
<bold>Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/apache/log4j/spi/LoggerFactory</bold>
    at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:190)
    at org.owasp.esapi.util.ObjFactory.make(ObjFactory.java:74)
    at org.owasp.esapi.ESAPI.logFactory(ESAPI.java:137)
    at org.owasp.esapi.ESAPI.getLogger(ESAPI.java:154)
    at org.owasp.esapi.reference.DefaultEncoder.<init>(DefaultEncoder.java:75)
    at org.owasp.esapi.reference.DefaultEncoder.getInstance(DefaultEncoder.java:59)
    ... 71 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.log4j.spi.LoggerFactory
    at weblogic.utils.classloaders.GenericClassLoader.findLocalClass(GenericClassLoader.java:297)
    at weblogic.utils.classloaders.GenericClassLoader.findClass(GenericClassLoader.java:270)
    at weblogic.utils.classloaders.ChangeAwareClassLoader.findClass(ChangeAwareClassLoader.java:64)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:425)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:358)

Maven repository pom.xml

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.owasp.esapi</groupId>
    <artifactId>esapi</artifactId>
    <version>${org.owasp.esapi.version}</version>
    <exclusions>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>commons-collections</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-collections</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>xercesImpl</groupId>
            <artifactId>xercesImpl</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>commons-logging</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-logging</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>xml-apis</groupId>
            <artifactId>xml-apis</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>commons-digester</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-digester</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>commons-codec</groupId>
            <artifactId>commons-codec</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>org.owasp.antisamy</groupId>
            <artifactId>antisamy</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
        <exclusion>
            <groupId>log4j</groupId>
            <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
    </exclusions>
</dependency>

If I don't exclude log4j then it will throw dependency convergence error because log4j is declared in maven banned dependency as shown below

<executions>
    <execution>
        <id>enforce</id>
        <configuration>
            <rules>
                <requireJavaVersion>
                    <version>${java.version}</version>
                </requireJavaVersion>
                <requireMavenVersion>
                    <version>3.0</version>
                </requireMavenVersion>
                <DependencyConvergence />
                <bannedDependencies>
                    <excludes>
                        <!-- This should not exist as it will force SLF4J calls to be 
                            delegated to log4j -->
                        <exclude>org.slf4j:slf4j-log4j12</exclude>
                        <!-- This should not exist as it will force SLF4J calls to be 
                            delegated to jul -->
                        <exclude>org.slf4j:slf4j-jdk14</exclude>
                        <!-- Ensure only the slf4j binding for logback is on the classpath -->
                        <exclude>log4j:log4j</exclude>
                        <!-- As recommended from the slf4j guide, exclude commons-logging -->
                        <exclude>commons-logging:commons-logging</exclude>
                    </excludes>                                     
                </bannedDependencies>
            </rules>
        </configuration>
        <goals>
            <goal>enforce</goal>
        </goals>
    </execution>
</executions>

Help in this regard would be appreciated. Please let me know if you need any more details. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I upgraded to the latest version 2.2.1.1 and I needed to add two additional properties (in addition to the one that @Carlo pointed out) in ESAPI.properties:

ESAPI.Logger=org.owasp.esapi.logging.slf4j.Slf4JLogFactory
Logger.UserInfo=false
Logger.ClientInfo=false