Java Unlimited Strength Crypto Policy for Java 9 or 1.8.0_151

Starting with Java 1.8.0_151 and 1.8.0_152 there is a new somewhat easier way to enable the unlimited strength jurisdiction policy for the JVM. Without enabling this you cannot use AES-256 for example.

First download the JRE, I like to use the server-jre for servers. When you extract the server-jre look for the file java.security in the jre/lib/security folder. For example for Java 1.8.0_152 the file structure looks like this:

/jdk1.8.0_152
   |- /jre
        |- /lib
              |- /security
                    |- java.security

Now open java.security with a text editor and look for the line that defines the java security property crypto.policy it can have two values limited or unlimited - the default is limited.

By default you should find a commented out line:

#crypto.policy=unlimited

You can enable unlimited by uncommenting that line, remove the #:

crypto.policy=unlimited

Now restart your java applications that point to the JVM and you should be all set.