Error: 500 java.nio.charset.MalformedInputException in SPS

Products

SITEMINDER CA Single Sign On Agents (SiteMinder) CA Single Sign On Secure Proxy Server (SiteMinder)

Issue/Introduction

Running CA Access Gateway (SPS), when the browser request a file to download that filename has accented character as "à", then the download fails and the browser receives the HTTP return code 500.

The CA Access Gateway (SPS) Agent traces show the following error:

[08/08/2023][18:36:05][18:36:05.714][2933][140603056994048][][Noodle::doGet][java.nio.charset.MalformedInputException: Input length = 1   at java.nio.charset.CoderResult.throwException(CoderResult.java:281)]

Cause

From the network traces, the CA Access Gateway (SPS) receives the character as Hex e0, which is "à" in UTF-8.

In the network traces, the character isn't URL encoded as it should be (1)(2) for the location header, it reaches the SPS as HEX e0:

[08/16/2023][12:13:45][12:13:45.177][2562047][139813868304128][][requestConnection(): ][Get connection: {}->http://_host.example.com:880, timeout = 360000]
[08/16/2023][12:13:45][12:13:45.177][2562047][139813868304128][][openConnection()][Connecting to _host.example.com/10.0.0.1:880]
[08/16/2023][12:13:45][12:13:45.261][2562047][139813868304128][][releaseConnection(): ][Released connection is not reusable.]
[08/16/2023][12:13:45][12:13:45.261][2562047][139813868304128][][execute][Input length = 1]
[08/16/2023][12:13:45][12:13:45.261][2562047][139813868304128][][execute][Retrying to send the request to backend web server.Retry count: 3]
[08/16/2023][12:13:45][12:13:45.261][2562047][139813868304128][][execute][Tried to send the request to backend web server three times.Throwing the exception to client. ]
[08/16/2023][12:13:45][12:13:45.263][2562047][139813868304128][][Noodle::doGet][java.nio.charset.MalformedInputException: Input length = 1    at java.base/java.nio.charset.CoderResult.throwException(CoderResult.java:274)]
[08/16/2023][12:13:45][12:13:45.266][2562047][139813868304128][][ErrorPageImpl::displayMessage][Custom Error Pages : Custom message is not an URL. If URL is specified then it might not be in proper format. Considering it as plain text message.]

network.pcap:

76    6.289605    10.0.0.2    10.0.0.1    HTTP    3787    GET /myapp/index.php?action=downloadDoc=123 HTTP/1.1
78    6.375920    10.0.0.1    10.0.0.2    HTTP    703    HTTP/1.1 302 Found

location: /myapp/docs/myfile.php?mime_type=application/pdf&nome_file=Attivit�.pdf&path_file=%2Fmyapp%2Fmydocument%2Fdoc123\r\n

0210 e0 is "à" in UTF-8 (3).

Resolution

Check with the application team the reason why the Location header has a URL unencoded character like à in this use case;
Ask the application team to url encode the characters in the Location header value to fix this issue;

Additional Information

(1)

Location

(2)

Unsafe characters

(3)

Hex code point e0