ASP.NET Core 3.1 HttpContext ObjectDisposedException or HttpContext becomes null

Question

I have a SingleTon Service that receives an HttpContext. The service receives the HttpContext as a parameters and whenever I try to access the HttpContext I am getting an error: ObjectDisposedException.

When I make use of a Dependency Injection (second approach) in order to get the HttpContext, then the HttpContext is null.

On both occasions the method is accessed from a Controller action method.

Stack Trace HttpConext passed as a parameter:

Exception has occurred: CLR/System.ObjectDisposedException Exception thrown: 'System.ObjectDisposedException' in Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.Features.dll: 'IFeatureCollection has been disposed.' at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.Features.FeatureReferences1.ThrowContextDisposed() at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.Features.FeatureReferences1.ContextDisposed() at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.Features.FeatureReferences1.Fetch[TFeature,TState](TFeature& cached, TState state, Func2 factory) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.Features.FeatureReferences1.Fetch[TFeature](TFeature& cached, Func2 factory) at Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.DefaultConnectionInfo.get_RemoteIpAddress() at myapp.Areas.Auth.Service.AuthorizeService.d__5.MoveNext() in

Startup SingleTon added

// snippet
services.AddHttpContextAccessor();
services.AddSingleton<IAuthorizeService, AuthorizeService>();

The Service Implementation

// The Service Implementation
public interface IAuthorizeService
{
       public Task AuthorizeUserAsync(UserModel user, HttpContext context);
}


public async Task AuthorizeUserAsync(UserModel user, HttpContext context) 
{
    await some Database operation, retrieving user roles 
    // do something with the context
    // e.g.                 
    context.Response.Cookies.Append("access_token", token, GetCookieOptions()); 
} 

Updated: Controller using the Service

private readonly IAuthorizeService authorizeService;

public LoginController(IAuthorizeService authorizeService)
{
        this.authorizeService = authorizeService;
}

public async Task<IActionResult> LogIn(LogInModel model, string actionType)
{
    // snip (model and userService not shown) 
    var user = await userService.Authenticate(model.Email, model.Password, model.OTP);

    await authorizeService.AuthorizeUserAsync(user, HttpContext);
    return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home", new { area = "" });
}

---

Another approach: using Dependency Injection (DI), by injecting IHttpContextAccessor also does not work:

In the default constructor I have this in the AuthorizeService:

    private readonly IHttpContextAccessor contextAccessor;
    
    public AuthorizeService(IHttpContextAccessor contextAccessor, {
        this.contextAccessor = contextAccessor;
    }

In the Startup.cs I add the IHttpContextAccessor

services.AddHttpContextAccessor();

When I inspect the values of contextAccessor:

default constructor = HttpContext is not null

AuthorizeUserAsync method = HttpContext is null

I am expecting to have a non null value for HttpContext.

public async Task AuthorizeUserAsync(UserModel user) 
{
    if (contextAccessor.HttpContext == null) {
        throw new Exception("ContextAccessor.HttpContext");
    }
    // await some Database operation, retrieving user roles
    contextAccessor.HttpContext.Response.Cookies.Append("access_token", token, GetCookieOptions()); 
} 

Answer 1

The code supplied was not sufficient to indicate what the cause was, but it could still be useful to others.

The request/response was closed by some buggy middleware.

After removing the middleware that was closing the requests the HttpContext was valid in all cases.

Answer 2

I think you have a few issues here, all centering around this fact...

HttpContext is only valid in between receiving a request and before the response is complete.

Problem 1: Injecting HttpContext into a Singleton

A singleton is only created once. However, HttpContext is unique per request. Therefore, services which depend on HttpContext should not be Singletons. They should use .AddScoped(...) instead.

Otherwise, HttpContext is only correct for the first request.

Injecting IHttpContextAccessor instead of HttpContext should work, however, because the context instance will always be for the current request.

Problem 2: Using HttpContext too late.

HttpContext cannot be used after the response has been completed. The following situations can lead to this...

• Attempting to utilize after a previous middleware has already short-circuited the pipeline
• Attempting to use it asynchronously, such that the response completes before asynchronous work can use it.

Answer 3

This happened to me using the IHttpContextAccessor because I forgot I was testing in my local IIS and I forgot to shut it down when I was done. After I stopped the app pool and website, I had no problem debugging my app again in Visual Studio.