Java, BlackBerry get critical security fixes

From InfoWorld: Sun Microsystems and Research In Motion have issued critical bug fixes for security issues with their products.

The patches were issued separately on Tuesday, with Sun releasing version 6 Update 17 of its Java Runtime Environment and BlackBerry updating its BlackBerry Desktop Software, used to sync data between the BlackBerry and a PC.

Both updates include fixes for critical security bugs that could be abused by attackers to run unauthorized software on a victim's computer, although none of the flaws appear to have been publicly known before Tuesday.

Sun patched 12 Java bugs in total, including flaws that could be exploited to crash a computer or allow untrusted applications to run as though they were trusted.

Sun estimates that there are about 800 million Java desktop users worldwide, so Sun's updates are important. Hackers have increasingly turned to third party software such as Java as Microsoft has made it harder to attack the core Windows operating system.

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