Module java.base
Package java.security

Class Policy

java.lang.Object
java.security.Policy

@Deprecated(since="17", forRemoval=true) public abstract class Policy extends Object
Deprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.
This class is only useful in conjunction with the Security Manager, which is deprecated and subject to removal in a future release. Consequently, this class is also deprecated and subject to removal. There is no replacement for the Security Manager or this class.
A Policy object is responsible for determining whether code executing in the Java runtime environment has permission to perform a security-sensitive operation.

There is only one Policy object installed in the runtime at any given time. A Policy object can be installed by calling the setPolicy method. The installed Policy object can be obtained by calling the getPolicy method.

If no Policy object has been installed in the runtime, a call to getPolicy installs an instance of the default Policy implementation (a default subclass implementation of this abstract class). The default Policy implementation can be changed by setting the value of the policy.provider security property to the fully qualified name of the desired Policy subclass implementation. The system class loader is used to load this class.

Application code can directly subclass Policy to provide a custom implementation. In addition, an instance of a Policy object can be constructed by invoking one of the getInstance factory methods with a standard type. The default policy type is "JavaPolicy".

Once a Policy instance has been installed (either by default, or by calling setPolicy), the Java runtime invokes its implies method when it needs to determine whether executing code (encapsulated in a ProtectionDomain) can perform SecurityManager-protected operations. How a Policy object retrieves its policy data is up to the Policy implementation itself. The policy data may be stored, for example, in a flat ASCII file, in a serialized binary file of the Policy class, or in a database.

The refresh method causes the policy object to refresh/reload its data. This operation is implementation-dependent. For example, if the policy object stores its data in configuration files, calling refresh will cause it to re-read the configuration policy files. If a refresh operation is not supported, this method does nothing. Note that refreshed policy may not have an effect on classes in a particular ProtectionDomain. This is dependent on the policy provider's implementation of the implies method and its PermissionCollection caching strategy.

Since:
1.2
See Also: