Error message "Error: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Window boundary must be positive" in the RSA SecurID Authentication Engine
2 years ago
Originally Published: 2017-11-25
Article Number
000040591
Applies To
RSA Product Set: SecurID
RSA Product/Service Type: Authentication Engine
RSA Version/Condition: 2.x
Platform: Java
Issue
While normal operations of the SecurID Authentication Engine, error starts appearing:
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Window boundary must be positive
Cause
The problem is in the following time conversion method of com.rsa.authelements.common.util.TimeUtils, which convert UNIX time to SD time:
     /**
     * Convert between time in Unix style time_t and SDTime (half minutes since
     * 1/1/1986).
     *
     * @param timeT time in seconds since 1/1/1970.
     *
     * @return time in half minutes since 1/1/1986.
     */
     public static int timeTtoSDTime(int timeT) {
        return (((timeT / 30) - SDTIME_BASE) & 0x00ffffff);
    }

The mask 0x00ffffff causes the time conversion to round to 0 about every 15 years 11 months and 12 days. The rounding occurs at the following times:
Thu, 13 Dec 2001 10:08:00 GMT
Fri, 24 Nov 2017 20:16:00 GMT
Sun, 06 Nov 2033 06:24:00 GMT
Mon, 18 Oct 2049 16:32:00 GMT
Wed, 30 Sep 2065 02:40:00 GMT
Thu, 11 Sep 2081 12:48:00 GMT
Fri, 23 Aug 2097 22:56:00 GMT
Resolution
There is a hotfix released for Java versions 2.8.1 and for 2.6, both of which are attached to this article.

To apply the fix:
  1. Stop the RSA SAE based application.
  2. Copy the following files the application into a backup folder: RSASecurIDAuthenticationEngineAPI.jar
  3. Replace RSASecurIDAuthenticationEngineAPI.jar file in the application with the one provided in this hotfix kit attached to the article.
  4. Restart application.
Notes
RSA SecurID Authentication Engine in C isn't affected by this issue.

Customers need to be on RSA SecurID Authentication Engine version 2.6 or 2.8.1 for the hotfix to work as older versions don't have a hotfix.
Attachments
If the attachment does not open when clicked, please refresh the page and try again. You must be logged into view the file(s).