hibernate/hibernate-orm · error · HibernateException

Unable to check validity of passed ValidatorFactory

Error message

Unable to check validity of passed ValidatorFactory

What it means

When a ValidatorFactory is supplied to Hibernate (e.g. via the jakarta.persistence.validation.factory property), Hibernate reflectively calls TypeSafeActivator.validateSuppliedFactory to verify it. If that reflective invocation throws an InvocationTargetException whose target is not a HibernateException, the target is wrapped in this HibernateException — the supplied object itself exploded during the check, most often a linkage failure from mixed validation API versions.

Source

Thrown at hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/boot/beanvalidation/BeanValidationIntegrator.java:67

	 * @param object The supposed ValidatorFactory instance
	 */
	public static void validateFactory(Object object) {
		try {
			// this direct usage of ClassLoader should be fine since the classes exist in the same jar
			final var activatorClass =
					BeanValidationIntegrator.class.getClassLoader()
							.loadClass( ACTIVATOR_CLASS_NAME );
			try {
				final var validateMethod =
						activatorClass.getMethod( VALIDATE_SUPPLIED_FACTORY_METHOD_NAME, Object.class );
				try {
					validateMethod.invoke( null, object );
				}
				catch (InvocationTargetException e) {
					if ( e.getTargetException() instanceof HibernateException exception ) {
						throw exception;
					}
					throw new HibernateException( "Unable to check validity of passed ValidatorFactory", e );
				}
				catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
					throw new HibernateException( "Unable to check validity of passed ValidatorFactory", e );
				}
			}
			catch (HibernateException e) {
				throw e;
			}
			catch (Exception e) {
				throw new HibernateException( "Could not locate method needed for ValidatorFactory validation", e );
			}
		}
		catch (HibernateException e) {
			throw e;
		}
		catch (Exception e) {
			throw new HibernateException( "Could not locate TypeSafeActivator class", e );
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to fad1729dce)

Solutions

1. Unwrap and read the nested cause (commonly NoClassDefFoundError or LinkageError) and remove the conflicting validation jar it names
2. Align the whole stack on one namespace and one provider generation (e.g. hibernate-validator 8.x + jakarta.validation-api 3.x)
3. Build the ValidatorFactory inside the same deployment/classloader as Hibernate
4. Prefer letting Hibernate bootstrap its own factory: drop the supplied-factory property

// refuse to boot with both validation namespaces present
static void assertSingleValidationNamespace() {
    boolean javaxApi   = present("javax.validation.Validation");
    boolean jakartaApi = present("jakarta.validation.Validation");
    if (javaxApi && jakartaApi)
        throw new IllegalStateException(
            "Both javax and jakarta validation APIs on the classpath; remove one before passing a ValidatorFactory");
}

static boolean present(String cn) {
    try { Class.forName(cn, false, Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader()); return true; }
    catch (ClassNotFoundException e) { return false; }
}

try {
    emf = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("pu", props); // props contain validation.factory
} catch (HibernateException e) {
    Throwable root = e;
    while (root.getCause() != null) root = root.getCause();
    // root is often NoClassDefFoundError naming the conflicting validation jar
    throw new IllegalStateException("Supplied ValidatorFactory failed validation check; cause: " + root, e);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a ValidatorFactory through persistence unit properties while the javax/jakarta validation API and provider jars on the classpath are inconsistent, so merely touching the factory triggers NoClassDefFoundError/LinkageError inside the reflective call; also seen under classloader domains that partially isolate the provider.

Common situations: Partial Spring Boot 2→3 / Java EE→Jakarta migrations leaving both javax.validation and jakarta.validation artifacts; a ValidatorFactory built by a different, incompatible classloader (app server vs WAR).

Related errors

• Could not locate method needed for ValidatorFactory validati
• Unable to locate TypeSafeActivator#activate method
• Multiple active MetadataBuilder definitions were discovered
• Validation failed for classes {} during {} time for groups [
• Could not locate TypeSafeActivator class

AI-assisted analysis of hibernate/hibernate-orm@fad1729dce (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/068e2a39c6eabd4d. Report an issue: GitHub.