bad class file, bad signature

We had an interesting case of an invalid class failing with version 12.1.3 of WebLogic (it was working with previous release)

 
 
####<Feb 27, 2017 7:46:40 AM CET> <Error> <Deployer> <myserver.pippo.com> <pippodomain> <[ACTIVE] ExecuteThread: '0' for queue: 'weblogic.kernel.Default (self-tuning)'> <<WLS Kernel>> <> <> <1488178000430> <BEA-149205> <Failed to initialize the application "PIPPO" due to error weblogic.application.ModuleException: String index out of range: -1
String index out of range: -1
weblogic.application.ModuleException: String index out of range: -1
String index out of range: -1
        at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppModule.createModuleException(WebAppModule.java:1824)
        at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppModule.init(WebAppModule.java:270)
        at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppModule.init(WebAppModule.java:682)
        at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ScopedModuleDriver.init(ScopedModuleDriver.java:162)
        at weblogic.application.internal.ExtensibleModuleWrapper.init(ExtensibleModuleWrapper.java:98)
        at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleListenerInvoker.init(ModuleListenerInvoker.java:84)
        at weblogic.application.internal.flow.InitModulesFlow.initModule(InitModulesFlow.java:288)
        at weblogic.application.internal.flow.InitModulesFlow.initModules(InitModulesFlow.java:301)
        at weblogic.application.internal.flow.InitModulesFlow.prepare(InitModulesFlow.java:329)
        at weblogic.application.internal.BaseDeployment$1.next(BaseDeployment.java:706)
        at weblogic.application.utils.StateMachineDriver.nextState(StateMachineDriver.java:42)
        at weblogic.application.internal.BaseDeployment.prepare(BaseDeployment.java:237)
        at weblogic.application.internal.EarDeployment.prepare(EarDeployment.java:61)
        at weblogic.application.internal.DeploymentStateChecker.prepare(DeploymentStateChecker.java:158)
        at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.AppContainerInvoker.prepare(AppContainerInvoker.java:61)
        at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.AppDeployment.prepare(AppDeployment.java:155)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.DeploymentAdapter$1.doPrepare(DeploymentAdapter.java:39)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.DeploymentAdapter.prepare(DeploymentAdapter.java:191)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.AppTransition$1.transitionApp(AppTransition.java:21)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.ConfiguredDeployments.transitionApps(ConfiguredDeployments.java:240)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.ConfiguredDeployments.prepare(ConfiguredDeployments.java:165)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.ConfiguredDeployments.deploy(ConfiguredDeployments.java:122)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.DeploymentServerService.resume(DeploymentServerService.java:211)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.DeploymentServerService.start(DeploymentServerService.java:119)
        at weblogic.server.AbstractServerService.postConstruct(AbstractServerService.java:78)
        at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor8.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.utilities.reflection.ReflectionHelper.invoke(ReflectionHelper.java:1017)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ClazzCreator.postConstructMe(ClazzCreator.java:388)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ClazzCreator.create(ClazzCreator.java:430)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.SystemDescriptor.create(SystemDescriptor.java:456)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.runlevel.internal.AsyncRunLevelContext.findOrCreate(AsyncRunLevelContext.java:225)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.runlevel.RunLevelContext.findOrCreate(RunLevelContext.java:82)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.Utilities.createService(Utilities.java:2488)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ServiceHandleImpl.getService(ServiceHandleImpl.java:98)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ServiceLocatorImpl.getService(ServiceLocatorImpl.java:606)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ThreeThirtyResolver.resolve(ThreeThirtyResolver.java:77)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ClazzCreator.resolve(ClazzCreator.java:231)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ClazzCreator.resolveAllDependencies(ClazzCreator.java:254)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ClazzCreator.create(ClazzCreator.java:413)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.SystemDescriptor.create(SystemDescriptor.java:456)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.runlevel.internal.AsyncRunLevelContext.findOrCreate(AsyncRunLevelContext.java:225)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.runlevel.RunLevelContext.findOrCreate(RunLevelContext.java:82)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.Utilities.createService(Utilities.java:2488)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ServiceHandleImpl.getService(ServiceHandleImpl.java:98)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ServiceHandleImpl.getService(ServiceHandleImpl.java:87)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.runlevel.internal.CurrentTaskFuture$QueueRunner.oneJob(CurrentTaskFuture.java:1162)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.runlevel.internal.CurrentTaskFuture$QueueRunner.run(CurrentTaskFuture.java:1147)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.runlevel.internal.CurrentTaskFuture$UpOneLevel.run(CurrentTaskFuture.java:753)
        at weblogic.work.SelfTuningWorkManagerImpl$WorkAdapterImpl.run(SelfTuningWorkManagerImpl.java:553)
        at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:311)
        at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:263)
Caused By: java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: -1
        at java.lang.String.substring(String.java:1911)
        at weblogic.application.utils.annotation.ClassInfoImpl$MethodVisitorImpl.visitAnnotation(ClassInfoImpl.java:472)
