Yes, in MY application I will do that. Namely, I will decide on one type of encoding to use and pull the arguments out in that encoding using getBytes(encType). That is the correct way of doing it.
What I am talking about is Tomcat's built-in container-managed security. When you specify a security constraint of form-based login, and have a form that submits to j_security_check, and let Tomcat handle the details using one of its many Realms. This IS a bug, or at least a severe limit in functionality. As far as I can tell, there is no way to handle UTF-8 usernames and passwords doing container-managed security. Once again, unless I'm missing some way to tell the browser to send on the content-type to j_security_check. I have thoroughly investigated that, and think that I'm indeed not missing anything. Jeff Tulley ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) (801)861-5322 Novell, Inc., The Leading Provider of Net Business Solutions http://www.novell.com >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 9/25/03 12:09:02 PM >>> This is not a bug. Read http://asg.web.cmu.edu/rfc/rfc2070.html#sec-5. Use this code: String result = req.getParameter(parm); if (result == null) return null; try { return new String(result.getBytes("ISO-8859-1"), "UTF-8"); } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) { return result; } Dave Oxley [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -----Original Message----- > From: Jeff Tulley [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, September 25, 2003 6:40 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: CoyoteRequest assumption that breaks UTF-8 support > > I am convinced that Tomcat 4.x has a very real bug when dealing with > character encodings on login form submissions. (maybe elsewhere as > well). > > To see what I am observing, watch the flow of code when doing a login > from Tomcat's admin application. It sets the charset to UTF-8 in the > tag > <%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html;charset=UTF-8" > import="java.util.*" %> at the top of the file. This correctly gets > the browser into unicode mode, and (with all of the browsers I have > tested - IE and NS 7 on windows, and Konqueror on SUSE Linux), they > correctly encode your username / password in UTF-8. > > But, in CoyoteRequest, parseRequestParameters(), Tomcat tries to > determine and set the encoding to be used and ends up setting it to be > null. Why? It looks like in Request.getCharacterEncoding and > subordinate methods, the header value, "content-type" is checked. On > all of the browsers that I have checked if this value is set at all, it > is simply set to "application/x-www-form-urlencoded", without mention of > UTF-8 or any other charset. The browser assumes that since you > requested a certain charset in the first place, that you know how to > deal with a parameter that is sent on encoded in that charset. > > Tomcat sees no mention of charsets, so it simply defaults to > "ISO-8859-1" (hardcoded constant) > > Is there a better way to tie the default value to whatever the JSP > login form originally requested, or even, failing that, can we look up > the system property, "file.encoding", and require it to be passed in on > startup. This is less than ideal though. Preferrably it would be > something settable context-wide, not tomcat-wide. > > Where does this leave applications that wish to support extended > characters in passwords and/or usernames, characters that may not be in > the ISO-8859-1 range? > > Or am I missing the correct place to set this? > > Jeff Tulley ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > (801)861-5322 > Novell, Inc., The Leading Provider of Net Business Solutions > http://www.novell.com > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > ________________________________________________________________________ > This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star Internet. The > service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive > anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: > http://www.star.net.uk > ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star Internet. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: http://www.star.net.uk ________________________________________________________________________ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]