Symptoms

• Directory sync fails with errors such as this:

  java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: can't parse argument number: 5c2d3f31-249f-4455-b1fb-8f190de41a9c
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at java.text.MessageFormat.makeFormat(MessageFormat.java:1420)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at java.text.MessageFormat.applyPattern(MessageFormat.java:479)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at java.text.MessageFormat.<init>(MessageFormat.java:363)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at java.text.MessageFormat.format(MessageFormat.java:835)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at com.atlassian.crowd.util.TimedOperation.complete(TimedOperation.java:18)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at com.atlassian.crowd.directory.DirectoryCacheImplUsingChangeOperations.syncUserMembersForGroup(DirectoryCacheImplUsingChangeOperations.java:124)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at com.atlassian.crowd.directory.ldap.cache.AbstractCacheRefresher.synchroniseMemberships(AbstractCacheRefresher.java:145)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at com.atlassian.crowd.directory.ldap.cache.AbstractCacheRefresher.synchroniseAll(AbstractCacheRefresher.java:84)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at com.atlassian.crowd.directory.ldap.cache.UsnChangedCacheRefresher.synchroniseAll(UsnChangedCacheRefresher.java:124)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at com.atlassian.crowd.directory.DbCachingRemoteDirectory.synchroniseCache(DbCachingRemoteDirectory.java:644)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at com.atlassian.crowd.manager.directory.DirectorySynchroniserImpl.synchronise(DirectorySynchroniserImpl.java:63)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at com.atlassian.crowd.directory.DbCachingDirectoryPoller.pollChanges(DbCachingDirectoryPoller.java:50)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at com.atlassian.crowd.manager.directory.monitor.poller.DirectoryPollerJob.execute(DirectoryPollerJob.java:34)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at org.quartz.core.JobRunShell.run(JobRunShell.java:195)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at org.quartz.simpl.SimpleThreadPool$WorkerThread.run(SimpleThreadPool.java:520)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | Caused by: java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "5c2d3f31-249f-4455-b1fb-8f190de41a9c"
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at java.lang.NumberFormatException.forInputString(NumberFormatException.java:65)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:492)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:527)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	at java.text.MessageFormat.makeFormat(MessageFormat.java:1418)
  INFO   | jvm 1    | 2013/05/21 12:52:32 | 	... 14 more
  

Cause

JIRA (Embedded CWD) parses the curly braces as a numerical argument.

Observation

• If the groupname instead, is this: usergroup {2}

  , the error will not be thrown

• Only happens in JIRA 6.0. 5.2 and below is not affected

Workaround

Change the Group/User Object Filter to something like this (to filter out groups/users containing the curly braces):

(&(objectCategory=Group)(!(cn=*{*}*)))

(&(objectCategory=Person)(!(sAMAccountName=*{*}*)))

The example above applies for Active Directory with the username attribute set to sAMAccountName and groupname attribute set to cn. These are the default settings.

This will prevent users and groups being added to JIRA that contain curley braces. This can potentially delete groups and users from the instance.