On 09/01/2017 19:09, Paul Sandoz wrote:
On 9 Jan 2017, at 05:36, Alan Bateman <alan.bate...@oracle.com> wrote:

On 05/01/2017 19:01, Paul Sandoz wrote:

Hi,

I encountered some circularity issues with security manager and VarHandles, 
specifically when attempting to use the new MethodHandles.privateLookupIn, so 
say ThreadLocalRandom has access to fields in Thread [1].

When running with a security manager ThreadLocalRandom clinit depends on 
various security stuff that eventually depends on ConcurrentSkipListMap which 
depends on ThreadLocalRandom, whose static state has not been fully initialzed.

The current security permission check in MethodHandles.privateLookupIn may be a 
too blunt and possibly should be refined along similar lines to 
Lookup.checkSecurityManager e.g. no check should be needed for classes within 
the same module (since this is a refined/controlled/principled form of 
setAccessible, plus no pounding on final fields). That would solve the problem 
in this case. But, the general point remains, and i have not thought too hard 
if there are other ways to solve this.

This would mean inconsistency with setAccessible where you need this blunt 
permission when suppressing access. Also I think Lookup.checkSecurityManager 
will do different checks when you don't have a full power lookup so it would 
mean adjusting the privateLookupIn.
Some adjustment would definitely be required, the perhaps the simplest solution 
is not to perform a security check if within the same module?

It might be okay when the lookup is a full-power lookup to class in java.base and it's called to get a full-power look to some other class in java.base. However, generalizing this would probably need security eyes. Consider two libraries on the class path (same unnamed module) for example. Also the inconsistency with setAccessible where it always checks the permission when running with a security manager.

-Alan

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