Java bug exposes users to serious code-execution risk

Researchers have discovered a flaw in the latest version of Oracle's Java runtime environment that attackers can exploit to remotely execute malicious code on end user machines.

The bug in the Java Web Start component has been confirmed exploitable on all recent versions of Windows by Tavis Ormandy, a security researcher who prefers his employer not be named. Fellow researcher Ruben Santamarta of Spain-based security firm Wintercore, said a related flaw potentially affects Linux users as well.

Both researchers stressed the ease in which attackers can exploit the bug using a website that silently passes malicious commands to various Java components that jump-start applications in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and other browsers. Ormandy said he alerted Java handlers in Oracle's recently-acquired Sun division to the threat but "they informed me they do not consider this vulnerability to be of high enough priority to break their quarterly patch cycle."

A popular song lyrics website has been found serving attack code that tries to exploit a critical vulnerability in Oracle's Java virtual machine, which is installed on hundreds of millions of computers worldwide.

The site, songlyrics.com, is serving up javascript that invokes the weakness disclosed last week by security researcher Tavis Ormandy. After determining that the bug made it trivial for attackers to remotely execute malicious code on end-user machines, he said he alerted Java handlers inside Oracle's Sun division, but they decided no patch was necessary outside of the next update release scheduled for July.