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Wiki Markup A nested class is any class whose declaration occurs within the body of another class or interface \[ [JLS 2005|AA. References#JLS 05]\]. The use of a nested class is error-prone unless the semantics are well understood. A common notion is that only the nested class may access the contents of the outer class. Not only does the nested class have access to the private fields of the outer class, the same fields can be accessed by any other class within the package when the nested class is declared public or if it contains public methods or constructors. As a result the nested class must not expose the private members of the outer class to external classes or packages. unmigrated-wiki-markup

According to the _Java Language Specification_ , [§8 , §8.3, "Field Declarations"|http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/classes.html#8.3] \[ [JLS 2005|AA. References#JLS 05]\]:

Note that a private field of a superclass might be accessible to a subclass (for example, if both classes are members of the same class). Nevertheless, a private field is never inherited by a subclass.

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Automated Detection

Automated detection of nonprivate inner classes that define nonprivate members and constructors that leak private data from the outer class is straightforward.

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Bibliography

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      04. Object Orientation (OBJ)