Problem with OpenLDAP 2.0.11 and JNDI

Hello all,

I am having a very strange problem with a JNDII application I'm writing
which is connecting to an OpenLDAP 2.0.11 server. I have a lot of code
which reads/writes other attributes, but when I try to read a
userPassword attribute, I get a ClassCastException (I'm casting from
Object to String) and when I run an Object.getClass() on the returned
object, it gives me garbage. Any suggestions? Is this a JNDI bug,
OpenLDAP bug, or am I just doing something wrong? I have attached some
code with comments below (including tests I ran). Any suggestions would
be highly appreciated. TIA

//////// beginning of code

import javax.naming.Context;
import javax.naming.directory.InitialDirContext;
import javax.naming.directory.DirContext;
import javax.naming.directory.Attributes;
import javax.naming.NamingException;

import java.util.*;

public class test extends java.lang.Object {

    /** Creates new test */
    public test() {
        DirContext serverContext;

        /*
         * properly initialize all environment settings
         *
         */

Hashtable env = new Hashtable();

env.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY,"com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory");

        env.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, "ldap://*****");
        env.put(Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL,
"******************************");
        env.put(Context.SECURITY_AUTHENTICATION, "simple");
        env.put(Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS, "*****");

        /*
         * establish connection with ldap server
         *
         */

        try {
            serverContext = new InitialDirContext(env);
        } catch (NamingException ne) {
            System.err.println(ne);
            return;
        }

        /*
         * get an arbitrary attribute, in this case cn
         *
         */

Attributes attributes = null;

        try {
            attributes =
serverContext.getAttributes("*****************************");
            System.err.println("cn = " +
(String)attributes.get("cn").get());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.err.println(e);
        }

        /*
         * now let's try userPassword which is encrypted
         * specified in schema file as
         *
         * attributetype ( 2.5.4.35 NAME 'userPassword'
         *      EQUALITY octetStringMatch
         *      SYNTAX 1.3.6.1.4.1.1466.115.121.1.40{128} )
         *
         */

        try {
            System.err.println("userPassword = " +
(String)attributes.get("userPassword").get());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.err.println(e);
        }

        /*
         * ok, got a java.lang.ClassCastException. it should be
reasonable
         * to cast it to a string, since it is one. let's get the
object
         * type returned
         *
         */

        try {
            System.err.println("userPassword class = " +
attributes.get("userPassword").get().getClass());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.err.println(e);
        }

        /*
         * strange, object type returned = "[B" that's very strange.
         * sanity check: let's see what object type is returned from a
normal type (like cn)
         *
         */

        try {
            attributes =
serverContext.getAttributes("*****************************");
            System.err.println("cn object = " +
attributes.get("cn").get().getClass());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.err.println(e);
        }

        /*
         * hmm, java.lang.String, just like I thought
         *
         */

        /*
         * here is my output:
         *
         * C:\TEST>java test
         * cn = Administrative User
         * java.lang.ClassCastException: [B
         * userPassword class = class [B
         * cn object = class java.lang.String
         */

}