June 13, 2012

Java updates from Oracle and Apple come on same day

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.

Apple caught flak in April for taking six weeks to issue Java fixes after Oracle has already made an update available. This allowed the Flashback trojan to spread to an estimated 600,000 Mac computers.

It is unclear if Apple will continue to adopt this synchronous approach, but it could prove significant, considering Java is one of the most common exploit types impacting organizations.

Tuesday's updates from Oracle and Apple remediate vulnerabilities that could infect a user's machine if they view a web site containing a malicious Java applet.

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