Are you sure that the filter where the attribute is set comes before the filter you want to access it?
Yes.
My custom filter(where I set request.setAttribute) is extended from 'org.springframework.security.context.HttpSessionContextIntegrationFilter'.
And my authentication filter class(where I have 'onSUccessfulAuthentication') is extended from 'org.springframework.security.ui.webapp.AuthenticationProcessingFilter'.
The custom filter is configured in web.xml using <filter> and <filter-mapping> tags.
the authentication filter class is configured in my app-security.xml file using <security:filter-chain-map>. So I don't have this custom filer reference in my app-security.xml file to specify the order. And I am pretty sure that this custom filter is hit before I get to the authentication filter.
Thanks.