How to install unlimited strength JCE for JRE 7 in MacOSX?

Question

I installed Oracle JRE 7 (not JDK) for MacOSX but I can't locate where the JCE jurisdiction files are placed.

I need to replace them with the unlimited strength version.

Possible duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1179672/unlimited-strength-jce-policy-files — Duncan Jones, Sep 03 '12 at 09:30
This is not a duplicate because JRE 7 seems to not have a Java Home, or I'm not able to find it... This is my problem. — Andrea Mariottini, Sep 03 '12 at 09:35
A two second Google (for the terms `macosx java home`) found this site: http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#qa/qa1170/_index.html. Have you researched this at all before asking? — Duncan Jones, Sep 03 '12 at 09:43
This is the path for the JDK Java Home not JRE. Have you read before commenting? — Andrea Mariottini, Sep 03 '12 at 21:03

score 32 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 04 '13 at 11:48

32

I've installed the Oracle JDK, and if it helps, the directory in my case was /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_09.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/security/. Your mileage may vary, in which case just run find . -name local_policy.jar and see what it turns up.

answered Jan 04 '13 at 11:48

Thom

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I found 2: ./Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home/lib/security/local_policy.jar ./Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_09.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/security/local_policy.jar I think the firs is what I was looking for. – Andrea Mariottini Jan 07 '13 at 11:26

score 26 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

This is for the JDK, not the JRE.

I'm on a Mac, OSx Lion and I used /usr/libexec/java_home to find my java home

/usr/libexec/java_home -V
# Matching Java Virtual Machines (3):
#     1.7.0_51, x86_64: "Java SE 7" /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home
#     1.6.0_65-b14-462, x86_64: "Java SE 6" /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home
#     1.6.0_65-b14-462, i386:   "Java SE 6" /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home
# 
# /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home

/usr/libexec/java_home
# /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home

/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.6
# /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home

/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7
# /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home

From here you can use this executable and find to locate these files

find $(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7) -name local_policy.jar
# /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/security/local_policy.jar

find $(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7) -name US_export_policy.jar
# /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/security/US_export_policy.jar

And combine that with @ngreen's answer to get the md5 of these files (if you want)

find ~/Downloads/UnlimitedJCEPolicy -name *.jar |xargs md5
# MD5 (/Users/nperry/Downloads/UnlimitedJCEPolicy/local_policy.jar) = 9dd69bcc7637d872121880c35437788d
# MD5 (/Users/nperry/Downloads/UnlimitedJCEPolicy/US_export_policy.jar) = 3bb2e88a915b3cb003ca185357a92c16

find $(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7) -name local_policy.jar | xargs md5
# MD5 (/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/security/local_policy.jar) = f41ab8f64b1fa13fec7276579c420951

find $(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7) -name US_export_policy.jar | xargs md5
# MD5 (/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/security/US_export_policy.jar) = d5d126ae15abecb7d6e3a28b0d57543e

And you can see I have not replaced these files yet.

Backup the original files if you want

mkdir ~/Downloads/JCEPolicy-originals-1.7/
cp $(find $(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7) -name local_policy.jar)     ~/Downloads/JCEPolicy-originals-1.7/
cp $(find $(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7) -name US_export_policy.jar) ~/Downloads/JCEPolicy-originals-1.7/

You can replace the files with this.

sudo cp ~/Downloads/UnlimitedJCEPolicy/local_policy.jar $(find $(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7) -name local_policy.jar)
sudo cp ~/Downloads/UnlimitedJCEPolicy/US_export_policy.jar $(find $(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7) -name US_export_policy.jar)

And getting the MD5s tells me if it worked

find $(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7) -name local_policy.jar | xargs md5
# MD5 (/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/security/local_policy.jar) = 9dd69bcc7637d872121880c35437788d

find $(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.7) -name US_export_policy.jar | xargs md5
# MD5 (/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_51.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/security/US_export_policy.jar) = 3bb2e88a915b3cb003ca185357a92c16

This is the JDK not the JRE. – Andrea Mariottini Aug 29 '14 at 06:53 — Andrea Mariottini, Aug 29 '14 at 06:53

score 24 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:30

Your comment on Thom's answer is correct. The JRE path is /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/Home/, and the JCE files are then under lib/security/.

I happen to have multiple JVMs installed, so I thought it was worth showing a way to check whether a particular JVM has the correct files. These are some commands you can use to determine whether a given Java installation is configured correctly:

find ~/Downloads/UnlimitedJCEPolicy -name *.jar |xargs md5
cd /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/  # -OR-
cd '/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin/Contents/'
find . \( -name local_policy.jar -or -name US_export_policy.jar \) |xargs md5

Once you know the path to the files, you can replace them as-needed. Keep in mind that each version of Java may require different JCE libraries. You may need separate jars for 6, 7, and 8, depending on compatibility.

How to install unlimited strength JCE for JRE 7 in MacOSX?

3 Answers3