        at com.bea.objectweb.asm.ClassReader.b(Unknown Source)
        at com.bea.objectweb.asm.ClassReader.accept(Unknown Source)
        at com.bea.objectweb.asm.ClassReader.accept(Unknown Source)
        at weblogic.application.utils.annotation.ClassInfoImpl.<init>(ClassInfoImpl.java:86)
        at weblogic.application.utils.annotation.ClassInfoImpl.<init>(ClassInfoImpl.java:79)
        at weblogic.application.utils.annotation.ClassfinderClassInfos.getClassInfoFromSource(ClassfinderClassInfos.java:325)
        at weblogic.application.utils.annotation.ClassfinderClassInfos.populateClassInfos(ClassfinderClassInfos.java:278)
        at weblogic.application.utils.annotation.ClassfinderClassInfos.<init>(ClassfinderClassInfos.java:72)
        at weblogic.servlet.internal.War.initializeClassInfosIfNecessary(War.java:446)
        at weblogic.servlet.internal.War.getAnnotatedClasses(War.java:376)
        at weblogic.servlet.utils.WarUtils.isJsfApplication(WarUtils.java:260)
        at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppModule.detectJsfApplication(WebAppModule.java:277)
        at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppModule.init(WebAppModule.java:262)
        at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppModule.init(WebAppModule.java:682)
        at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ScopedModuleDriver.init(ScopedModuleDriver.java:162)
        at weblogic.application.internal.ExtensibleModuleWrapper.init(ExtensibleModuleWrapper.java:98)
        at weblogic.application.internal.flow.ModuleListenerInvoker.init(ModuleListenerInvoker.java:84)
        at weblogic.application.internal.flow.InitModulesFlow.initModule(InitModulesFlow.java:288)
        at weblogic.application.internal.flow.InitModulesFlow.initModules(InitModulesFlow.java:301)
        at weblogic.application.internal.flow.InitModulesFlow.prepare(InitModulesFlow.java:329)
        at weblogic.application.internal.BaseDeployment$1.next(BaseDeployment.java:706)
        at weblogic.application.utils.StateMachineDriver.nextState(StateMachineDriver.java:42)
        at weblogic.application.internal.BaseDeployment.prepare(BaseDeployment.java:237)
        at weblogic.application.internal.EarDeployment.prepare(EarDeployment.java:61)
        at weblogic.application.internal.DeploymentStateChecker.prepare(DeploymentStateChecker.java:158)
        at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.AppContainerInvoker.prepare(AppContainerInvoker.java:61)
        at weblogic.deploy.internal.targetserver.AppDeployment.prepare(AppDeployment.java:155)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.DeploymentAdapter$1.doPrepare(DeploymentAdapter.java:39)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.DeploymentAdapter.prepare(DeploymentAdapter.java:191)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.AppTransition$1.transitionApp(AppTransition.java:21)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.ConfiguredDeployments.transitionApps(ConfiguredDeployments.java:240)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.ConfiguredDeployments.prepare(ConfiguredDeployments.java:165)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.ConfiguredDeployments.deploy(ConfiguredDeployments.java:122)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.DeploymentServerService.resume(DeploymentServerService.java:211)
        at weblogic.management.deploy.internal.DeploymentServerService.start(DeploymentServerService.java:119)
        at weblogic.server.AbstractServerService.postConstruct(AbstractServerService.java:78)
        at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor8.invoke(Unknown Source)
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.utilities.reflection.ReflectionHelper.invoke(ReflectionHelper.java:1017)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ClazzCreator.postConstructMe(ClazzCreator.java:388)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ClazzCreator.create(ClazzCreator.java:430)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.SystemDescriptor.create(SystemDescriptor.java:456)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.runlevel.internal.AsyncRunLevelContext.findOrCreate(AsyncRunLevelContext.java:225)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.runlevel.RunLevelContext.findOrCreate(RunLevelContext.java:82)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.Utilities.createService(Utilities.java:2488)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ServiceHandleImpl.getService(ServiceHandleImpl.java:98)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ServiceLocatorImpl.getService(ServiceLocatorImpl.java:606)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ThreeThirtyResolver.resolve(ThreeThirtyResolver.java:77)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ClazzCreator.resolve(ClazzCreator.java:231)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ClazzCreator.resolveAllDependencies(ClazzCreator.java:254)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ClazzCreator.create(ClazzCreator.java:413)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.SystemDescriptor.create(SystemDescriptor.java:456)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.runlevel.internal.AsyncRunLevelContext.findOrCreate(AsyncRunLevelContext.java:225)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.runlevel.RunLevelContext.findOrCreate(RunLevelContext.java:82)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.Utilities.createService(Utilities.java:2488)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ServiceHandleImpl.getService(ServiceHandleImpl.java:98)
        at org.jvnet.hk2.internal.ServiceHandleImpl.getService(ServiceHandleImpl.java:87)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.runlevel.internal.CurrentTaskFuture$QueueRunner.oneJob(CurrentTaskFuture.java:1162)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.runlevel.internal.CurrentTaskFuture$QueueRunner.run(CurrentTaskFuture.java:1147)
        at org.glassfish.hk2.runlevel.internal.CurrentTaskFuture$UpOneLevel.run(CurrentTaskFuture.java:753)
        at weblogic.work.SelfTuningWorkManagerImpl$WorkAdapterImpl.run(SelfTuningWorkManagerImpl.java:553)
        at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:311)
        at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:263)
>
 

