SpringBoot Springboot 2.5 / 2.6 fail with a logback.xml on classpath and oracle xmlparserv2 as a dependency

Oracle xmlparserv2 as dependency combined with a logback.xml in src/main/resources raise an error when the server is starting :

Logging system failed to initialize using configuration from 'null'
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Could not initialize Logback logging from classpath:logback.xml
    at org.springframework.boot.logging.logback.LogbackLoggingSystem.loadConfiguration(LogbackLoggingSystem.java:168)
    at org.springframework.boot.logging.logback.LogbackLoggingSystem.reinitialize(LogbackLoggingSystem.java:232)
    at org.springframework.boot.logging.AbstractLoggingSystem.initializeWithConventions(AbstractLoggingSystem.java:73)
    at org.springframework.boot.logging.AbstractLoggingSystem.initialize(AbstractLoggingSystem.java:60)
    at org.springframework.boot.logging.logback.LogbackLoggingSystem.initialize(LogbackLoggingSystem.java:132)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.logging.LoggingApplicationListener.initializeSystem(LoggingApplicationListener.java:313)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.logging.LoggingApplicationListener.initialize(LoggingApplicationListener.java:282)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.logging.LoggingApplicationListener.onApplicationEnvironmentPreparedEvent(LoggingApplicationListener.java:240)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.logging.LoggingApplicationListener.onApplicationEvent(LoggingApplicationListener.java:216)
    at org.springframework.context.event.SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.doInvokeListener(SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.java:176)
    at org.springframework.context.event.SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.invokeListener(SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.java:169)
    at org.springframework.context.event.SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.multicastEvent(SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.java:143)
    at org.springframework.context.event.SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.multicastEvent(SimpleApplicationEventMulticaster.java:131)
    at org.springframework.boot.context.event.EventPublishingRunListener.environmentPrepared(EventPublishingRunListener.java:85)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplicationRunListeners.lambda$environmentPrepared$2(SpringApplicationRunListeners.java:66)
    at java.base/java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1511)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplicationRunListeners.doWithListeners(SpringApplicationRunListeners.java:120)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplicationRunListeners.doWithListeners(SpringApplicationRunListeners.java:114)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplicationRunListeners.environmentPrepared(SpringApplicationRunListeners.java:65)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.prepareEnvironment(SpringApplication.java:338)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:296)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1301)
    at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1290)
    at com.example.demo.DemoApplication.main(DemoApplication.java:10)
Caused by: ch.qos.logback.core.joran.spi.JoranException: Parser configuration error occurred
    at ch.qos.logback.core.joran.event.SaxEventRecorder.buildSaxParser(SaxEventRecorder.java:89)
    at ch.qos.logback.core.joran.event.SaxEventRecorder.recordEvents(SaxEventRecorder.java:57)
    at ch.qos.logback.core.joran.GenericConfigurator.doConfigure(GenericConfigurator.java:151)
    at ch.qos.logback.core.joran.GenericConfigurator.doConfigure(GenericConfigurator.java:110)
    at ch.qos.logback.core.joran.GenericConfigurator.doConfigure(GenericConfigurator.java:53)
    at org.springframework.boot.logging.logback.LogbackLoggingSystem.configureByResourceUrl(LogbackLoggingSystem.java:188)
    at org.springframework.boot.logging.logback.LogbackLoggingSystem.loadConfiguration(LogbackLoggingSystem.java:165)
    ... 23 more
Caused by: javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException: SAX feature 'http://xml.org/sax/features/external-general-entities' not supported.
    at oracle.xml.jaxp.JXSAXParserFactory.setFeature(JXSAXParserFactory.java:272)
    at ch.qos.logback.core.joran.event.SaxEventRecorder.buildSaxParser(SaxEventRecorder.java:82)
    ... 29 more

Here is the steps to reproduce the problem :

The pom is the following

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>2.6.1</version>
        <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
    </parent>
    <groupId>com.example</groupId>
    <artifactId>demo</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <name>demo</name>
    <description>Demo project for Spring Boot</description>
    <properties>
        <java.version>11</java.version>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-webflux</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-jdbc</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.oracle.database.jdbc</groupId>
            <artifactId>ojdbc11</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.oracle.database.nls</groupId>
            <artifactId>orai18n</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.oracle.database.xml</groupId>
            <artifactId>xdb</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.oracle.database.xml</groupId>
            <artifactId>xmlparserv2</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.projectreactor</groupId>
            <artifactId>reactor-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

</project>

and then just add a logback.xml file in src/main/resources :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
    <include resource="org/springframework/boot/logging/logback/base.xml"/>
    <logger name="org.springframework.web" level="DEBUG"/>
</configuration>

And then start the app.

Comment From: wilkinsona

Thanks for the report but this is out of Spring Boot's control. It's Logback that enables the external-general-entities feature on the SAXParserFactory and it's xmlparserv2 that doesn't support it. You can use one of the options described in the javadoc for javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory.newInstance() to control which SAXParserFactory is used. For example, you may want to set the javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory system property to com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.SAXParserFactoryImpl to use the default SAX parser. I don't know what, if any, adverse effect this may have on xmlparserv2.