No bean named springSecurityFilterChain is defined - spring

Question

I need to integrate spring security with a small application built with spring 3.1.1, following this tutorial at the point 3.2.1, got this error trace:
gen 31, 2014 3:08:41 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext filterStart
Grave: Exception starting filter springSecurityFilterChain
org.springframework.beans.factory.NoSuchBeanDefinitionException: No bean named 'springSecurityFilterChain' is defined
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.getBeanDefinition(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:529)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getMergedLocalBeanDefinition(AbstractBeanFactory.java:1095)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:277)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:197)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.getBean(AbstractApplicationContext.java:1097)
at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.initDelegate(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:326)
at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.initFilterBean(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:236)
at org.springframework.web.filter.GenericFilterBean.init(GenericFilterBean.java:194)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterConfig.initFilter(ApplicationFilterConfig.java:281)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterConfig.getFilter(ApplicationFilterConfig.java:262)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterConfig.<init>(ApplicationFilterConfig.java:107)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.filterStart(StandardContext.java:4775)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5452)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:901)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:877)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:633)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDescriptor(HostConfig.java:656)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployDescriptor.run(HostConfig.java:1635)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:471)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:262)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:744)
gen 31, 2014 3:08:41 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext startInternal
Grave: Error filterStart
gen 31, 2014 3:08:41 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext startInternal
Grave: Context [/mmasgis] startup failed due to previous errors
gen 31, 2014 3:08:41 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log
Informazioni: Closing Spring root WebApplicationContext
INFO : org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext - Closing Root WebApplicationContext: startup date [Fri Jan 31 15:08:40 CET 2014]; root of context hierarchy
INFO : org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory - Destroying singletons in org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory#204ed39b: defining beans [dataSource]; root of factory hierarchy
gen 31, 2014 3:08:41 PM org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader clearReferencesJdbc
Grave: The web application [/mmasgis] registered the JDBC driver [com.mysql.jdbc.Driver] but failed to unregister it when the web application was stopped. To prevent a memory leak, the JDBC Driver has been forcibly unregistered.
gen 31, 2014 3:08:41 PM org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoader clearReferencesThreads
Grave: The web application [/mmasgis] appears to have started a thread named [Abandoned connection cleanup thread] but has failed to stop it. This is very likely to create a memory leak.
gen 31, 2014 3:08:41 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig deployDirectory
Informazioni: Deploying web application directory /home/arpho/programmi/sts/springsource/vfabric-tc-server-developer-2.9.3.RELEASE/base-instance/webapps/manager
gen 31, 2014 3:08:41 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig deployDirectory
Informazioni: Deploying web application directory /home/arpho/programmi/sts/springsource/vfabric-tc-server-developer-2.9.3.RELEASE/base-instance/webapps/ROOT
gen 31, 2014 3:08:41 PM org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol start
Informazioni: Starting ProtocolHandler ["http-bio-8080"]
gen 31, 2014 3:08:41 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
Informazioni: Server startup in 2497 ms
I have referred other threads but with no solution. Can someone correct me where is the problem in the configuration?
Thanks for the time.
This is my web.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app version="2.5" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd">
<!-- The definition of the Root Spring Container shared by all Servlets and Filters -->
<context-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/spring/root-context.xml</param-value>
</context-param>
<!-- Creates the Spring Container shared by all Servlets and Filters -->
<listener>
<listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
</listener>
<!-- Processes application requests -->
<servlet>
<servlet-name>mmasgisServlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/spring/appServlet/servlet-context.xml</param-value>
</init-param>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>mmasgisServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<filter>
<filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
<filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
</web-app>
This is my root-context.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">
<!-- Root Context: defines shared resources visible to all other web components -->
<bean id="dataSource" name="dataSource"
class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DriverManagerDataSource">
<property name="username" value="root"></property>
<property name="password" value="password"></property>
<property name="driverClassName">
<value>com.mysql.jdbc.Driver</value>
</property>
<property name="url"
value="jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/mmasgis">
</property>
</bean>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:security="http://www.springframework.org/schema/security"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/security
http://www.springframework.org/schema/security/spring-security-3.1.xsd">
</beans>
</beans>

Answer 1

Make sure that the security xml is loaded by the ContextLoaderListener and not the DispatcherServlet. The DelegatingFilterProxy will only look into the root applicationcontext (which is loaded by the ContextLoaderListener) for the bean to delegate to. (see spring's documentation here)
In case you only have one dispatcher servlet, you can define your application context globally and leave the dispatcher servlet parameter empty.
Example:
<!-- The definition of the Root Spring Container shared by all Servlets and Filters -->
<context-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/spring/root-context.xml,
/WEB-INF/spring/appServlet/servlet-context.xml</param-value>
</context-param>
<!-- Processes application requests -->
<servlet>
<servlet-name>mmasgisServlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value></param-value>
</init-param>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

Answer 2

I'm not sure if the web.xml you have given is complete but you must have at least the following in that file:
<filter>
<filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
<filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
After that, I think you need at least 1 http configuration in your root-context.xml file (I'm not sure about this):
<http auto-config='true'>
<intercept-url pattern="/**" access="ROLE_USER" />
</http>

Answer 3

Most likely you're missing the <http> element from your configuration.
You'll need to create a minimal configuration for Spring Security, using the security namespace:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans:beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/security"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:sec="http://www.springframework.org/schema/security"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/security
http://www.springframework.org/schema/security/spring-security-3.1.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.2.xsd">
<http auto-config='true'>
<intercept-url pattern="/**" access="ROLE_USER" />
</http>
</beans:beans>
Also - your XML configuration - if that is a single file, then you don't need to declare the <beans xmlns... element twice.
Hope this helps - I went into some additional details on my blog if you need to digg deeper.

Answer 4

I recently also ran into this problem, and adding the <http> element solved the main problem, but my context initialization still failed. Digging through my Tomcat 8 error log, I noticed the following line buried:
Did you forget to add a global <authentication-manager> element to your configuration
(with child <authentication-provider> elements)? Alternatively you can use the
authentication-manager-ref attribute on your <http> and <global-method-security> elements.
Adding this additional element, which I found in the Spring Security documentation, solved that problem:
<authentication-manager>
<authentication-provider>
<user-service>
<user name="jimi" password="jimispassword" authorities="ROLE_USER, ROLE_ADMIN" />
<user name="bob" password="bobspassword" authorities="ROLE_USER" />
</user-service>
</authentication-provider>
</authentication-manager>
Just wanted to mention it since this problem was related and someone else new to Spring Security may run into it.