How to nicely handle file upload MaxUploadSizeExceededException with Spring Security

Question

I'm using Spring Web 4.0.5, Spring Security 3.2.4, Commons FileUpload 1.3.1, Tomcat 7 and I'm getting an ugly MaxUploadSizeExceededException when my upload size limit is exceeded, which results in a "500 Internal Server Error". I handle it with a nice generic popup, but I'd rather have my Controller take care of it by going back to the originating form with the proper explanation message.

I've seen a similar question asked many times, with a few solutions that might work when not using Spring Security; none of the ones I tried worked for me.

The problem might be that when using Spring Security, the CommonsMultipartResolver is not added as a "multipartResolver" bean but as a "filterMultipartResolver":

@Bean(name="filterMultipartResolver")
CommonsMultipartResolver filterMultipartResolver() {
    CommonsMultipartResolver filterMultipartResolver = new CommonsMultipartResolver();
    filterMultipartResolver.setMaxUploadSize(MAXSIZE);
    return filterMultipartResolver;
}

If I set filterMultipartResolver.setResolveLazily(true); it makes no difference.

If I subclass the CommonsMultipartResolver with my own and override the parseRequest() method with something that traps the MaxUploadSizeExceededException and returns an empty MultipartParsingResult, I get a "403 Forbidden" error:

public class ExtendedCommonsMultipartResolver extends CommonsMultipartResolver {
    protected MultipartParsingResult parseRequest(HttpServletRequest request) throws MultipartException {
        String encoding = determineEncoding(request);
        try {
            return super.parseRequest(request);
        } catch (MaxUploadSizeExceededException e) {
            return parseFileItems(Collections.<FileItem> emptyList(), encoding);
        }
    }
}

Finally, there's no point in implementing some kind of local or global ExceptionHandler because it is never called.

If I don't find a better solution, I'll just remove the upload size limit and handle it myself in the controller, with the drawback of having the user wait until the upload is finished before seeing the error message about file size. Of I might even ignore all of this because, being it an image in this case, I could just resize it down to proper values.

Still, I'd like to see a solution to this problem.

Thank you

EDIT:

I add the stack trace as requested. This is the case where a 500 is generated.

May 30, 2014 12:47:17 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve invoke
SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet [dispatcher] in context with path [/site] threw exception
org.springframework.web.multipart.MaxUploadSizeExceededException: Maximum upload size of 1000000 bytes exceeded; nested exception is org.apache.commons.fileupload.FileUploadBase$SizeLimitExceededException: the request was rejected because its size (3403852) exceeds the configured maximum (1000000)
    at org.springframework.web.multipart.commons.CommonsMultipartResolver.parseRequest(CommonsMultipartResolver.java:162)
    at org.springframework.web.multipart.commons.CommonsMultipartResolver.resolveMultipart(CommonsMultipartResolver.java:142)
    at org.springframework.web.multipart.support.MultipartFilter.doFilterInternal(MultipartFilter.java:110)
    at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:222)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:123)
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:502)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:171)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:100)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:953)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:409)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1044)
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:607)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:315)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1110)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:603)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)
Caused by: org.apache.commons.fileupload.FileUploadBase$SizeLimitExceededException: the request was rejected because its size (3403852) exceeds the configured maximum (1000000)
    at org.apache.commons.fileupload.FileUploadBase$FileItemIteratorImpl.<init>(FileUploadBase.java:965)
    at org.apache.commons.fileupload.FileUploadBase.getItemIterator(FileUploadBase.java:310)
    at org.apache.commons.fileupload.FileUploadBase.parseRequest(FileUploadBase.java:334)
    at org.apache.commons.fileupload.servlet.ServletFileUpload.parseRequest(ServletFileUpload.java:115)
    at org.springframework.web.multipart.commons.CommonsMultipartResolver.parseRequest(CommonsMultipartResolver.java:158)
    ... 19 more

Answer 1

You can handle the MaxUploadSizeExceededException by adding an additional Filter to catch the exception and the redirect to an error page. For example, you could create a MultipartExceptionHandler Filter like the following:

public class MultipartExceptionHandler extends OncePerRequestFilter {

    @Override
    protected void doFilterInternal(HttpServletRequest request,
            HttpServletResponse response, FilterChain filterChain)
            throws ServletException, IOException {
        try {
            filterChain.doFilter(request, response);
        } catch (MaxUploadSizeExceededException e) {
            handle(request, response, e);
        } catch (ServletException e) {
            if(e.getRootCause() instanceof MaxUploadSizeExceededException) {
                handle(request, response, (MaxUploadSizeExceededException) e.getRootCause());
            } else {
                throw e;
            }
        }
    }

    private void handle(HttpServletRequest request,
            HttpServletResponse response, MaxUploadSizeExceededException e) throws ServletException, IOException {

        String redirect = UrlUtils.buildFullRequestUrl(request) + "?error";
        response.sendRedirect(redirect);
    }

}

NOTE: This redirect makes an assumption about your form and upload. You may need to modify where to redirect to. Specifically if you follow the pattern of your form being at GET and it is processed at POST this will work.

You can then ensure to add this Filter before MultipartFilter. For example, if you are using web.xml you would see something like this:

<filter>
    <filter-name>meh</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.example.web.MultipartExceptionHandler</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter>
    <description>
        Allows the application to accept multipart file data.
    </description>
    <display-name>springMultipartFilter</display-name>
    <filter-name>springMultipartFilter</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.springframework.web.multipart.support.MultipartFilter</filter-class>
    <!--init-param>
        <param-name>multipartResolverBeanName</param-name>
        <param-value>multipartResolver</param-value>
    </init-param-->
</filter>
<filter>
    <description>
        Secures access to web resources using the Spring Security framework.
    </description>
    <display-name>springSecurityFilterChain</display-name>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class>
</filter>

<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>meh</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>springMultipartFilter</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    <dispatcher>ERROR</dispatcher>
    <dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>
</filter-mapping>

In your form you can then detect if the error occurred by inspecting if the HTTP parameter error is present. For example, in a JSP you might do the following:

<c:if test="${param.error != null}">
    <p>Failed to upload...too big</p>
</c:if>

PS: I created SEC-2614 to update the documentation to discuss error handling

Answer 2

I know I'm late to the party, but I found a much more elegant solution imho.

Instead of adding a filter for the multipart resolver, simply add throws MaxUploadSizeExceededException on your controller method and add the filter for the DelegatingFilterProxy in your web.xml and you can add an exception handler right in your controller without having to redirect the request.

e.g.:

Method (in Controller):

@RequestMapping(value = "/uploadFile", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public ResponseEntity<String> uploadFile(MultipartHttpServletRequest request) throws MaxUploadSizeExceededException {
    //code
}

Exception Handler (in same controller):

@ExceptionHandler(MaxUploadSizeExceededException.class)
public ResponseEntity handleSizeExceededException(HttpServletRequest request, Exception ex) {
    //code
}

Web.xml (thanks to Rob Winch):

<filter>
    <description>
        Secures access to web resources using the Spring Security framework.
    </description>
    <display-name>springSecurityFilterChain</display-name>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    <dispatcher>ERROR</dispatcher>
    <dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>
</filter-mapping>

And that is all you need.