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Java 2 security with WebSphere Portal

Java 2 (J2SE) security provides a policy-based, fine-grain access control mechanism that increases overall system integrity by checking for permissions before allowing access to certain protected system resources. J2SE security allows us to set up individual policy files that control the privileges assigned to individual code sources. If the code does not have the required permissions and still tries to execute a protected operation, the Java Access Controller will throw a corresponding security exception.

Policy files assign individual permissions to individual code sources. The syntax and semantics of the policy files are defined in the Java Language Specification. WebSphere Application Server uses a specific set of policy files to set up Java 2 Security. The following table contains information on the policy files and their protection scope:

  • APPSERVER_ROOT//java/jre/lib/security/java.policy

    Root policy file containing permissions for all the processes launched by WebSphere Application Server.

  • WP_PROFILE/properties/server.policy

    Grants default permissions to all product servers.

  • WP_PROFILE/properties/client.policy

    Grants default permissions for all of the product client containers and applets on a node.

  • WP_PROFILE/config/cells/cell/nodes/node/spi.policy

    Template is for the SPI or the third party resources that are embedded in the product. The default permission is java.security.AllPermissions.

  • WP_PROFILE/config/cells/cell/nodes/node/library.policy

    Grants default permissions (empty) to code contained in the shared library (Java library classes) to use in multiple product applications.

  • WP_PROFILE/config/cells/cell/nodes/node/app.policy

    Grants default permissions to all enterprise applications running on this node in this cell.

  • WP_PROFILE/config/cells/cell/applications/ear_file_name/deployments/application_name/META-INF/was.policy

    Assigns permissions to a specific enterprise application, imbedded within EAR:/META-INF/was.policy.

  • rar_filename/META-INF/was.policy.RAR

    This file can have a permission specification defined in the ra.xml file. The ra.xml file is embedded in the RAR file.

All code artifacts, installed with the WebSphere Portal product, run with java.security.AllPermission specified either in the server.policy file for the portal shared libraries or in the individual was.policy files for the individual portlets.

Portlets that are installed on WebSphere Portal after installation can bring along their own was.policy files defining the allowed interactions of the portlet code with the system resources; see Portlet concepts for additional information.

The application server searches for was.policy files in the enterprise application archive rather than the Web application archive comprising a portlet. Therefore, the portal server copies was.policy from the directory...

    appname.war/META-INF

...to the generated appname.ear/META-INF directory during deployment of a portlet WAR file.


Parent Securing

Related concepts:

Portlet concepts


Related information


Java 2 security
Java 2 Platform Security