LDAP-13: DirContextAdapter.getModificationItems() returns password when password unchanged

[rwinch]

Migrated from ["LDAP-13":https://jira.spring.io/browse/LDAP-13]

Hello,

• We have a Person.java pojo containing a password property of type byte[]. The password property is set to and from the Sun Directory Server using a ContextMapper/ContextAssembler implementation.
• Problem: DirContextAdapter.getModificationsItems() always returns the password attribute as an updated attribute. This is due to byte arrays having a different hashcode despite identical content. Therefore b1[].equals(b2[]) returns false.

This could be a problem say if:

• Service subscriber 1 gets a handle to a Person pojo
• Service subscriber 2 gets a handle to a Person pojo, updates password attribute and saves.
• Service subscriber 1 updates "golden rating" attribute and saves. The new password is blown away.

Suggested Solution: Perhaps DirContextAdapter.isChanged() should use Arrays.equals(byte[], byte[]) for attributes of type byte[].

Best Regards, Jasper

[rwinch]

["Jasper Blues":https://jira.spring.io/secure/ViewProfile.jspa?name=jasper.blues] said:

I'm not sure if this effects version 1.2. I stepped through with a debugger and couldn't reproduce. isChanged() still reports false changes when the argument is byte[], however collect modificationItems later does an .equals() on the BasicAttribute. . . . isChanged() should probably still be fixed.

[rwinch]

["Mattias Hellborg Arthursson":https://jira.spring.io/secure/ViewProfile.jspa?name=marthursson] said:

Compare this to issue LDAP-46 (http://opensource.atlassian.com/projects/spring/browse/LDAP-46). This seems quite similar, and as in my comment to that issue I do think that it should be addressed, but that needs to be done in a generic and configurable way.

[rwinch]

["Mattias Hellborg Arthursson":https://jira.spring.io/secure/ViewProfile.jspa?name=marthursson] said:

Removed the isChanged() method entirely, as it didn't do much good anyway (all the necessary comparisons are made in getModificationItems). Also improved value comparison by using Attribute.contains() (actuallt, Attribute.remove()) to determine Attribute value equality. This should allow for Attribute implementations to do syntactical comparisons on Attribute values. Nevertheless, the byte array problem is solved (as BasicAttributes.contains checks if a value is an array).