Java RMI Tutorial - AccessControlException: access denied (java.io.FilePermission

Question

Yesterday I tried to get started with Java RMI. I found this sun tutorial (http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/rmi/index.html) and started with the server implemantation. But everytime I start the pogram (the rmiregistry is running) I get an AccessControlException with the following StackTrace:

LoginImpl exception:
java.security.AccessControlException: access denied (java.io.FilePermission \\\C\ProjX\server\serverProj\bin\usermanager read)
    at java.security.AccessControlContext.checkPermission(AccessControlContext.java:264)
    at java.security.AccessController.checkPermission(AccessController.java:427)
    at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkPermission(SecurityManager.java:532)
    at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkRead(SecurityManager.java:871)
    at java.io.File.exists(File.java:700)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.file.Handler.openConnection(Handler.java:80)
    at sun.net.www.protocol.file.Handler.openConnection(Handler.java:55)
    at java.net.URL.openConnection(URL.java:943)
    at sun.rmi.server.LoaderHandler.addPermissionsForURLs(LoaderHandler.java:1020)
    at sun.rmi.server.LoaderHandler.access$300(LoaderHandler.java:52)
    at sun.rmi.server.LoaderHandler$Loader.<init>(LoaderHandler.java:1108)
    at sun.rmi.server.LoaderHandler$Loader.<init>(LoaderHandler.java:1089)
    at sun.rmi.server.LoaderHandler$1.run(LoaderHandler.java:861)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at sun.rmi.server.LoaderHandler.lookupLoader(LoaderHandler.java:858)
    at sun.rmi.server.LoaderHandler.loadProxyClass(LoaderHandler.java:541)
    at java.rmi.server.RMIClassLoader$2.loadProxyClass(RMIClassLoader.java:628)
    at java.rmi.server.RMIClassLoader.loadProxyClass(RMIClassLoader.java:294)
    at sun.rmi.server.MarshalInputStream.resolveProxyClass(MarshalInputStream.java:238)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readProxyDesc(ObjectInputStream.java:1494)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readClassDesc(ObjectInputStream.java:1457)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readOrdinaryObject(ObjectInputStream.java:1693)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject0(ObjectInputStream.java:1299)
    at java.io.ObjectInputStream.readObject(ObjectInputStream.java:339)
    at sun.rmi.registry.RegistryImpl_Skel.dispatch(Unknown Source)
    at sun.rmi.server.UnicastServerRef.oldDispatch(UnicastServerRef.java:375)
    at sun.rmi.server.UnicastServerRef.dispatch(UnicastServerRef.java:240)
    at sun.rmi.transport.Transport$1.run(Transport.java:153)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at sun.rmi.transport.Transport.serviceCall(Transport.java:149)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport.handleMessages(TCPTransport.java:460)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport$ConnectionHandler.run(TCPTransport.java:701)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)
    at sun.rmi.transport.StreamRemoteCall.exceptionReceivedFromServer(Unknown Source)
    at sun.rmi.transport.StreamRemoteCall.executeCall(Unknown Source)
    at sun.rmi.server.UnicastRef.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at sun.rmi.registry.RegistryImpl_Stub.rebind(Unknown Source)
    at startserver.StartServer.main(StartServer.java:22)

My server.policy file looks like this:

grant {
    permission java.security.AllPermission;
};

But I´ve also tried this one ...

grant {
    permission java.security.AllPermission;
    permission java.io.FilePermission "file://C:/ProjX/server/serverProj/bin/usermanager", "read";
};

... and this one (and several others :-():

grant codeBase "file:///-" {
    permission java.security.AllPermission;
};

But in every case the result is the same. And yes, the policy file is in path (I see a Parse Exception, when I write wrong statments into the policy-file). I tried out several other "/" and "\" constellations but it has no effect.

I use Eclipse and my VM-Parameters are like this:

-cp C:\ProjX\server\serverProj\bin\usermanager\
-Djava.rmi.server.codebase=file://C:/ProjX/server/serverProj/bin/usermanager/
-Djava.rmi.server.hostname=XYZ (anonymized)
-Djava.security.policy=server.policy

The compiled Remote-Interface and the interface-implementation class (LoginImpl) classes are in this path: "C:/ProjX/server/serverProj/bin/usermanager/". The main method, where I instanciate and rebind the stub to the registry is in another package and looks like this:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    if (System.getSecurityManager() == null) {
        System.setSecurityManager(new SecurityManager());
    }
    try {
        String name = "Login";
        Login login = new LoginImpl();
        Login stub = (Login) UnicastRemoteObject.exportObject(login, 0);
        Registry registry = LocateRegistry.getRegistry();
        registry.rebind(name, stub);
        System.out.println("LoginImpl bound");
    } catch (Exception e) {
        System.err.println("LoginImpl exception:");
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

Does anybody have an advice for me? Thank you for help.

---

So the question is the same (the java.rmi.UnmarshalException shows that changing the codebase is not the solution of my AccessControlException). And no: I don´t want to buy a plugin "G B" ;-).

Answer 1

Grant of all permissions to all code is a really bad. Any RMI client could do what it wanted as logged in user. In general try to restrict permissions as much as reasonable, particularly when you don't know where the code has come from.

Back to the question...

-Djava.rmi.server.codebase=file://C:/ProjX/server/serverProj/bin/usermanager/

That should be either "file:///C:/..." or "file:/C:/...". Think of http. "http://C:/..." refers to a host named C. Note that the exception message has dropped the colon, because that's just syntax for port number.

The reason why you get a security exception even if you grant permissions to all code, is that RMI is restricting permissions to that appropriate given the URLs involved (using AccessController doPrivileged two argument form).