Applet Security Warning and Class Loaders

I have an applet that uses jdom to build a menu from an xml file. The applet and jdom.jar are both signed, both have Trust-Library: true in the manifest file. They are both deployed inside of a war file along with the xml file.

I am currently using a single Weblogic 10 server

My problem is I get the java security warning regarding signed and unsigned code from some applications, but not others.

I am using this object tag in all of the applications:

<object id="appLaunch"
classid="clsid:8AD9C840-044E-11D1-B3E9-00805F499D93"
width="350" height="20">
<param name="archive" value="../../appLaunchApplet/AppLaunch.jar">
<param name="code" value="com.ifcg.appLaunch.AppLaunch">
<param name="MenuXML" value="../../appLaunchApplet/appLaunchCtl.xml"">
<PARAM name="scriptable" value="true">
</object>

There are a couple of interesting things, even if I hit yes on the security warning dialog box to block the unsigned code, the applet launches and runs as expected.

The other interesting thing, perhaps key to the problem, is that when the applet is un-deployed and then the application re-run, we get one of two stack traces, depending on whether the application had presented a security warning the time before.

For applications that had the warning, the trace is:

Java Plug-in 1.6.0_20
Using JRE version 1.6.0_20-b02 Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM
User home directory = C:\Documents and Settings\jo

----------------------------------------------------
c: clear console window
f: finalize objects on finalization queue
g: garbage collect
h: display this help message
l: dump classloader list
m: print memory usage
o: trigger logging
q: hide console
r: reload policy configuration
s: dump system and deployment properties
t: dump thread list
v: dump thread stack
x: clear classloader cache
0-5: set trace level to <n>
----------------------------------------------------

java.lang.ClassFormatError: Incompatible magic value 218762506 in class file com/ifcg/appLaunch/AppLaunch
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Applet2ClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2ClassLoader.loadCode(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager.createApplet(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager$AppletExecutionRunnable.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Exception: java.lang.ClassFormatError: Incompatible magic value 218762506 in class file com/ifcg/appLaunch/AppLaunch

and for those that didn't present the security warning the trace is:

Java Plug-in 1.6.0_20
Using JRE version 1.6.0_20-b02 Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM
User home directory = C:\Documents and Settings\jo

----------------------------------------------------
c: clear console window
f: finalize objects on finalization queue
g: garbage collect
h: display this help message
l: dump classloader list
m: print memory usage
o: trigger logging
q: hide console
r: reload policy configuration
s: dump system and deployment properties
t: dump thread list
v: dump thread stack
x: clear classloader cache
0-5: set trace level to <n>
----------------------------------------------------

load: class com.ifcg.appLaunch.AppLaunch not found.
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.ifcg.appLaunch.AppLaunch
at sun.plugin2.applet.Applet2ClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2ClassLoader.loadCode(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager.createApplet(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Plugin2Manager$AppletExecutionRunnable.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: java.io.IOException: open HTTP connection failed:http://internalServer:4017/Ctray/jsp...ppLaunch.class
at sun.plugin2.applet.Applet2ClassLoader.getBytes(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Applet2ClassLoader.access$000(Unknown Source)
at sun.plugin2.applet.Applet2ClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
... 7 more
Exception: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.ifcg.appLaunch.AppLaunch

I think that the warning has something to do with the class loader, however I do not understand how these are loaded and in what circumstance and how I can possibly control the loader.

Any help or pointers would be appreciated.