Java Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Slew of updates include Java, Safari, iPhoto and Aperture

by Megan Lavey-Heaton (Apr 16th, 2013)

Apple decided to push a lot of updates this afternoon, most of them related to a Java update that disables the Java SE 6 applet plug-in. By disabling the plug-in, Apple is allowing consumers to re-enable it on a case-by-case basis. Apple has provided a full guide to the new plug-in ...

iPhoneDevSDK responds to attack

by Erica Sadun (Feb 20th, 2013)

Yesterday, Apple disclosed it had been targeted by a malware attack. Apparently, related to a recent Facebook breach, Apple issued a statement regarding the situation: "The malware was employed in an attack against Apple and other companies, and was spread through a website for software ...

Apple issues Java security update and malware removal too, iTunes 11.0.2

by Randy Nelson (Feb 19th, 2013)

Following today's widely reported breach of security affecting Apple's employees, 1 Infinite Loop has issued Java for OS X 2013-001, an update intended to address the issues leading to the hack. Aimed at Macs running OS X 10.7 and later, the download -- available now through Software Update/MAS ...

Daily Update for February 19, 2013

by Steven Sande (Feb 19th, 2013)

It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player ...

Apple targeted by hackers

by Steven Sande (Feb 19th, 2013)

Reuters is reporting that Apple has been targeted in a cyber-attack. Apple announced the breach this morning, noting that malware had targeted a "limited number" of Mac systems. Reuters notes that the same hacker group is suspected of an attack on Facebook machines last week. In a statement the ...

Java patched again, Snow Leopard users blocked from older version (Updated)

by Michael Rose (Feb 1st, 2013)

Update: Apple's Java team has quickly responded to the patch with a revised JVM for Snow Leopard, OS X 10.6. The Java for Mac OS 10.6 Update version 12 (APPLE-SA-2013-02-01-1) is available in Software Update, according to an Apple security email. It updates Java to 1.6.0_39. Another week, ...

Oracle releases v11 fix for zero-day Java security flaw

by Michael Grothaus (Jan 14th, 2013)

Oracle has released an official fix for the Java security flaw that was reported by CERT (the Computer Emergency Readiness Team) on January 11. Shortly after the flagging by CERT, Apple took steps to disable the Java plug-in on all Macs running OS X 10.6 or later by amending the XProtect ...

A reasonable response to Java security problems (Updated)

by TJ Luoma (Jan 11th, 2013)

Update: According to The Mac Observer, Apple has acted proactively to block the Java browser plug-in on Mac machines with OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or higher. If you are running an earlier version of OS X, then you should disable Java as noted below. Update 2: In a remarkably speedy turnaround, ...

Java 7 and Chrome don't play well together

by Michael Rose (Oct 22nd, 2012)

In the immortal words of Lando Calrissian, "This deal keeps getting worse all the time." Apple's recent Java update removes the Java 6-compatible web plugins from OS X, forcing users that need Java in the browser to move to Oracle's Java runtime, which is at version 7. From a security and ...

Java plugin users on Mountain Lion nudged firmly toward Oracle

by Michael Rose (Oct 21st, 2012)

We made mention of this last Tuesday night when the relevant software update hit, but apparently that level of attention wasn't adequate: scores of stories across the tech and conventional media are now trumpeting the fact that Apple has removed its homegrown browser plugin for Java from OS X with ...

Software updates: HP Printer Software 2.12, Java 2012-006

by Michael Rose (Oct 16th, 2012)

There are some goodies in Software Update/the Mac App Store tonight: Apple has released the HP Printer Software Update 2.12, adding support for additional HP printers, and the Java for OS X 2012-006 1.0 update. The Java update implements a fairly important change in the ongoing transition ...

New Java zero-day covers all versions, could affect Macs

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Sep 27th, 2012)

First the bad news: a rather serious zero-day exploit has been discovered in all currently-supported versions of Java. And yes, this sort of exploit can be used to hijack a machine. Now the good news: Apple stopped bundling Java back in 10.6, and this exploit is a proof-of-concept and has been ...

Java 1.7 zero-day exploit unlikely to impact Mac users (Updated)

by Michael Rose (Aug 28th, 2012)

Update: In the interest of quantifying the risk to the average Mac user from this exploit (which, please note, does not currently have a Mac-attack payload), I asked for some data from CrashPlan. Since the online/peer backup service requires Java, its userbase represents a good proxy for the ...

Malware affecting Macs running older versions of OS X

by Steven Sande (Jul 11th, 2012)

There's new Java-based Mac malware in the wild, but before you run screaming out the door to buy an antivirus app, read the rest of this post. The new malware, known as GetShell.A, requires you to approve the installation of a Java applet. OS X, being the polite operating system that it is, ...

Flashback was earning about $10K per day

by Steven Sande (May 1st, 2012)

People often wonder about what motivates the creators of malware. In the case of the Flashback malware that infected several hundred thousand Macs, it turns out that the motivator was money. A post on the Symantec official blog listed the stages of infection from Flashback: A user visits ...