See also this previous post http://www.javamonamour.org/2016/01/weblogic-deployment-fails.html

Problem is that WebLogic doesn't tell us which class is failing, so I had to patch this class

package weblogic.utils.classloaders;
 
import java.io.IOException;
import java.security.cert.Certificate;
import java.util.jar.JarEntry;
import java.util.jar.JarFile;
import java.util.jar.Manifest;
 
public class JarSource
  extends ZipSource
{
  private final JarFile jarFile;
  private final JarEntry jarEntry;
 
  public JarSource(JarFile jf, JarEntry je)
  {
    super(jf, je);
    this.jarFile = jf;
    this.jarEntry = je;
    System.out.println("JarSource, jf=" + jf.getName() + " je=" + je);
  }
 
  public Manifest getManifest()
    throws IOException
  {
    return this.jarFile.getManifest();
  }
 
  public Certificate[] getCertificates()
  {
    return this.jarEntry.getCertificates();
  }
}

adding a System.out.println(it's horrible but it works)


To check if the class is REALLY invalid I use this tester (bad class is com.pippo.web.util.Properties ):

import com.pippo.web.util.Properties;
import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
 
public class TestAnnotations {
       public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
             Class propertiesClass = com.pippo.web.util.Properties.class;
             Annotation annos[] = propertiesClass.getAnnotations();
             for (Annotation a : annos)
                    System.out.println(a);
            
             for (Method m : propertiesClass.getMethods()) {
                    System.out.println("parsing method " + m.getName());
                    annos = m.getAnnotations();
 
                    System.out.println("All annotations for method " + m.getName());
                    for (Annotation a : annos) System.out.println(a);
                   
             }
       }
 
}

With Java 8 I get this:

parsing method setProperty All annotations for method setProperty parsing method getProperty All annotations for method getProperty parsing method getProperty All annotations for method getProperty parsing method load All annotations for method load parsing method load All annotations for method load parsing method save Exception in thread "main" java.lang.reflect.GenericSignatureFormatError: Signature Parse error: Expected Field Type Signature Remaining input: = at sun.reflect.generics.parser.SignatureParser.error(SignatureParser.java:124) at sun.reflect.generics.parser.SignatureParser.parseFieldTypeSignature(SignatureParser.java:297) at sun.reflect.generics.parser.SignatureParser.parseFieldTypeSignature(SignatureParser.java:283) at sun.reflect.generics.parser.SignatureParser.parseTypeSignature(SignatureParser.java:485) at sun.reflect.generics.parser.SignatureParser.parseTypeSig(SignatureParser.java:188) at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseSig(AnnotationParser.java:436) at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseAnnotation2(AnnotationParser.java:241) at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseAnnotations2(AnnotationParser.java:120) at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseAnnotations(AnnotationParser.java:72) at java.lang.reflect.Executable.declaredAnnotations(Executable.java:599) at java.lang.reflect.Executable.declaredAnnotations(Executable.java:597) at java.lang.reflect.Executable.getDeclaredAnnotations(Executable.java:588) at java.lang.reflect.Method.getDeclaredAnnotations(Method.java:630) at java.lang.reflect.AccessibleObject.getAnnotations(AccessibleObject.java:207) at TestAnnotations.main(TestAnnotations.java:16)

With Java 7 and 6 I get this when compiling:

TestAnnotations.java:1: cannot access com.pippo.web.util.Properties bad class file: com/pippo/web/util/Properties.class(com/pippo/web/util:Properties.class) bad signature: = ¿I ^ Please remove or make sure it appears in the correct subdirectory of the classpath. import com.pippo.web.util.Properties; ^

As a workaround, to avoid all this class scanning, you can try using -Dweblogic.servlet.DIDisabled=true or setting the metadata-complete attribute to true in the web.xml :

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24329_01/web.1211/e21049/annotateservlet.htm#WBAPP225