Oracle Delays Java 8 To Improve Java 7 Security

Oracle's Java chief proposed Thursday delaying the release of Java 8 to focus more efforts on securing Java 7.

"Security vulnerabilities related to Java running inside Web browsers have lately received a lot of public attention. Here at Oracle we've mounted an intense effort to address those issues in a series of critical-patch update releases, the most recent of which we posted earlier this week," said Mark Reinhold, chief architect of the Java Platform Group, in a blog post. "We've also upgraded our development processes to increase the level of scrutiny applied to new code, so that new code doesn't introduce new vulnerabilities."

Oracle, however, was attempting to release the all-new Java 8 for general availability by September 2013. But Reinhold said that Oracle's focus on securing Java 7 -- with five related security updates being released since January -- has made it impossible to stick to previous Java 8 development milestones. In particular, Oracle is now facing a delay for Project Lambda, which "aims to support programming in a multicore environment by adding closures and related features to the Java language" and has been seen as a cornerstone of the new version of Java.