Policy

This class is deprecated.
as of JDK version 1.4 -- Replaced by java.security.Policy. java.security.Policy has a method:

      public PermissionCollection getPermissions
          (java.security.ProtectionDomain pd)

 

and ProtectionDomain has a constructor:

      public ProtectionDomain
          (CodeSource cs,
           PermissionCollection permissions,
           ClassLoader loader,
           Principal[] principals)
 

These two APIs provide callers the means to query the Policy for Principal-based Permission entries.

Class Overview

This is an abstract class for representing the system policy for Subject-based authorization. A subclass implementation of this class provides a means to specify a Subject-based access control Policy.

A Policy object can be queried for the set of Permissions granted to code running as a Principal in the following manner:

      policy = Policy.getPolicy();
      PermissionCollection perms = policy.getPermissions(subject,
                                                      codeSource);
 

The Policy object consults the local policy and returns and appropriate Permissions object with the Permissions granted to the Principals associated with the provided subject, and granted to the code specified by the provided codeSource.

A Policy contains the following information. Note that this example only represents the syntax for the default Policy implementation. Subclass implementations of this class may implement alternative syntaxes and may retrieve the Policy from any source such as files, databases, or servers.

Each entry in the Policy is represented as a grant entry. Each grant entry specifies a codebase, code signers, and Principals triplet, as well as the Permissions granted to that triplet.

      grant CodeBase ["URL"], Signedby ["signers"],
            Principal [Principal_Class] "Principal_Name" {
          Permission Permission_Class ["Target_Name"]
                                      [, "Permission_Actions"]
                                      [, signedBy "SignerName"];
      };
 

The CodeBase and Signedby components of the triplet name/value pairs are optional. If they are not present, then any any codebase will match, and any signer (including unsigned code) will match. For Example,

      grant CodeBase "foo.com", Signedby "foo",
            Principal com.sun.security.auth.SolarisPrincipal "duke" {
          permission java.io.FilePermission "/home/duke", "read, write";
      };
 

This grant entry specifies that code from "foo.com", signed by "foo', and running as a SolarisPrincipal with the name, duke, has one Permission. This Permission permits the executing code to read and write files in the directory, "/home/duke".

To "run" as a particular Principal, code invokes the Subject.doAs(subject, ...) method. After invoking that method, the code runs as all the Principals associated with the specified Subject. Note that this Policy (and the Permissions granted in this Policy) only become effective after the call to Subject.doAs has occurred.

Multiple Principals may be listed within one grant entry. All the Principals in the grant entry must be associated with the Subject provided to Subject.doAs for that Subject to be granted the specified Permissions.

      grant Principal com.sun.security.auth.SolarisPrincipal "duke",
            Principal com.sun.security.auth.SolarisNumericUserPrincipal "0" {
          permission java.io.FilePermission "/home/duke", "read, write";
          permission java.net.SocketPermission "duke.com", "connect";
      };
 

This entry grants any code running as both "duke" and "0" permission to read and write files in duke's home directory, as well as permission to make socket connections to "duke.com".

Note that non Principal-based grant entries are not permitted in this Policy. Therefore, grant entries such as:

      grant CodeBase "foo.com", Signedby "foo" {
          permission java.io.FilePermission "/tmp/scratch", "read, write";
      };
 

are rejected. Such permission must be listed in the java.security.Policy.

The default Policy implementation can be changed by setting the value of the "auth.policy.provider" security property (in the Java security properties file) to the fully qualified name of the desired Policy implementation class. The Java security properties file is located in the file named <JAVA_HOME>/lib/security/java.security. <JAVA_HOME> refers to the value of the java.home system property, and specifies the directory where the JRE is installed.

Summary

Protected Constructors
	Policy() Sole constructor.

Public Methods
abstract PermissionCollection	getPermissions(Subject subject, CodeSource cs) Retrieve the Permissions granted to the Principals associated with the specified CodeSource.
static Policy	getPolicy() Returns the installed Policy object.
abstract void	refresh() Refresh and reload the Policy.
static void	setPolicy(Policy policy) Sets the system-wide Policy object.

[Expand] Inherited Methods

From class java.lang.Object Object clone() Creates and returns a copy of this object. boolean equals(Object obj) Indicates whether some other object is "equal to" this one. void finalize() Called by the garbage collector on an object when garbage collection determines that there are no more references to the object. final Class<?> getClass() Returns the runtime class of this Object. int hashCode() Returns a hash code value for the object. final void notify() Wakes up a single thread that is waiting on this object's monitor. final void notifyAll() Wakes up all threads that are waiting on this object's monitor. String toString() Returns a string representation of the object. final void wait() Causes the current thread to wait until another thread invokes the notify() method or the notifyAll() method for this object. final void wait(long timeout, int nanos) Causes the current thread to wait until another thread invokes the notify() method or the notifyAll() method for this object, or some other thread interrupts the current thread, or a certain amount of real time has elapsed. final void wait(long timeout) Causes the current thread to wait until either another thread invokes the notify() method or the notifyAll() method for this object, or a specified amount of time has elapsed.