Symptoms

When you try to perform some edit actions with existing workflows, as changing post-functions and add validators, you may get a XSRF white list failure error exception.

The following appears in the atlassian-jira.log:

Cause:
java.lang.RuntimeException: XSRF white list failure
Stack Trace: [hide]
java.lang.RuntimeException: XSRF white list failure
 at  com.atlassian.jira.security.xsrf.XsrfVulnerabilityDetectionSQLInterceptor$CallStack.isProtectedAction(XsrfVulnerabilityDetectionSQLInterceptor.java:180)
 at  com.atlassian.jira.security.xsrf.XsrfVulnerabilityDetectionSQLInterceptor.afterExecutionImpl(XsrfVulnerabilityDetectionSQLInterceptor.java:75)
 at  com.atlassian.jira.security.xsrf.XsrfVulnerabilityDetectionSQLInterceptor.afterSuccessfulExecution(XsrfVulnerabilityDetectionSQLInterceptor.java:40)
 ...

Cause

This occurs only if using the EAR/WAR distribution. When Jira checks the classes directory, it finds unexpected unknown jar files and so throws the XSRF white list failure regarding the system security.

Resolution

1. Shutdown your instance.
2. Navigate to <tomcat>/lib directory.
3. Look for any files which doesn't match with the application originals and move off the directory.
4. Start JIRA.