java.lang.NullPointerException with spring security cas - grails

Question

I have set up my application successfully with spring-security-core and spring-security-ldap. However, when I installed spring-security-cas plugin to connect to the cas server, I have been getting a java.lang.NullPointerException continously in a loop while the error keeps repeating.
I have the following in Config.groovy:
grails.plugin.springsecurity.cas.loginUri = '/login'
grails.plugin.springsecurity.cas.serviceUrl = 'http://localhost:8080/ed/j_spring_cas_security_check'
grails.plugin.springsecurity.cas.serverUrlPrefix = 'https://(cas-server)/cas'
grails.plugin.springsecurity.cas.proxyCallbackUrl = 'http://localhost:8080/ed/secure/receptor'
grails.plugin.springsecurity.cas.proxyReceptorUrl = '/secure/receptor'
here is the error I get:
Jan 9, 2014 12:03:47 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve invoke
SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet [default] in context with path [/ed] threw exception
java.lang.NullPointerException
at grails.plugin.springsecurity.SpringSecurityUtils.isAjax(SpringSecurityUtils.java:291)
at grails.plugin.springsecurity.web.authentication.AjaxAwareAuthenticationFailureHandler.onAuthenticationFailure(AjaxAwareAuthenticationFailureHandler.java:49)
at org.springframework.security.cas.web.CasAuthenticationFilter$CasAuthenticationFailureHandler.onAuthenticationFailure(CasAuthenticationFilter.java:386)
at org.springframework.security.web.authentication.AbstractAuthenticationProcessingFilter.unsuccessfulAuthentication(AbstractAuthenticationProcessingFilter.java:355)
at org.springframework.security.web.authentication.AbstractAuthenticationProcessingFilter.doFilter(AbstractAuthenticationProcessingFilter.java:225)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:342)
at grails.plugin.springsecurity.web.authentication.logout.MutableLogoutFilter.doFilter(MutableLogoutFilter.java:82)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:342)
at org.springframework.security.web.context.SecurityContextPersistenceFilter.doFilter(SecurityContextPersistenceFilter.java:87)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:342)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy.doFilterInternal(FilterChainProxy.java:192)
at org.springframework.security.web.FilterChainProxy.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:160)
at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.invokeDelegate(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:346)
at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.doFilter(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:259)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.web.servlet.mvc.GrailsWebRequestFilter.doFilterInternal(GrailsWebRequestFilter.java:69)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:76)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.web.filters.HiddenHttpMethodFilter.doFilterInternal(HiddenHttpMethodFilter.java:66)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:76)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at org.jasig.cas.client.session.SingleSignOutFilter.doFilter(SingleSignOutFilter.java:76)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEncodingFilter.doFilterInternal(CharacterEncodingFilter.java:88)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:76)
at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.invokeDelegate(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:346)
at org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy.doFilter(DelegatingFilterProxy.java:259)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:222)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:123)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:171)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:99)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:408)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1009)
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:589)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:312)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:895)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:918)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)
Thanks in advance for any help

Answer 1

This will be fixed in the next release (which should be in the next week or so). For now as a temporary fix you can edit the installed plugin source and fix it. The issue is in the spring-security-core plugin; edit plugins/spring-security-core-2.0-RC2/src/java/grails/plugin/springsecurity/SpringSecurityUtils.java and change
HttpSession httpSession = SecurityRequestHolder.getRequest().getSession(false);
to
HttpSession httpSession = request.getSession(false);