Sun issues Java patch

By Warwick Ashford, ITWeb London correspondent

Johannesburg, 15 Feb 2006

Sun issues Java patch

Sun Microsystems has issued a patch to address seven "highly critical" flaws in its Java Runtime Environment (JRE) that could allow a malicious attacker to gain remote control over a user`s system, reports News.Com

According to the report, the flaws affect systems running on Windows, Solaris and Linux that are using JRE 5.0 or earlier versions. The flaws are found in one of the JRE`s application programming interfaces and could be exploited by attackers to gain remote access to a user`s Java applications, allowing them to read and write files or execute code.

Sun`s security patch is its latest involving JRE. Last November, Sun issued a fix for five vulnerabilities in its JRE, of which three also dealt with the API.

Mustang Java beta out soon

Java platform standard edition 6 or Mustang Java is due for beta release some time this month and is expected to feature expanded support for scripting languages, reports Computer World.

The report says enabling the use of scripting languages helps give Mustang a Web 2.0 flavour in support of the vision that the Web will become the main platform for applications.

Scripting languages have been gaining popularity as mechanisms for building Web-based applications, but currently Java developers must do a lot of hand coding to use non-Java scripting languages. In Mustang, developers will be able to use scripting languages such as Perl, PHP, Python, JavaScript and Ruby.

New Java code search engine

A new search engine called Krugle focuses on the needs of programmers to help find source code and other technical content they need, reports WebProNews.

The search engine, which has been scheduled for release as a public beta on 8 March, works by crawling, parsing and indexing code found in all open source repositories, as well as code that exists in archives, mailing lists, blogs and Web pages.

Krugle provides answers to code-related technical questions, enabling real-time comprehension by presenting contextual information about related code, dependencies, licensing information, compatibility requirements, bug reports and news group postings.