Intermittent "Error parsing HTTP request header" when calling API in Spring Boot 2.7.4

Question

I'm facing an issue that I can't seem to resolve, as I have difficulty identifying the root cause. I hope to find some help here.

I have a web service coded in Java Spring Boot version 2.7.4, with a simple GET endpoint as an example:

@GetMapping("api/datas/options")
public List<Option> getAllOptions(){
    return pomppdoptRepository.findAll();   
}

I'm trying to send a request to this endpoint using Postman. Here is my Postman configuration:

[https://ibb.co/8n3nfdnP][1]

When I send the request, I do receive a 200 OK response, but when I check my logs, I notice parsing errors.

Logs:

Received [GET /api/datas/options HTTP/1.1
Authorization: Bearer token
User-Agent: PostmanRuntime/7.43.3
Accept: */*
Cache-Control: no-cache
Postman-Token: 57c14232-ed07-4247-a00a-19cf2eb34d5e
Host: localhost:8082
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br
Connection: keep-alive
Cookie: JSESSIONID=90155C405D55A5E7968C4617A05BE184

]

Errors:

2025-04-02 10:07:41.383 DEBUG 24432 --- [nio-8082-exec-5] o.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor   : Error parsing HTTP request header

java.io.EOFException: null
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$NioSocketWrapper.fillReadBuffer(NioEndpoint.java:1340) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$NioSocketWrapper.read(NioEndpoint.java:1227) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11InputBuffer.fill(Http11InputBuffer.java:805) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11InputBuffer.parseRequestLine(Http11InputBuffer.java:360) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.service(Http11Processor.java:271) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProcessorLight.process(AbstractProcessorLight.java:65) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$ConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:890) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1789) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.SocketProcessorBase.run(SocketProcessorBase.java:49) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1191) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:659) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:842) ~[na:na]

2025-04-02 10:07:41.383 DEBUG 24432 --- [nio-8082-exec-5] o.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor   : Error state [CLOSE_CONNECTION_NOW] reported while processing request

java.io.EOFException: null
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$NioSocketWrapper.fillReadBuffer(NioEndpoint.java:1340) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$NioSocketWrapper.read(NioEndpoint.java:1227) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11InputBuffer.fill(Http11InputBuffer.java:805) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11InputBuffer.parseRequestLine(Http11InputBuffer.java:360) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.service(Http11Processor.java:271) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProcessorLight.process(AbstractProcessorLight.java:65) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$ConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:890) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.NioEndpoint$SocketProcessor.doRun(NioEndpoint.java:1789) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.SocketProcessorBase.run(SocketProcessorBase.java:49) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1191) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:659) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.TaskThread$WrappingRunnable.run(TaskThread.java:61) ~[tomcat-embed-core-9.0.65.jar:9.0.65]
    at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:842) ~[na:na]

However, if I immediately resend the request, the error does not appear in the logs. But if I wait for a few minutes and try again, the error comes back.

I would like to resolve this issue because I believe it is related to another problem I am facing when linking multiple APIs using async/sync calls. When I send multiple simultaneous requests, I encounter the same issue again.

application.yml

logging:
  level:
    org.apache.coyote.http11: DEBUG
    org.springframework.web: DEBUG
    org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor: DEBUG

server:
  tomcat:
    threads:
      max: 200
      min-spare: 10
    accesslog:
      enabled: true
      pattern: "%h %l %u %t \"%r\" %s %b"
    connection-timeout: 60000  # 60 secondes
    keep-alive-timeout: 60000  # 60 secondes
  port: 8082

spring:
  datasource:
    hikari:
      connection-test-query: SELECT 1
      maximum-pool-size: 20
      minimum-idle: 5
      idle-timeout: 60000
      max-lifetime: 1800000
      connection-timeout: 30000
  jpa:
    show-sql: true
    open-in-view: false
    properties:
      hibernate:
        format_sql: true
    hibernate:
      naming:
        physical-strategy: org.hibernate.boot.model.naming.PhysicalNamingStrategyStandardImpl
        implicit-strategy: org.hibernate.boot.model.naming.ImplicitNamingStrategyLegacyJpaImpl

Has anyone encountered a similar issue or has an idea on how to resolve this?

Spring Boot 2.7.4 is pretty old (September 2022). The latest publicly available Spring Boot 2.7.x is 2.7.18 (November 2023). I suggest you update to that version to exclude the possibility this is a bug that was fixed a long time ago. Also consider upgrading to Spring Boot 3 (but that would be more involved). — Mark Rotteveel
– Mark Rotteveel, Commented Apr 2 at 9:03
@MarkRotteveel I've just upgraded to 2.7.18, but unfortunately this doesn't solve my problem. However, we can now rule out a version problem. — Wassupppp
– Wassupppp, Commented Apr 2 at 9:28

Patrycja Wegrzynowicz · Accepted Answer · 2025-04-02 11:23:29Z

-1

The key log entry is Error parsing HTTP request header java.io.EOFException.

This indicates Tomcat attempted to read a new HTTP request from the connection but hit an EOF - essentially, the client (Postman in this case) closed the connection while Tomcat was expecting more data.

This can happen when:

A connection is reused after being idle for too long (Postman reuses keep-alive connections).
A TCP connection was terminated by the client, firewall, proxy, or NAT router due to timeout.
The connection was half-closed or reset, but Tomcat wasn’t aware and tried to parse a new request line.

To validate this is the actual issue, please instruct Postman to not keep alive connections:

Go to Postman Settings > General and toggle off Use Keep-Alive
Or add a Connection: close header manually in your request

This prevents Postman from keeping sockets open and avoids the issue entirely during testing from Postman.

answered Apr 2 at 11:23

Patrycja Wegrzynowicz

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1 Comment

Wassupppp Apr 2 at 12:09

So, I wasn't able to disable this option in Postman settings, but I modified the header in the Headers section by replacing Connection: keep-alive with Connection: close. Then, I retested by sending multiple requests, and now I get the "parsing HTTP request header" error on every request I send. So, if I send 10 requests, the error message appears 10 times, whereas at first, it only happened on the first request. I don’t understand: if I close the connection, it shouldn't try to reuse an open connection. Instead, it should open and close a new one for each request, right?

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