Java allows root access without permission?

[Deepak Bhole]

* Michael Cronenworth <mike at cchtml.com> [2010-10-27 16:00]:
> Fedora 13 x86_64 with OpenJDK (not Sun) installed.
> 
> I was required to login to a web site today to configure a VPN and the 
> site installed a Cisco VPN Java applet. When it was finished installing 
> and was running I noticed the processes where running as root and had 
> installed into /opt. I had not given it my root password or any 
> permission to do so. It did not install any RPM package. It was all 
> driven by a Java applet.
> 
> $ ps -efw #id 502 is me
> 502       4791  2668  0 11:16 ?        00:00:19 
> /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-openjdk-1.6.0.0.x86_64/jre/lib/amd64/../../bin/java 
> sun.appl
> root      4923     1  0 11:16 ?        00:00:00 /opt/cisco/vpn/bin/vpnagentd
> 
> Is this something "allowed" by some configuration setting in OpenJDK 
> somewhere? I'd like to turn off this "feature" ASAP.
> 

Such a thing should/would not be allowed. Applets run as normal users
and escalated privileges would imply a severe security violation in the
base os itself.

How did you install/run the applet?

Deepak

> Thanks,
> Michael
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