java.lang.IllegalArgumentException at org.springframework.asm.ClassReader.<init>(Unknown Source)

Question

My Spring application on Apache Tomcat/7.0.62 throws the below exception:

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException
    at org.springframework.asm.ClassReader.<init>(Unknown Source)
    at org.springframework.asm.ClassReader.<init>(Unknown Source)
    at org.springframework.asm.ClassReader.<init>(Unknown Source)
    at org.springframework.core.type.classreading.SimpleMetadataReader.<init>(SimpleMetadataReader.java:52)
    at org.springframework.core.type.classreading.SimpleMetadataReaderFactory.getMetadataReader(SimpleMetadataReaderFactory.java:80)
    at org.springframework.core.type.classreading.CachingMetadataReaderFactory.getMetadataReader(CachingMetadataReaderFactory.java:102)
    at org.springframework.core.type.classreading.SimpleMetadataReaderFactory.getMetadataReader(SimpleMetadataReaderFactory.java:76)
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassParser.getImports(ConfigurationClassParser.java:298)
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassParser.getImports(ConfigurationClassParser.java:300)
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassParser.getImports(ConfigurationClassParser.java:300)
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassParser.doProcessConfigurationClass(ConfigurationClassParser.java:230)
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassParser.processConfigurationClass(ConfigurationClassParser.java:153)
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassParser.parse(ConfigurationClassParser.java:130)
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassPostProcessor.processConfigBeanDefinitions(ConfigurationClassPostProcessor.java:285)
    at org.springframework.context.annotation.ConfigurationClassPostProcessor.postProcessBeanDefinitionRegistry(ConfigurationClassPostProcessor.java:223)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.invokeBeanFactoryPostProcessors(AbstractApplicationContext.java:630)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:461)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.configureAndRefreshWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:652)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:600)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.createWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:666)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initWebApplicationContext(FrameworkServlet.java:519)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.initServletBean(FrameworkServlet.java:460)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.HttpServletBean.init(HttpServletBean.java:136)
    at javax.servlet.GenericServlet.init(GenericServlet.java:158)
    at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:505)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:103)
    at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:957)
    at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:423)
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1079)
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:620)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:318)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source) 

How is this caused and how can I solve it?

Answer 1

Try to upgrade to Spring 4 to support Java 8 byte code format.

Your root cause here:

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException org.springframework.asm.ClassReader.(Unknown Source) 
org.springframework.asm.ClassReader.(Unknown Source)
org.springframework.asm.ClassReader.(Unknown Source) 

Answer 2

I recently had the same error.Changing the dependency version of springwebmvc to 4.2.5.RELEASE solves the problem. The problem arises when you are using JAVA 8 and not dependency version that is older than 4.2.5

Answer 3

You can also try removing code that uses Java 8 features like Lambdas

Answer 4

I had the same problem, then I upgraded my maven project to spring-webmvc 4.2.5.RELEASE and it worked for me, Im using Java 8.

Answer 5

I tried other mentioned, to update spring-webmvc to version 4, it doesn't solve my problem, I have to update spring-core to version 4.