The target name is the name of the AWT permission (see below). The naming
convention follows the hierarchical property naming convention.
Also, an asterisk could be used to represent all AWT permissions.
| Permission Target Name |
What the Permission Allows |
Risks of Allowing this Permission |
| accessClipboard |
Posting and retrieval of information to and from the AWT clipboard |
This would allow malfeasant code to share
potentially sensitive or confidential information. |
| accessEventQueue |
Access to the AWT event queue |
After retrieving the AWT event queue,
malicious code may peek at and even remove existing events
from its event queue, as well as post bogus events which may purposefully
cause the application or applet to misbehave in an insecure manner. |
| accessSystemTray |
Access to the AWT SystemTray instance |
This would allow malicious code to add tray icons to the system tray.
First, such an icon may look like the icon of some known application
(such as a firewall or anti-virus) and order a user to do something unsafe
(with help of balloon messages). Second, the system tray may be glutted with
tray icons so that no one could add a tray icon anymore. |
| createRobot |
Create java.awt.Robot objects |
The java.awt.Robot object allows code to generate native-level
mouse and keyboard events as well as read the screen. It could allow
malicious code to control the system, run other programs, read the
display, and deny mouse and keyboard access to the user. |
| fullScreenExclusive |
Enter full-screen exclusive mode |
Entering full-screen exclusive mode allows direct access to
low-level graphics card memory. This could be used to spoof the
system, since the program is in direct control of rendering. |
| listenToAllAWTEvents |
Listen to all AWT events, system-wide |
After adding an AWT event listener,
malicious code may scan all AWT events dispatched in the system,
allowing it to read all user input (such as passwords). Each
AWT event listener is called from within the context of that
event queue's EventDispatchThread, so if the accessEventQueue
permission is also enabled, malicious code could modify the
contents of AWT event queues system-wide, causing the application
or applet to misbehave in an insecure manner. |
| readDisplayPixels |
Readback of pixels from the display screen |
Interfaces such as the java.awt.Composite interface or the
java.awt.Robot class allow arbitrary code to examine pixels on the
display enable malicious code to snoop on the activities of the user. |
| replaceKeyboardFocusManager |
Sets the KeyboardFocusManager for
a particular thread.
| When SecurityManager is installed, the invoking
thread must be granted this permission in order to replace
the current KeyboardFocusManager. If permission
is not granted, a SecurityException will be thrown.
|
| setAppletStub |
Setting the stub which implements Applet container services |
Malicious code could set an applet's stub and result in unexpected
behavior or denial of service to an applet. |
| setWindowAlwaysOnTop |
Setting always-on-top property of the window:
Window.setAlwaysOnTop |
The malicious window might make itself look and behave like a real full desktop, so that
information entered by the unsuspecting user is captured and subsequently misused |
| showWindowWithoutWarningBanner |
Display of a window without also displaying a banner warning
that the window was created by an applet |
Without this warning,
an applet may pop up windows without the user knowing that they
belong to an applet. Since users may make security-sensitive
decisions based on whether or not the window belongs to an applet
(entering a username and password into a dialog box, for example),
disabling this warning banner may allow applets to trick the user
into entering such information. |
| toolkitModality |
Creating
Dialog.ModalityType.TOOLKIT_MODAL TOOLKIT_MODAL dialogs
and setting the
Dialog.ModalExclusionType.TOOLKIT_EXCLUDETOOLKIT_EXCLUDE window property. |
When a toolkit-modal dialog is shown from an applet, it blocks all other
applets in the browser. When launching applications from Java Web Start,
its windows (such as the security dialog) may also be blocked by toolkit-modal
dialogs, shown from these applications. |
| watchMousePointer |
Getting the information about the mouse pointer position at any
time |
Constantly watching the mouse pointer,
an applet can make guesses about what the user is doing, i.e. moving
the mouse to the lower left corner of the screen most likely means that
the user is about to launch an application. If a virtual keypad is used
so that keyboard is emulated using the mouse, an applet may guess what
is being typed. |
