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The default {{SecurityManager}} checks whether the caller of a particular method has sufficient permissions to proceed with an action. An action is nothing but a level of access, for instance, actions for {{java.io.FilePermission}} are "read", "write", "execute", and "delete". \[[Sun 06|AA. Java References#Sun 06]\]. [Permission Descriptions and Risks|http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/guides/security/permissions.html] enumerates the default permissions associated with the restricted methods. 

At other times, stronger confinement is restrictions are necessary and custom permissions prove to be more suitable in assuming the role of privilege separators. Failure to provide custom permissions in the absence of the corresponding default permissions can lead to privilege escalation vulnerabilities wherein untrusted callers can execute restricted operations or actions.

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This noncompliant example is culpable on at least one count. It contains a privileged block that is used to perform two sensitive operationsoperation:. First, loading a library and the second being setting the default exception handler. Fortunately, when the default security manager is used, it does not permit loading the library unless the RuntimePermission "loadLibrary.awt" is granted in the policy file. Quite deplorably, the programmer does not guard a caller from performing the second sensitive operation - setting the default exception reporter. This security weakness can be exploited, for example, by setting the verbosity of the handler to high so that the privilege separation mechanism envisioned by the rightful observers of the log files or error messages, is broken. This example also violates the advice of SEC36-J. Guard doPrivileged blocks against untrusted invocations by using a privileged block for carrying out multiple operations of at varying naturesprivilege leads.

class LoadLibrary {
  private void loadLibrary() {
    AccessController.doPrivileged(new PrivilegedAction() {
      public Object run() {
        // privileged code
        System.loadLibrary("awt");
        // perform some sensitive operation like setting the default exception handler
        MyExceptionReporter.setExceptionReporter(reporter); 
        return null; 
      }
    });		  
  }
}

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Define a custom permission ExceptionReporterPermission "exc.reporter" to prohibit illegitimate callers from setting the default exception handler. This can be achieved by subclassing BasicPermission which allows binary style permissions (either allow or disallow). By default one permissions cannot define permissions be determined with actions using BasicPermission but the actions can be implemented in the subclass if required. BasicPermission is abstract even though it contains no abstract methods; it defines all the methods it extends from the Permission class. The custom defined subclass of BasicPermission class has to define two constructors in order to call the most appropriate (single or double argument) superclass constructor (the superclass lacks a default constructor). The two-argument constructor also accepts an action even though a basic permission does not use it. This is required for constructing permission objects from the policy file.

This compliant solution uses a security manager to check whether the caller has the requisite permission to set the handler. The code confronts the user with issues a SecurityException if the check fails. The custom permission class ExceptionReporterPermission is also defined with the two required constructors.

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Assuming that the above sources live reside in the c:\package directory on a Windows based system, for example, the policy file needs to grant two permissions, ExceptionReporterPermission "exc.reporter" and the RuntimePermission "loadlibrary.awt".

grant codeBase "file:c:\\package" {  // For *nix, file:${user.home}/package/ 
  permission ExceptionReporterPermission "exc.reporter";
  permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "loadLibrary.awt"; 
};

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