java.net.SocketException: "Permission denied": connect, when running Tomcat 7 as a windows service

Question

I'm receiving the following exception:

java.net.SocketException: "Permission denied": connect

when instantiating a Socket from a servlet:

final Socket smtpSocket = new Socket(mailTransportHost, mailTransportPort);

This application was running as a service under Windows Server 3003 R2 32-bits. After migrating it to Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit, I cannot longer establish connection with the smtp server.

This only happen when running Tomcat as a service. Running as a standalone (starting it up using startup.bat) works fine. No exception instantiating Socket, emails are sent.

Environment:

 - Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit
 - Tomcat 7.0.39
 - jdk1.6.0_33-x64

Answer 1

Have you tried starting the JVM with -Dsocket.permit_connect=true ? Or maybe enable the permission to open sockets in the catalina policy files towards the smtp server, So maybe adding permission rule that looks something like this:

grant codeBase "file:${catalina.base}/webapps//-" {
 permission java.net.SocketPermission ":25", "connect";
};

to /etc/tomcat6/policy.d/50local.policy might help. Sorry I only use linux/unix wouldn't know where exactly the policy files are on windows.

Comments

... and even the above is quite distribution-specific. "Vanilla" Tomcat users would find their security configured in CATALINA_BASE/conf/catalina.policy.