diff --git a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/bootstrap/PolicyUtil.java b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/bootstrap/PolicyUtil.java
index 0b7ff7c068fb3..ec05c4d1a62e1 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/bootstrap/PolicyUtil.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/bootstrap/PolicyUtil.java
@@ -104,7 +104,6 @@ public boolean test(Permission permission) {
             new RuntimePermission("loadLibrary.*"),
             new RuntimePermission("accessClassInPackage.*"),
             new RuntimePermission("accessDeclaredMembers"),
-            new RuntimePermission("org.elasticsearch.modifyInnocuousThread"),
             new NetPermission("requestPasswordAuthentication"),
             new NetPermission("getProxySelector"),
             new NetPermission("getCookieHandler"),
@@ -113,7 +112,7 @@ public boolean test(Permission permission) {
             new SecurityPermission("createAccessControlContext"),
             new SecurityPermission("insertProvider"),
             new SecurityPermission("putProviderProperty.*"),
-            // apache abuses the SecurityPermission class for its own purposes
+            // apache abuses the SecurityPermission class for it's own purposes
             new SecurityPermission("org.apache.*"),
             // write is needed because of HdfsPlugin
             new PropertyPermission("*", "read,write"),
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/identity-provider/src/main/plugin-metadata/plugin-security.policy b/x-pack/plugin/identity-provider/src/main/plugin-metadata/plugin-security.policy
index 00e6df8ec775d..0310ce4542dbb 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/identity-provider/src/main/plugin-metadata/plugin-security.policy
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/identity-provider/src/main/plugin-metadata/plugin-security.policy
@@ -13,7 +13,4 @@ grant {
 
   // needed for multiple server implementations used in tests
   permission java.net.SocketPermission "*", "accept,connect";
-
-  // Needed for OpenSAML to start a java.lang.ref.Cleaner
-  permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "org.elasticsearch.modifyInnocuousThread";
 };
diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/security/src/main/plugin-metadata/plugin-security.policy b/x-pack/plugin/security/src/main/plugin-metadata/plugin-security.policy
index 2844b87e4bd20..97b0f480043e5 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/security/src/main/plugin-metadata/plugin-security.policy
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/security/src/main/plugin-metadata/plugin-security.policy
@@ -4,9 +4,6 @@ grant {
   // needed for SAML
   permission java.util.PropertyPermission "org.apache.xml.security.ignoreLineBreaks", "read,write";
 
-  // Needed for OpenSAML to start a java.lang.ref.Cleaner
-  permission java.lang.RuntimePermission "org.elasticsearch.modifyInnocuousThread";
-
   // needed during initialization of OpenSAML library where xml security algorithms are registered
   // see https://github.com/apache/santuario-java/blob/e79f1fe4192de73a975bc7246aee58ed0703343d/src/main/java/org/apache/xml/security/utils/JavaUtils.java#L205-L220
   // and https://git.shibboleth.net/view/?p=java-opensaml.git;a=blob;f=opensaml-xmlsec-impl/src/main/java/org/opensaml/xmlsec/signature/impl/SignatureMarshaller.java;hb=db0eaa64210f0e32d359cd6c57bedd57902bf811#l52