Setting resource directory for ESAPI

java properties esapi
Nelo Angelo picture Nelo Angelo · Mar 19, 2012 · Viewed 7.1k times · Source

Working with OWASP's ESAPI, I found myself stuck at this particular line of code. 

private static String customDirectory = System.getProperty("org.owasp.esapi.resources");

The code returns null as there is no such system property "org.owasp.esapi.resources" set on my computer. Is there any way to set this property on my computer permanently?

Answer

Chris Schmidt picture Chris Schmidt · Mar 26, 2012

You need to pass it into your JVM as a command line property. Most application containers use the environment variable JAVA_OPTS as a "permanent" store of options that should be passed to the JVM. You can try to do something like this:

In *nix:

export JAVA_OPTS="-Dorg.owasp.esapi.resources=/path/to/esapi/configuration"

In windows:

set JAVA_OPTS="-Dorg.owasp.esapi.resources=C:\path\to\esapi\configuration"

You can add this to windows or linux as a startup command and it will always be set if you desire, or add it to your application's startup script for a more localized solution.

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