Java 7 prevents FTP transfers on Windows Vista and 7 if firewall is on. Any ideas?

Question

Java 7 prevents FTP transfers on Windows Vista and 7.

In FTP, before a file is transferred a PORT or a PASV command must be sent. As soon as one of the commands is sent the Windows Firewall closes the socket that sent it. This only happens if the firewall is on and an exception for java.exe is absent. I suspect this problem is related to Java 7 using the new Vista IP stack.

Does anyone have any ideas how to fix or work around this problem? We're distributing a Java FTP library so we obviously can't add exceptions ourselves.

Exception:

java.net.SocketException: Permission denied: recv failed

JRE version info:

java version "1.7.0"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0-b147)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 21.0-b17, mixed mode)

FOLLOW-UP 1 (14 November 2011): Oracle has analysed the problem and have found that it seems to be a bug in Windows Firewall and/or the IPv6 stack. They managed to replicate the problem with a native C (i.e. non-Java) app, so this is strong evidence that the bug is not in Java. They have informed Microsoft, so the ball is in their court now. More details can be found at http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=7077696

FOLLOW-UP 2 (27 July 2012): A (very helpful) contact at Oracle has told me that the issue has now been escalated at Microsoft. We're hoping to see some results soon.

FOLLOW-UP 3 (15 August 2012): Our contact at Oracle has told us that Microsoft has accepted the bug and is in the process of prioritizing it.

FOLLOW-UP 4 (21 September 2012): Microsoft has produced a patch that is currently being tested by Oracle. No word on a release date.

FOLLOW-UP 5 (11 October 2012): Success at last! Microsoft has publicly released a hotfix. They imply that the fix will be included in a general software update in the future:

"if you are not severely affected by this problem, we recommend that you wait for the next software update that contains this hotfix."

Very annoying indeed, it also affects the Ant FTP task: java.net.SocketException: Permission denied: recv failed at org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.optional.net.FTP$FTPDirectoryScanner.forceRemoteSensitivityCheck(FTP.java:695) — , Oct 31 '11 at 10:08
workaround: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10473518/workaround-for-apache-ant-install-bug/10473581#10473581 — JustBeingHelpful, May 06 '12 at 19:34
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17761759/socket-connection-works-only-when-firewall-is-off — Nitesh Verma, Jul 22 '13 at 13:13

score 88 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 05 '11 at 07:16

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The problem is caused by the stateful FTP filter of the firewall. As a workaround you can disable it by executing netsh advfirewall set global StatefulFTP disable with administrator rights.

answered Oct 05 '11 at 07:16

Chris

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And here I was thinking that there was something wrong with my code. Stupid Win7 firewall + Java interactions. +1. – aroth May 26 '12 at 07:34
Confirmed that this fixed the issue with Java 1.7.0_09 and Windows Vista Home Premium (with SP2). – Warren Sergent Jan 12 '13 at 00:19
worked for me, and way more quick than that hell of a hotfix from MS – Gruber Feb 05 '15 at 22:08
netsh advfirewall set global StatefulFTP disable worked for me :) – Yuseferi Jul 18 '15 at 05:28

score 15 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 25 '11 at 02:05

15

Another workaround is to start the JVM with:

-Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true

answered Nov 25 '11 at 02:05

prunge

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I had this problem in an applet, so I'm using: `System.setProperty("java.net.preferIPv4Stack", "true");` Every browser except for Firefox (16.0.2) works then. – bobndrew Nov 14 '12 at 16:27

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 01 '12 at 15:41

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We tested the Windows hotfix http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2754804 and confirmed that it did resolve the problem.

answered Nov 01 '12 at 15:41

lyaffe

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Does this hotfix also solve the problem for Windows Vista? It is not listed in the prerequisites. – ThomasPeeters Oct 10 '13 at 08:46
We did not test this on Vista – lyaffe Oct 13 '13 at 07:53

HansA · Answer 4 · 2011-08-26T00:34:26.553

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I've submitted a bug report to Oracle, see bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=7077696

They've marked the priority as low, which makes me think that they don't quite understand the magnitude of the problem, i.e. that FTP is broken on Java/Windows. I forgot to state that explicitly in the bug report. If anyone else feels like it should have a higher priority please add a comment to the Oracle bug report.

I just noticed that you can also 'vote' for the bug, so please give it a vote if you agree it's significant.

edited Aug 26 '11 at 00:34

answered Aug 24 '11 at 04:46

HansA

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workaround: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10473518/workaround-for-apache-ant-install-bug/10473581#10473581 – JustBeingHelpful May 06 '12 at 19:34

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 14 '11 at 10:11

This problem can be demonstrated without JDK7, it's the firewall in Windows 7 blocking the ftp protocol when the application is using IPv6-mapped IPv4 addresses. See http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=7077696 for more details and workarounds.

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 10 '12 at 07:47

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Actually TFTP under JDK7 on windows 7 also have the same problem, the MS hotfix does resolve FTP issue, but still not works for TFTP. Seems Oracle should report the same problem to MS and get another hotfix to resolve TFTP issue as well.

answered Dec 10 '12 at 07:47

Y.Huang

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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 12 '11 at 14:52

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Blogged about the issue here: http://podzemski.com/2011/09/12/java-7-prevents-ftp-transfers-on-windows-when-firewall-is-on/

Maybe it'll cause some additional awareness of the problem.

answered Sep 12 '11 at 14:52

Tommie

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Thanks. By the way, active transfers (i.e. PORT command) are also affected. – HansA Sep 13 '11 at 04:14
Thanks for the heads up HansA, i'll change the blogpost. – Tommie Sep 16 '11 at 11:10

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 02 '11 at 20:09

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The same bug was reported here with a test case: Java 7 Socket Exception Bug forum. Its an issue with Java 7

answered Sep 02 '11 at 20:09

Dave

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score 0 · Answer 9 · edited Mar 16 '17 at 14:57

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I had the same problem using IDE Eclipse Neon, JAVA 7 and Windows 7 Professional. Trying to upload a PDF file to an FTP server. I solved it by running the following command in CMD as administrator:

C: \ Users \ pc01> netsh advfirewall set global StatefulFTP disable

edited Mar 16 '17 at 14:57

FelixSFD

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answered Mar 16 '17 at 14:55

Davis Gereda Hernandez

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Stack Overflow [requires that all posts be in English](https://stackoverflow.blog/2009/07/non-english-question-policy/). I edited your post to comply with this rule. There are language specific Stack Overflow communities which allow non-English: [Spanish](http://es.stackoverflow.com), [Japanese](http://ja.stackoverflow.com), [Russian](http://ru.stackoverflow.com), [Portuguese](http://pt.stackoverflow.com). – FelixSFD Mar 16 '17 at 14:57

Java 7 prevents FTP transfers on Windows Vista and 7 if firewall is on. Any ideas?

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