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Java! Uninstall It, Update it, or bend over and grab the ketchup!
For some of you, this is news!
If you have it, but don't know you explicitly really need it, please uninstall it immediately!!
Java is bad. Not by itself, but by the exploits it brings along with it. While you may have the most current version, the bad guys always seem to keep a zero day vulnerability close to their hearts!
The current version of Java (version 7) does in fact use DEP. Which should (in theory keep Vista and Windows 7 users safe, until proven it doesn't). For those of you using XP, you should come up with a really good reason why you still need java.
My mom who does stock trading. I tell her, "Please keep java updated. Only use Java with IE. The rest of the time, use Java Firefox and the Quickjava extension with Java DISABLED!"
While a lot of you love java, (I Love a cup of coffee as much as the next guy) Please take Java seriously, otherwise you may be looking down a malware infested barrel, called a rootkit infested machine!
For those of you who know and program in Java and are OK with the consequences of having it installed "More power to you!".
For the rest of the Neowin members, if you have Java, that's great, but please (for the love of god) keep it up to date, or disabled until you need it!
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Walfgang Kandek, CEO of Qualys, said that the 200,000 who visited broswere security service BrowserCheck in July 2010 – January 2011, 42% of them were running versions of plug-in Java that had not been updated and contains known vulnerabilities. Only 24% of them were older versions of Flash that include also vulnerabilities. Other applications risky because old versions are Adobe Reader (32%) and Apple QuickTime(25%).
During 2010, Oracle released several updates to address vulnerabilities Java . One last update addresses a group of 21 vulnerabilities, 8 of them considered critical. 19 of which can be exploited through a network not valid without the required login data. It is the second warning that draws attention to Java , after the December, released by Cisco, which announced that attacks through Java had surpassed the number on the Adobe Reader and Acrobat in 2010.
During 2010, Oracle released several updates to address vulnerabilities Java . One last update addresses a group of 21 vulnerabilities, 8 of them considered critical. 19 of which can be exploited through a network not valid without the required login data. It is the second warning that draws attention to Java , after the December, released by Cisco, which announced that attacks through Java had surpassed the number on the Adobe Reader and Acrobat in 2010.
Read more: http://computersight.../#ixzz1h6FIlfVj
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From that blog post:[indent]
“During the one year period starting in the third quarter of 2010 (3Q10) and ending in the second quarter of 2011 (2Q11), between one-third and one-half of all exploits observed in each quarter were Java exploits[1]. During this one year period, Microsoft antimalware technologies detected or blocked, on average, 6.9 million exploit attempts on Java related components per quarter, totaling almost 27.5 million exploit attempts during the year.”
The exploit attacks a vulnerability that exists in Oracle Java SE JDK and JRE 7 and 6 Update 27 and earlier. If you are using Java 6 Update 29, or Java 7 Update 1, then you have the latest version that is patched against this and 19 other security threats. If you are using a vulnerable version of Java, it’s time to update. Not sure whether you have Java or what version you may be running? Check out this link, and then click the “Do I have Java?” link below the big red “Free Java Download” button. Apple issued its own update to fix this flaw and other Java bugs earlier this month.
http://krebsonsecuri...p-threat-level/
