diff --git a/shield/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/shield/ShieldPlugin.java b/shield/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/shield/ShieldPlugin.java
index db911ea1e27..8d267678831 100644
--- a/shield/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/shield/ShieldPlugin.java
+++ b/shield/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/shield/ShieldPlugin.java
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
  */
 package org.elasticsearch.shield;
 
+import org.elasticsearch.SpecialPermission;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.ActionModule;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.Client;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.support.Headers;
@@ -53,6 +54,8 @@ import org.elasticsearch.transport.TransportModule;
 import java.io.Closeable;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
 import java.util.*;
+import java.security.AccessController;
+import java.security.PrivilegedAction;
 
 /**
  *
@@ -71,6 +74,35 @@ public class ShieldPlugin extends Plugin {
     private final boolean clientMode;
     private ShieldLicenseState shieldLicenseState;
 
+    // TODO: clean up this library to not ask for write access to all system properties!
+    static {
+        // invoke this clinit in unbound with permissions to access all system properties
+        SecurityManager sm = System.getSecurityManager();
+        if (sm != null) {
+            sm.checkPermission(new SpecialPermission());
+        }
+        try {
+            AccessController.doPrivileged(new PrivilegedAction<Void>() {
+                @Override
+                public Void run() {
+                    try {
+                        Class.forName("com.unboundid.util.Debug");
+                    } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
+                        throw new RuntimeException(e);
+                    }
+                    return null;
+                }
+            });
+        // TODO: fix gradle to add all shield resources (plugin metadata) to test classpath
+        // of watcher plugin, which depends on it directly. This prevents these plugins
+        // from being initialized correctly by the test framework, and means we have to
+        // have this leniency.
+        } catch (ExceptionInInitializerError bogus) {
+            if (bogus.getCause() instanceof SecurityException == false) {
+                throw bogus; // some other bug
+            }
+        }
+    }
 
     public ShieldPlugin(Settings settings) {
         this.settings = settings;
diff --git a/shield/src/main/plugin-metadata/plugin-security.policy b/shield/src/main/plugin-metadata/plugin-security.policy
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..b104d276aae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shield/src/main/plugin-metadata/plugin-security.policy
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+grant {
+  // needed because of problems in unbound LDAP library
+  permission java.util.PropertyPermission "*", "read,write";
+};
diff --git a/watcher/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/watcher/WatcherF.java b/watcher/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/watcher/WatcherF.java
index 25032ff0b63..e651477eb8a 100644
--- a/watcher/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/watcher/WatcherF.java
+++ b/watcher/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/watcher/WatcherF.java
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ package org.elasticsearch.watcher;
 
 import org.elasticsearch.Version;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.SuppressForbidden;
 import org.elasticsearch.license.plugin.LicensePlugin;
 import org.elasticsearch.node.MockNode;
 import org.elasticsearch.node.Node;
@@ -23,6 +24,7 @@ import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;
  */
 public class WatcherF {
 
+    @SuppressForbidden(reason = "not really code or a test")
     public static void main(String[] args) throws Throwable {
         Settings.Builder settings = Settings.builder();
         settings.put("http.cors.enabled", "true");
diff --git a/watcher/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/watcher/test/bench/WatcherScheduleEngineBenchmark.java b/watcher/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/watcher/test/bench/WatcherScheduleEngineBenchmark.java
index 0c3361a2b93..f4c2c1bd8bb 100644
--- a/watcher/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/watcher/test/bench/WatcherScheduleEngineBenchmark.java
+++ b/watcher/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/watcher/test/bench/WatcherScheduleEngineBenchmark.java
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchRequest;
 import org.elasticsearch.action.search.SearchResponse;
 import org.elasticsearch.client.Client;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.Strings;
+import org.elasticsearch.common.SuppressForbidden;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.metrics.MeanMetric;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.settings.Settings;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.unit.ByteSizeValue;
@@ -63,6 +64,7 @@ public class WatcherScheduleEngineBenchmark {
             .put("http.cors.enabled", true)
             .build();
 
+    @SuppressForbidden(reason = "not really code or a test")
     public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
         System.setProperty("es.logger.prefix", "");