Oracle announced on Tuesday that it will start offering direct downloads and auto-updates to Java on OS X beginning with the release of Java Standard Edition 7 Update 6. Users can download the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) directly from Oracle's java.com website "soon," according to Oracle, and will receive auto-updates at the same time as Windows, Linux, and Solaris platforms.
Oracle has announced a further extension to Java 6's already extended end of life date. Originally planned for July 2012, Oracle had previously pushed back the end-of-life date for supplying updates to Java 6 to November 2012 to allow more time for the transition to Java 7. Now, that end of life has been postponed until February 2013. The announcement was made in a blog post by Henrik Stahl, Oracle's Senior Director of Product Management, who said the decision was made after "further consultation and consideration".
Criminals are targeting customers of outsourcer ADP with a dangerous Java exploit in a bid to steal employee personal and financial details.
The phishing attacks attempt to direct company payroll administrators to malicious websites rigged with exploit kits, including the recently patched Java Runtime Environment (JRE) HotSpot hole (CVE-2012-1723).
Microsoft has decided is enough is enough: Java-based malware sees no end and it's time to do something about it. The software giant points to two type-confusion vulnerabilities (CVE-2012-0507 and CVE-2012-1723) that have been very actively exploited in recent months. Redmond thus wants you to do one of three things: update Java, disable it, or uninstall it.
A new Web-based social engineering attack that relies on malicious Java applets attempts to install backdoors on Windows, Linux and Mac computers, according to security researchers from antivirus vendors F-Secure and Kaspersky Lab.
The attack was detected on a compromised website in Colombia, F-Secure senior analyst Karmina Aquino, said in a blog post on Monday. When users visit the site, they are prompted to run a Java applet that hasn't been signed by a trusted certificate authority.
After facing widespread criticism earlier this year for releasing its Java update weeks after Oracle patched the same vulnerabilities, Apple has released the platform's most recent update to correspond with Oracle's release.
On Tuesday, Oracle, the maker of Java, plugged 14 holes in Java SE, while Apple, which maintains its own version of the technology (now up to 1.6.0_33) in Mac OS X, also closed 11 of the same vulnerabilities. It is unclear if Apple will need to fix the remaining three flaws.
Cyber-spies have planted Java- and Flash-exploiting malware on web sites focused on human rights, defence and foreign policy. Over the last two weeks, the Shadowserver Foundation, a nonprofit group that tracks internet threats, has discovered several such compromised web pages that download the malware through visitors' browsers. The malware, which exploits known flaws in Adobe Flash and Java, is aimed at Mac and Windows systems.
What if you owned the copyright on the French language? Or Swahili? That's essentially the claim Oracle is making when it says it owns the copyright to the Java language and its associated APIs. If Oracle gets its way, it could change software development forever.
The issue looks to be decided in the lawsuit between Oracle and Google, which began with testimony in a San Francisco courtroom this week. The trial is expected to last up to 10 weeks.
Hard on the heels of the Flashback Trojan, Kaspersky Labs is warning of a new OSX threat, which it’s dubbed Backdoor.OSX.SabPub.a.
In a post to Securelist, Kaspersky’s Costin Raiu says the Trojan connects to a command and control server hosted on a Californian-based VPS associated with the Onedumb.com free DNS.
The BlackHole kit, a popular exploit set among hackers, has been updated to take advantage of a recently discovered Java hole that security researchers say many haven't updated yet.
