Confluence support for DIGEST MD5

Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.

Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Summary

The <securityAuthentication> element in the atlassian-user.xml configuration file for Confluence does not support the "DIGEST-MD5" authentication method. Instead, Confluence is designed to work with the "simple" authentication method.

Solution

Confluence does not support the DIGEST-MD5 in our atlassian-user.xml file. If you set as DIGEST-MD5, then the following properties will also need to be set.

java.naming.security.sasl.authorizationId java.naming.security.sasl.realm javax.security.sasl.qop javax.security.sasl.strength javax.security.sasl.server.authentication javax.security.sasl.maxbuffer javax.security.sasl.policy.noplaintext javax.security.sasl.policy.noactive javax.security.sasl.policy.nodictionary javax.security.sasl.policy.noanonymous javax.security.sasl.policy.forward javax.security.sasl.policy.credentials

These parameters could potentially be passed as properties to the JVM startup (setenv.sh/bat): -

Confluence code does NOT read these properties in the xml file, so this workaround should work theoretically, though Atlassian has not officially tested this configuration.

Updated on May 22, 2025

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