PK56607; 6.0.2.17: Web services runtime throws org.xml.sax.saxparseexception

Download Description

PK56607 resolves the following problem:

ERROR DESCRIPTION:
IBM® WebSphere® Web Services runtime might not handle strings with surrogate character pairs correctly during serialization and deserialization. This usually results in a org.xml.sax.SAXParseException at the other receiving end.

This problem might occur in WebSphere Application Server V6.0 and V6.1 releases.

LOCAL FIX:
N/A.

PROBLEM SUMMARY:

USERS AFFECTED:
IBM WebSphere Application Server version 6.0.2 and 6.1 users of web services

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:
Web services runtime might throw org.xml.sax.SAXParseException when processing a surrogate character pair value.

RECOMMENDATION:
None

A small subset of UTF-16 characters are defined in a two character format. These two characters are called, respectively, the high surrogate and the low surrogate. The problem is in the xml encoding of one of these surrogate pairs.

Some characters (for example, <) cannot be placed in xml text. The XMLUtils utility class has methods to "encode" such characters. The current algorithm uses a digital encode for any character whose value is greater than 256 (example &#256;).

When a character is a surrogate pair of characters, the digital encoding should be one value - currently we are producing two.

This is wrong: &#131083; and this is correct: &131083;

PROBLEM CONCLUSION:
The processing of surrogate pair characters has been fixed to account for UTF-16 characters that are defined in a two-char format.

The fix for this APAR is currently targeted for inclusion in cumulative fixes 6.0.2.27 and 6.1.0.15.

Please refer to the recommended updates page for delivery information:
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=180&uid=swg27004980