Serious New Java Flaw Affects All Browsers

Trailrunner7 writes "There is a serious vulnerability in Java that makes all current browsers vulnerable to simple Web-based attacks that could lead to a complete compromise of the affected system. Two separate researchers released information on the vulnerability on Friday, saying that it has been present in Java for years. The problem lies in the Java Web Start framework, a technology that Sun Microsystems developed to enable the simplified deployment of Java applications. In essence, the JavaWS technology fails to validate parameters passed to it from the command line, and attackers can control those parameters using specific HTML tags on a Web page, researcher Ruben Santamarta said in an advisory posted Friday morning."

Comments

Article Contents

[Oxford_Comma_Lover]

Yes, the summary's misleading; but the article at least is a bit clearer: it refers to windows-based browsers.

"In his advisory, Ormandy said that he notified Sun about the vulnerability but that the vendor didn't believe it was serious enough to warrant an emergency patch," sayeth the article.

Now that it's on slashdot, of course, that is clearly no longer the case, if indeed it was.

Re:Article Contents

[hairyfeet]

Why does everyone have to bring up this completely stupid and pointless "fact"? Here is a little "fact" of my own: The user only CARES about THEIR STUFF! Okay? Who gives a rat's fart if the system is fine if all your stuff is completely hosed? NOBODY, that's who!

So can we please let this little fact DIAF already? Because frankly it doesn't matter if the malware is running with user or admin rights because in the end it HAS YOUR STUFF which is all anybody gives a shit about. I have never in my nearly 15 years of PC repair had anybody go "but is the system okay?". All anybody has ever ever cared about, even when I tell them I'm gonna have to nuke it, is "can you give me back my stuff please?". So let us just let this little "malware at root VS user" crud die already. If you have malware running at either level it has access to your stuff, which depending on how religiously you back up (which guess what? 99.995% of users in my experience don't have recent backups, if they have backups at all) can be a PITA at best and a true tragedy if you use irreplaceable memories.

So in conclusion: If the malware can run, whether on Linux or Windows, it can get to your stuff, which is WAY more important than whether or not your system gets hosed. After all any geek here at /. can get a system fully running and tweaked nicely in a couple of hours, how long would it take to replace that only copy of your vacation photos, or that only copy of your late grandmother's last Xmas here on earth?

Re:New?

[binarylarry]

Compared to what? Java has a pretty fantastic security track record.

Also this isn't an exploit in the Java runtime, it's an exploit in the way the web start native launcher parses arguments before using them to launch the Java virtual machine.

Re:New?

[Yvan256]

Compared to
[_] Enable Java

Re:For years?!

[postbigbang]

You didn't notice we've been watching you?

java -start -mykeylogger_to_ru -get_passwords_for_everything & -send_to_nsa_listening_post

wasn't that link you clicked?

Re:New?

[binarylarry]

It gets even safer with:

[_] Enable teh interwebs

oh oh! and this one:

[_] Enable computer power

The ultimately in security, I've done it!

Java has had a built-in backdoor

[Animats]

This isn't a bug. This is a backdoor inserted by someone at Sun.

The article says there is an "undocumented parameter" which allows specifying, on the command line, which run-time system to load. That allows loading arbitrary executable code. It's a built-in backdoor.