com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpExchange represents a request response exchange. In https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8235786 we updated the normative text of the getAttribute() and setAttribute() methods to match the JDK's built-in implementation of those methods.

The updated normative text, although matching the current implementation, can now potentially cause existing subclasses which overridde those abstract public methods to behave differently from the method specification. In fact, a mail in the net-dev mailing list has pointed out that there are existing subclasses out there which implement these methods differently and the updated method specification contradicts those implementations causing compatibility issues. The net-dev mailing list discussion is here https://mail.openjdk.org/pipermail/net-dev/2024-December/025171.html.

We should redo the documentation of these methods to separate out the JDK's built-in implementation details from the normative text.