Bug 689157 - Copy/paste from/to Java applets does not work anymore
Summary: Copy/paste from/to Java applets does not work anymore
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: java-1.6.0-openjdk
Version: 13
Hardware: x86_64
OS: Linux
unspecified
high
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Omair Majid
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2011-03-19 23:13 UTC by Jos Vos
Modified: 2011-06-01 18:17 UTC (History)
9 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2011-06-01 18:17:23 UTC
Type: ---
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description Jos Vos 2011-03-19 23:13:03 UTC
Description of problem:
Since the upgrade of java-1.6.0-openjdk (and the plugin) to version 1.6.0.0-50.1.8.7.fc13 copy/paste from/to Java applets doe snot work anymore.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
1.6.0.0-50.1.8.7.fc13

How reproducible:
See for example http://www.finnzymes.com/tm_determination.html (but the problem appears in all Java applets I tried) and try to copy/paste text from/to the first input field in the applet. This does not work with version 1.6.0.0-50.1.8.7.fc13, but it does work with version 1.6.0.0-37.b17.fc13.  I downgraded java-1.6.0-openjdk and java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin to the latter version now it's working again.

Comment 1 Omair Majid 2011-03-21 14:59:47 UTC
Can you please test with 1.6.0.0-50.1.8.6.fc13? You can grab the rpms from: http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/buildinfo?buildID=226683

Comment 2 Jos Vos 2011-03-21 15:12:46 UTC
Yes, with version 1.6.0.0-50.1.8.6.fc13 it works ok.

Comment 3 Omair Majid 2011-03-21 15:28:35 UTC
Sounds like the fix [1] for CVE-2010-4465 removed clipboard access for untrusted applets. I will look into updating the plugin to work with the fix.

[1] http://icedtea.classpath.org/hg/release/icedtea6-1.8/file/ad0f435608c3/patches/security/20110215/6907662.patch

Comment 4 Jos Vos 2011-03-21 18:22:19 UTC
Note that another problem I have with 1.6.0.0-50.1.8.7.fc13 (a problem that not appeared in 1.6.0.0-37.b17.fc13) is not solved in 1.6.0.0-50.1.8.6.fc13: when the Java applet opens a new window, I can't close that new window with window close button.  Should I open a new bug for this?

Comment 5 Omair Majid 2011-03-21 21:52:12 UTC
(In reply to comment #3)
> Sounds like the fix [1] for CVE-2010-4465 removed clipboard access for
> untrusted applets. I will look into updating the plugin to work with the fix.
> 

Scratch that. I thought I could reproduce this, but I cant any more. I tested the applet with 1.8.7, 1.9.7 and IcedTea-Web and I can copy/paste text inside the applet.

Are you having issues in copying and pasting text between the applet and the rest of the system? If so, I am afraid there is not much I can do - that's pretty much by design. An untrusted applet can not access (read/write) the system clipboard.

Comment 6 Omair Majid 2011-03-21 21:52:25 UTC
(In reply to comment #4)
> Note that another problem I have with 1.6.0.0-50.1.8.7.fc13 (a problem that not
> appeared in 1.6.0.0-37.b17.fc13) is not solved in 1.6.0.0-50.1.8.6.fc13: when
> the Java applet opens a new window, I can't close that new window with window
> close button.  Should I open a new bug for this?

Please do.

Comment 7 Jos Vos 2011-03-23 16:07:22 UTC
(In reply to comment #5)

> Are you having issues in copying and pasting text between the applet and the
> rest of the system? If so, I am afraid there is not much I can do - that's
> pretty much by design. An untrusted applet can not access (read/write) the
> system clipboard.

Between the applet and a terminal (gnome-terminal) yes (and vice versa).  This did always work, till this 1.6.0.0-50.1.8.7.fc13 release.

Comment 8 Omair Majid 2011-03-24 18:19:34 UTC
Untrusted code (like the applet in the example you posted) is not allowed to access the clipboard. From looking at the code, this looks like a very deliberate security decision.

If untrusted applets are allowed to read the system clipboard (which would allow copy/paste to other applications) then the applets could read potentially sensitive information in the clipboard. If applets are allowed to write to the clipboard, then they can DOS the clipboard itself by, say, writing blank strings to it.

I suppose it might be possible to add some logic to distinguish system events (ctrl+c on a JTextField) from programmer generated events, but that would lead to different parts of the applet having different views of the contents on the clipboard.

Comment 9 eric.thexton 2011-04-20 16:57:56 UTC
ever since i updated to java 6 24 i had this problem.

until i added to my java.policy file the following line: 
permission java.awt.AWTPermission "accessClipboard"

i found that here > http://www.sqlinform.com/forum4/read.php?3,467

good luck

Comment 10 Bug Zapper 2011-05-30 10:56:29 UTC
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Comment 11 Omair Majid 2011-06-01 18:17:23 UTC
(In reply to comment #7)
> Between the applet and a terminal (gnome-terminal) yes (and vice versa).  This
> did always work, till this 1.6.0.0-50.1.8.7.fc13 release.

By design, copy-paste between the system and an untrusted application is not allowed. The fact that it worked was a security vulnerability that was fixed:
http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk6/jdk6/jdk/rev/0933d8b8547a

(In reply to comment #9)
> until i added to my java.policy file the following line: 
> permission java.awt.AWTPermission "accessClipboard"

Any applet (even an invisible one written by by a malicious person trying to steal your information form you) running on any web page can read the contents of your clipboard. I dont know how sensitive or personal the information on your clipboard may be, but I wouldn't risk this.

See also the upstream bug: http://icedtea.classpath.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=708

Closing as NOTABUG.


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