[DS-436] SWORD Authenticator doesn't support the special groups infrastructure

git-svn-id: http://scm.dspace.org/svn/repo/dspace/trunk@4637 9c30dcfa-912a-0410-8fc2-9e0234be79fd

dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/authenticate/X509Authentication.java

@@ -496,6 +496,10 @@ public class X509Authentication implements AuthenticationMethod
     public int[] getSpecialGroups(Context context, HttpServletRequest request)
             throws SQLException
     {
+        if (request == null)
+        {
+            return new int[0];
+        }
 
         Boolean authenticated = false;
         HttpSession session = request.getSession(false);