Java.lang.SecurityManager.checkAccess() Method

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Description

The java.lang.SecurityManager.checkAccess(Thread t) method throws a SecurityException if the calling thread is not allowed to modify the thread argument. This method is invoked for the current security manager by the stop, suspend, resume, setPriority, setName, and setDaemon methods of class Thread.

If the thread argument is a system thread (belongs to the thread group with a null parent) then this method calls checkPermission with the RuntimePermission("modifyThread") permission. If the thread argument is not a system thread, this method just returns silently. Applications that want a stricter policy should override this method. If this method is overridden, the method that overrides it should additionally check to see if the calling thread has the RuntimePermission("modifyThread") permission, and if so, return silently. This is to ensure that code granted that permission (such as the JDK itself) is allowed to manipulate any thread.

If this method is overridden, then super.checkAccess should be called by the first statement in the overridden method, or the equivalent security check should be placed in the overridden method.

Declaration

Following is the declaration for java.lang.SecurityManager.checkAccess() method

public void checkAccess(Thread t)

Parameters

t − the thread to be checked.

Return Value

This method does not return a value.

Exception

• SecurityException − if the calling thread does not have permission to modify the thread.

• NullPointerException − if the thread argument is null.

Example

Our examples require that the permissions for each command is blocked. A new policy file was set that allows only the creating and setting of our Security Manager. The file is in C:/java.policy and contains the following text −

grant {
   permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "setSecurityManager";
   permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "createSecurityManager";
   permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "usePolicy";
};

The following example shows the usage of lang.SecurityManager.checkAccess() method.

package com.tutorialspoint;

public class SecurityManagerDemo extends SecurityManager {

   // check access needs to overriden
   @Override
   public void checkAccess(Thread t) {
      throw new SecurityException("Not allowed.");
   }

   public static void main(String[] args) {

      // set the policy file as the system securuty policy
      System.setProperty("java.security.policy", "file:/C:/java.policy");

      // create a security manager
      SecurityManagerDemo sm = new SecurityManagerDemo();

      // set the system security manager
      System.setSecurityManager(sm);

      // check if accepting access for thread is enabled
      sm.checkAccess(Thread.currentThread());

      // print a message if we passed the check
      System.out.println("Allowed!");
   }
}

Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result −

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.SecurityException: Not allowed.