Migrating Java 2 security policy

Use this topic for guidance pertaining to migrating Java 2 security policy.

About this task

Previous WebSphere Application Server releases

WebSphere Application Server uses the Java 2 security manager in the server runtime to prevent enterprise applications from calling the System.exit and the System.setSecurityManager methods. These two Java application programming interfaces (API) have undesirable consequences if called by enterprise applications. The System.exit API, for example, causes the Java virtual machine (application server process) to exit prematurely, which is not a beneficial operation for an application server.

To support Java 2 security properly, all the server runtime must be marked as privileged (with doPrivileged API calls inserted in the correct places), and identify the default permission sets or policy. Application code is not privileged and subject to the permissions that are defined in the policy files. The doPrivileged instrumentation is important and necessary to support Java 2 security. Without it, the application code must be granted the permissions that are required by the server runtime. This situation is due to the design and algorithm that is used by Java 2 security to enforce permission checks. Refer to the Java 2 security check permission algorithm.

The following two permissions are enforced by the Java 2 security manager (hard coded) for WebSphere Application Server:

• java.lang.RuntimePermission(exitVM)

• java.lang.RuntimePermission(setSecurityManager)

Application code is denied access to these permissions regardless of what is in the Java 2 security policy. However, the server runtime is granted these permissions. All the other permission checks are not enforced.

Only two permissions are supported:

• java.net.SocketPermission

• java.net.NetPermission

However, not all the product server runtime is properly marked as privileged. You must grant the application code all the other permissions besides the two listed previously or the enterprise application can potentially fail to run. This Java 2 security policy for enterprise applications is liberal.

What changed

Java 2 Security is fully supported in WebSphere Application Server, which means that all permissions are enforced. The default Java 2 security policy for an enterprise application is the recommended permission set defined by the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Version 1.4 specification. Refer to the profile_root/config/cells/cell_name/nodes/node/app.policy file for the default Java 2 security policy that is granted to enterprise applications. This policy is a much more stringent compared to previous releases.

All policy is declarative. The product security manager honors all policy that is declared in the policy files. There is an exception to this rule: enterprise
applications are denied access to permissions that are declared in the profile_root/config/cells/cell_name/filter.policy file.

Note: The default Java 2 security policy for enterprise applications is much more stringent and all the permissions are enforced in WebSphere Application Server Version 6.0.x and later. The security policy might fail because the application code does not have the necessary permissions granted where system resources, such as file I/O, can be programmatically accessed and are now subject to the permission checking.

In application code, do not use the setSecurityManager permission to set a security manager. When an application uses the setSecurityManager permission, there is a conflict with the internal security manager within WebSphere Application Server. If set a security manager in an application for RMI purposes, you also must enable the Enforce Java 2 Security option on the Global security settings page within the WebSphere Application Server administrative console. WebSphere Application Server then registers a security manager. The application code can verify that this security manager is registered by using System.getSecurityManager() application programming interface (API).

Migrating system properties

The following system properties are used in previous releases in relation to Java 2 security:

• java.security.policy. The absolute path of the policy file (action required). This system property contains both system permissions (permissions granted to the Java virtual machine (JVM) and the product server runtime) and enterprise application permissions. Migrate the Java 2 security policy of the enterprise application to WebSphere Application Server Version 6.0.x. For Java 2 security policy migration, see the steps for migrating Java 2 security policy.

• enableJava2Security. Used to enable Java 2 security enforcement (no action required). This system property is deprecated; a flag in the WebSphere configuration application programming interface (API) is used to control whether to enabled Java 2 security. Enable this option through the administrative console.

• was.home. Expanded to the installation directory of WebSphere Application Server (action might be required). This system property is deprecated; superseded by the ${user.install.root} and ${was.install.root} properties. If the directory contains instance-specific data then ${user.install.root} is used; otherwise ${was.install.root} is used. Use these properties interchangeably for the WebSphere Application Server or the Network Deployment environments. See the steps for migrating Java 2 security policy.

Migrating the Java 2 Security Policy

No easy way exists to migrate the Java policy file to WebSphere Application Server Version 6.0.x and later automatically because of a mixture of system permissions and application permissions in the same policy file. Manually copy the Java 2 security policy for enterprise applications to a was.policy or app.policy file. However, migrating the Java 2 security policy to a was.policy file is preferable because symbols or relative code base is used instead of an absolute code base. This process has many advantages. Grant the permissions that are defined in the was.policy to the specific enterprise application only, while permissions in the app.policy file apply to all the enterprise
applications that run on the node where the app.policy file belongs.

The following example illustrates the migration of a Java 2 security policy from a previous release. The contents include the Java 2 security policy file for the app1.ear enterprise application and the system permissions, which are permissions that are granted to the Java virtual machine (JVM) and the product server runtime.

The default location for the Java 2 security policy file is profile_root/properties/java.policy. Default permissions are omitted for clarity:

// For product Samples    grant codeBase "file:${app_server_root}/installedApps/app1.ear/-" {
     permission java.security.SecurityPermission "printIdentity";
     permission java.io.FilePermission "${app_server_root}${/}temp${/}somefile.txt", 
       "read";
   };

For clarity of illustration, all the permissions are migrated as the application level permissions in this example. However, you can grant permissions at a more granular level at the component level (Web, enterprise beans, connector or utility Java archive (JAR) component level) or you can grant permissions to a particular component.

Procedure

1. Ensure that Java 2 security is disabled on the application server.

2. Create a new was.policy file, if the file is not present, or update the was.policy file for migrated applications in the configuration repository with the following contents:

   grant codeBase "file:${application}"{
        permission java.security.SecurityPermission "printIdentity";
        permission java.io.FilePermission "
                ${user.install.root}${/}temp${/}somefile.txt", "read";
      };

   The third and fourth lines in the previous code sample are presented on two lines for illustrative purposes only.

   The was.policy file is located in the profile_root/config/cells/cell_name/applications/app.ear/deployments/app/META-INF/ directory.

3. Use an assembly tool to attach the was.policy file to the enterprise archive (EAR) file.

   You also can use an assembly tool to validate the contents of the was.policy file. For more information, see Configuring the was.policy file .

4. Validate that the enterprise application does not require additional permissions to the migrated Java 2 security permissions and the default permissions set declared in the ${user.install.root}/config/cells/cell_name/nodes/node/app.policy file. This validation requires code review, code inspection, application documentation review, and sandbox testing of migrated enterprise applications with Java 2 security enabled in a preproduction environment. Refer to developer kit APIs protected by Java 2 security for information about which APIs are protected by Java 2 security. If you use third-party libraries, consult the vendor documentation for APIs that are protected by Java 2 security. Verify that the application is granted all the required permissions, or it might fail to run when Java 2 security is enabled.

5. Perform preproduction testing of the migrated enterprise application with Java 2 security enabled. Enable trace for the WebSphere Application Server Java 2 security manager in a preproduction testing environment with the following trace string: com.ibm.ws.security.core.SecurityManager=all=enabled. This trace function can be helpful in debugging the AccessControlException exception that is created when an application is not granted the required permission or some system code is not properly marked as privileged. The trace dumps the stack trace and permissions that are granted to the classes on the call stack when the exception is created.

   Note: Because the Java 2 security policy is much more stringent compared with previous releases, the administrator or deployer must review their enterprise applications to see if extra permissions are required before enabling Java 2 security. If the enterprise applications are not granted the required permissions, they fail to run.

Related concepts

Related tasks