ServletRequest.getParameter always returns null when the post size is big

Question

We are maintaining a spring mvc (2.5.6) web application running on Tomcat 6.0.14

There is a bug in our app that caused one text field to increase its size resulting in a post of 3.000.000 bytes of text.

We will fix this bug, but what bothers me is that when the post size gets this big the method ServletRequest.getParameter fails silently and returns null. There is no sign of any error on the logs.

Is this spring mvc fault?

Is this a tomcat misconfiguration?

Why can't I see any exception in the logs?

Community · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-20 09:12:55Z

2

Is this spring mvc fault?

Is this a tomcat misconfiguration?

Neither. You are exceeding the default value of Tomcat's maxPostSize which is 2Mb.

Reference: http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/config/http.html#Common_Attributes

By the way, 6.0.14 is really old. You should upgrade to the latest (6.0.33 or 7.0.21) ASAP to get fixes for the recently reported denial of service flaw, and earlier security problems.

edited Jun 20, 2020 at 9:12

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answered Sep 13, 2011 at 11:33

Stephen C

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3 Comments

Serxipc Over a year ago

Shouldn't It throw an IlegalStateException: post too large?

Stephen C Over a year ago

@Serhii - IMO No. Unless the Servlet spec says when and where and exception should be thrown, an implementation (like Tomcat) that did this would simply be creating portability issues for the webapp code. The purpose of this config option is to protect the server / webapp against malicious attack. Tomcat's behavior of making it appear that there were no parameters at all is a pretty safe option. If you have coded your webapp defensively, you will already cope with missing / empty parameters.

Serxipc Over a year ago

Probably tomcat 5 did throw that exception. I've checked tomcat 6.0.14 source and it fails silently, with just a debug log to the context logger.

Amanpreet · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-13 11:33:43Z

Well the default size for POST is 2MB in apache tomcat.

You can change the maxPostSize parameter in the Connector tag in the Tomcat's server.xml.

Refer:http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-6.0-doc/config/http.html

Shouldn't It throw an IlegalStateException: post too large?

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