[DERBY-1487] Use of getCanonicalPath() in sysinfo causes a SecurityException

• Type: Bug
• Status: Open
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: 10.1.3.1, 10.2.1.6
• Component/s: Tools
• Labels: derby_triage10_5_2
• Environment: Windows XP. I could not reproduce the issue on Mac OS X.
• Urgency: Normal
• Issue & fix info: Repro attached
• Assignee: Unassigned
• Reporter: Samuel Andrew McIntyre
• Created: 08/Jul/06 13:42
• Updated: 15/Feb/11 21:08

Description

From DERBY-1272:

Here's the full stack for the SecurityException found by the errorStream test with the -v4 patch applied:

Test errorStream failed: access denied (java.io.FilePermission C:\derby-trunk\classes read)
at java.security.AccessController.checkPermission(AccessController.java:401)
at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkPermission(SecurityManager.java:524)
at java.lang.SecurityManager.checkRead(SecurityManager.java:863)
at java.io.File.exists(File.java:678)
at java.io.Win32FileSystem.canonicalize(Win32FileSystem.java:360)
at java.io.File.getCanonicalPath(File.java:513)
at org.apache.derby.impl.tools.sysinfo.Main.formatURL(Main.java:1206)
at org.apache.derby.impl.tools.sysinfo.Main.loadZipFromResource(Main.java:831)
at org.apache.derby.impl.tools.sysinfo.Main.getAllInfo(Main.java:735)
at org.apache.derby.impl.tools.sysinfo.Main.reportDerby(Main.java:212)
at org.apache.derby.impl.tools.sysinfo.Main.getMainInfo(Main.java:119)
at org.apache.derby.tools.sysinfo.getInfo(sysinfo.java:200)
at org.apache.derby.impl.services.monitor.BaseMonitor.dumpTempWriter(BaseMonitor.java:1949)
at org.apache.derby.impl.services.monitor.BaseMonitor.runWithState(BaseMonitor.java:383)
at org.apache.derby.impl.services.monitor.FileMonitor.<init>(FileMonitor.java:59)
at org.apache.derby.iapi.services.monitor.Monitor.startMonitor(Monitor.java:288)
at org.apache.derby.iapi.jdbc.JDBCBoot.boot(JDBCBoot.java:68)
at org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver.boot(EmbeddedDriver.java:178)

The problem would appear that we explicitly need java.io.FilePermission read on the classes directory, even though this directory contains the classes we are currently running against. This may be a problem with java.io.File.getCanonicalPath(), but it may also be a problem with sysinfo.

org.apache.derby.impl.tools.sysinfo.Main.formatURL(Main.java:1206) is:

result = new File(filename).getCanonicalPath().replace('/', File.separatorChar);

The Sun Windows JVM may throw a SecurityException by default in the most restricted environments. From the javadoc for File.getCanonicalPath():

"If a required system property value cannot be accessed, or if a security manager exists and its SecurityManager.checkRead(java.io.FileDescriptor) method denies read access to the file"

Some investigation is required to determine whether or not this is a Windows-specific issue or if it is reproducible on other platforms. It has already been found to not be reproducible on Mac OS X. I'm curious why this exception is not thrown when running sysinfo standalone with a security manager without a policy file, since presumably this permission would not have been granted to sysinfo and the same code path should be used in both cases.

Issue Links

• is related to: DERBY-1272 Change sysinfo to print to error log (derby.log) on boot of derby if derby.stream.error.logSeverityLevel=0