[Clirr-devel] Java doesn't appear to do runtime checks for class/method access rights

[Simon K. <si...@ec...>]

Hi Lars,

Could you please check that I haven't gone completely mad?

Attached is an archive which contains some java code that appears to
demonstrate that the Java JVM/runtime does not check for class or method
access rights.

Try:
* cd v1; javac Foo.java
* cd v2; javac Foo.java
* cd ..
* cp v1/Foo.class pkg
* javac Main.java
* java Main
--> so far, all as expected.

But now:
* cp v2/Foo.class pkg
* java Main
--> the main class successfully invokes a private method on
    the package-scope Foo class!

The java lang spec document seems clear that this *should* throw an
IllegalAccessError, but it doesn't. I would like someone to confirm that
I am not having hallucinations here before I add a note about this to
the message description document.

I've tried this with:
* sun java 1.3 on AIX
* sun java 1.4 on linux 
* sun java 1.5 on linux
* IBM java 1.4 on AIX
* IBM java 1.4 on linux
and they all give the same result.

Regards,

Simon