How to manage exceptions thrown in filters in Spring?

So this is what I did:

I read the basics about filters here and I figured out that I need to create a custom filter that will be first in the filter chain and will have a try catch to catch all runtime exceptions that might occur there. Then i need to create the json manually and put it in the response.

So here is my custom filter:

public class ExceptionHandlerFilter extends OncePerRequestFilter {

    @Override
    public void doFilterInternal(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, FilterChain filterChain) throws ServletException, IOException {
        try {
            filterChain.doFilter(request, response);
        } catch (RuntimeException e) {

            // custom error response class used across my project
            ErrorResponse errorResponse = new ErrorResponse(e);

            response.setStatus(HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR.value());
            response.getWriter().write(convertObjectToJson(errorResponse));
    }
}

    public String convertObjectToJson(Object object) throws JsonProcessingException {
        if (object == null) {
            return null;
        }
        ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
        return mapper.writeValueAsString(object);
    }
}

And then i added it in the web.xml before the CorsFilter. And it works!

<filter> 
    <filter-name>exceptionHandlerFilter</filter-name> 
    <filter-class>xx.xxxxxx.xxxxx.api.controllers.filters.ExceptionHandlerFilter</filter-class> 
</filter> 


<filter-mapping> 
    <filter-name>exceptionHandlerFilter</filter-name> 
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern> 
</filter-mapping> 

<filter> 
    <filter-name>CorsFilter</filter-name> 
    <filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-class> 
</filter> 

<filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>CorsFilter</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>

I wanted to provide a solution based on the answer of @kopelitsa. The main differences being:

1. Reusing the controller exception handling by using the HandlerExceptionResolver.
2. Using Java config over XML config

First, you need to make sure, that you have a class that handles exceptions occurring in a regular RestController/Controller (a class annotated with @RestControllerAdvice or @ControllerAdvice and method(s) annotated with @ExceptionHandler). This handles your exceptions occurring in a controller. Here is an example using the RestControllerAdvice:

@RestControllerAdvice
public class ExceptionTranslator {

    @ExceptionHandler(RuntimeException.class)
    @ResponseStatus(HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR)
    public ErrorDTO processRuntimeException(RuntimeException e) {
        return createErrorDTO(HttpStatus.INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR, "An internal server error occurred.", e);
    }

    private ErrorDTO createErrorDTO(HttpStatus status, String message, Exception e) {
        (...)
    }
}

To reuse this behavior in the Spring Security filter chain, you need to define a Filter and hook it into your security configuration. The filter needs to redirect the exception to the above defined exception handling. Here is an example:

@Component
public class FilterChainExceptionHandler extends OncePerRequestFilter {

    private final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(getClass());

    @Autowired
    @Qualifier("handlerExceptionResolver")
    private HandlerExceptionResolver resolver;

    @Override
    protected void doFilterInternal(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, FilterChain filterChain)
            throws ServletException, IOException {

        try {
            filterChain.doFilter(request, response);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            log.error("Spring Security Filter Chain Exception:", e);
            resolver.resolveException(request, response, null, e);
        }
    }
}

The created filter then needs to be added to the SecurityConfiguration. You need to hook it into the chain very early, because all preceding filter's exceptions won't be caught. In my case, it was reasonable to add it before the LogoutFilter. See the default filter chain and its order in the official docs. Here is an example:

@Configuration
@EnableWebSecurity
public class SecurityConfiguration extends WebSecurityConfigurerAdapter {

    @Autowired
    private FilterChainExceptionHandler filterChainExceptionHandler;

    @Override
    protected void configure(HttpSecurity http) throws Exception {
        http
            .addFilterBefore(filterChainExceptionHandler, LogoutFilter.class)
            (...)
    }

}