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Come learn about getting started with CF Docker images at CF Summit 2019

Note: This blog post is from 2019. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.
Docker imageI'm terribly behind in announcing it, but I'm thrilled that I've been selected to speak again at Adobe CF Summit 2019, to be held in Vegas Oct 1 and 2 (with the pre-con on Sep 30). Both topics are on using Adobe's ColdFusion Docker images, and are designed for people who have not yet gotten into Docker at all, or for those familiar with Docker but not the Adobe CF images.

After sharing the talk titles and descriptions, first for the hour-long session and then for the day-long pre-conference session, I'll share a couple more thoughts, especially for those considering going to the conference, which I highly recommend.

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New Oracle JVM update released, July 16 2019

Note: This blog post is from 2019. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.
Just a heads-up for folks using CF, Lucee, and other Java-based apps and app servers: Oracle has released today a new JVM update, for Java 8 and 11. It's update 221 for Java 8 (1.8.0_221), and update 4 for Java 11 (11.0.4).

For some, that's all they need to know. For most, they will probably want to read on.

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Updates released today for CF2018, CF2016, and CF11

Note: This blog post is from 2019. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.
While word has been shared elsewhere about this today already, I wanted to share here also that there were updates released today for CF2018, CF2016, and CF11.

And I share a bit more here, for my readers.

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When you know you're doing the right thing: some representative comments from clients

Note: This blog post is from 2019. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.
For years I've had a "references" page on my site, where I'd post comments folks have shared in their emails back to me after our consulting engagements. I get their permission before posting, of course.

Well, I got a really nice one today, and I thought I'd share it here also, as it really does capture well what I strive to do in my work:

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CF updates temporarily missing. Get them here

Note: This blog post is from 2019. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.
If you've tried to get the update files for cf 2018, 2016, 11, or 10 in recent days, whether from the CF Admin "updates" page or the update technote pages, you've found the update jar files are missing and unavailable, due to a temporary problem. Here's how to get them in the meantime.

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"Charlie, we'd like to buy CF. Are you an Adobe reseller?"

Note: This blog post is from 2019. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.
I've had clients ask the above question over the years, including today. The short answer is "no", but I do have a recommendation of who you should consider buying CF from, at a discount, and with other benefits.

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CF security update (March 1 2019), part 2: further details, prevention, and more

Note: This blog post is from 2019. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.
This is my part 2 post which follows onto the Part 1, released the night of March 1, when the new CF updates were released as an emergency update. If you've not yet read that, do that first, to get some basic info and needed context for what follows.

And if you HAVE already read part 1, if it was before Saturday morning, do go back and reread it. I had added some important info that I thought shouldn't wait to Part 2, which I knew could take me a while. See especially the sections there, "A brief introduction to the vulnerability and the fix", "Should you be worried?", and "What if you can't apply the update immediately, and can't wait for part 2?".

And my apologies for the delay in getting part 2 out. For various reasons, including related to additional research work I'm doing on this exploit beyond CF, I was unable to post this then. Better late than never, I hope. Indeed, I had listed quite a lot in Part 1 that I hoped to cover in a part 2. I don't want to delay getting this out any later, so I will get done today what I can and post that, and carry over into a part 3 (or beyond) whatever remains. There are some natural breaks, fortunately. Thanks for your patience.

Following are what I cover here in Part 2:

  • More detail about the vulnerability and what was "fixed"
  • Wouldn't an antivirus package on the server detect this sort of trojan?
  • How to add further protection from it (especially if you may be unable to implement the update for some reason)
  • Considering running a security scan of your CFML code
  • Consider implementing a web application firewall
  • How to prevent execution of the files used in the attack, if they may already be on your server
  • Another benefit of applying the latest updates
  • What about Lucee?

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Urgent CF security update released March 1 2019, for CF11/2016/2018, Part 1

Note: This blog post is from 2019. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.
This is an urgent announcement to ColdFusion users: Adobe has released a security update today, March 1 2019, for CF 11 update 18, CF2016 update 10, and 2018 update 3.

All CF shops are urged to install this update immediately, to implement new protections against a known attack happening in the wild. It's identified in the associated Adobe Product Security Bulletin, APSB19-14, as a priority 1 critical vulnerability.

I will add that I can vouch personally for the significance of the vulnerability, as I reported it to the Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), and I proposed the fix which was implemented. (I also know what was done specifically to perpetrate the attack, and the very negative consequences of what happened once the server of a client of mine was attacked. You don't want this to happen to you.) I plan to share much more in a part 2 post (now posted, but do see below for the context it builds upon).

(In the meantime, I have tweaked this part 1 since originally posting it, to share more here.)

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"Hidden Gems in ColdFusion 2018", a multi-part series on the Adobe Portal

Note: This blog post is from 2019. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.
Over the past few weeks I have been begun posting a multi-part series of blog entries on Hidden Gems in CF2018. This is being posted on the Adobe CF portal, rather than here (by my choice).

It's basically presenting the same info I've been offering in my talk of the same name, such as at conferences like CF Summit and CFCamp last year, and that I will at the CF Summit East 2019 in DC in April. Of course, in blog form I can elaborate things a little more.

So far I have done the following parts:

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Top 10 CArehart.org blog posts of 2018

Note: This blog post is from 2019. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.
Yep, I'm a bit late on this. :-) Here are what I might propose to be the top 10 posts of mine from 2018 (by my own choice, and in reverse chronological order):

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