question: public static String encodePassword ( String password , String algorithm ) { byte [ ] unencodedPassword = password . getBytes ( ) ; MessageDigest md = null ; try { md = MessageDigest . getInstance ( algorithm ) ; } catch ( Exception e ) { log . error ( "Exception: " + e ) ; return password ; } md . reset ( ) ; md . update ( unencodedPassword ) ; byte [ ] encodedPassword = md . digest ( ) ; StringBuffer buf = new StringBuffer ( ) ; for ( byte anEncodedPassword : encodedPassword ) { if ( ( anEncodedPassword & 0xff ) < 0x10 ) { buf . append ( "0" ) ; } buf . append ( Long . toString ( anEncodedPassword & 0xff , 16 ) ) ; } return buf . toString ( ) ; }
target:  Encode a string using algorithm specified in web.xml and return the resulting encrypted password. If exception, the plain credentials string is returned