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New updates released for Java 8, 11, 17, 21, and 22 as of Apr 16 2024: resources and thoughts

It's that time again: there are new JVM updates released today (Apr 16, 2024) for the current long-term support (LTS) releases of Oracle Java, 8, 11, 17, and 21, as well as the new short-term release 22.

TLDR: The new updates are 1.8.0_411 (aka 8u411), 11.0.23, 17.0.11, 21.0.3, and 22.0.1 respectively). Crazy that there are now 5 current Java releases, I realize. More below, including more on each of them including what changed and the security fixes they each contain (including their CVE scores regarding urgency of concerns), offered in Oracle resources I list below. Oracle calls these updates "critical patch updates" (yep, CPU), but they are in fact scheduled quarterly updates, so that "critical" nomenclature may sometimes be a bit overstated. And as is generally the case with these Java updates, most of them have the same changes and fixes across the four JVM versions, though not always.

For some folks, that's all they need to hear. For others, read on.

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Delighted to be presenting at CFCamp 2024, on "Using Redis for session storage in ACF and Lucee"

I'm delighted to share the news that I've been selected to be a presenter again at the wonderful CFCamp event, being held again June 13-14 in Munich, Germany. (I got the news last week but have been overwhelmed with recent work, so I've been behind posting such news. I have still more to come.)

As one of the premier conferences for both Adobe ColdFusion and Lucee, I highly recommend you attend the event if you can. Plus, if you don't live in Europe it's a great excuse to vacation on the continent and be tax-deductible at the same time! :-)

My talk this year (my 8th straight appearance at the event) will be a new one for me. Here are the details:

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Recordings and links for my presentations in Jan 2024, Dec 2023

I've done a few online presentations in recent weeks, and while I've done a blog post announcing each when it was upcoming, I was torn about also doing a blog post after each, just to mention their recording URL. I don't want people to feel there are "too many" posts. Also, since I use youtube live for the CFMeetup sessions, technically the url for the meeting is indeed the same one to use to view the recording of it: so if you know one, you know both.

But some people seem to notice when news is shared of a recording being made available, so here you go.:-) These are 4 sessions I've done in Jan 2024 and Dec 2023.

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Presenting "Updating the Java underlying ColdFusion: considering it, doing it" Thurs Jan 18, Online

As most know, ColdFusion runs atop Java (and has since CF6). Did you know that JVM updates come out quarterly (including one just this week)? While some may find the process of doing them to be "old hat", others are often surprised to discover it's their responsibility to keep that Java updated. And on the surface, "installing Java" is easy--but like so many other things, "the devil is in the details".

So I will be presenting presented a talk on this topic, online this Thursday, at noon US Eastern, on the CFMeetup youtube livestream (which will be was recorded). Folks who are members of the Online ColdFusion Meetup will already have gotten notification about this, but for those who are not, here are the details:

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Several things to consider when applying updates to Java (aka the JVM, JDK, JRE)

If you learn there's a new Java update available, it may well be relatively simple for you to apply that update, but if you're running important applications that rely on Java, it's in your interest to give some consideration to various matters related to doing such an update.

And as important, if you may have skipped some Java updates before this one, there are some additional points to consider regarding some potentially important changes in updates you may be skipping.

In this post, I cover several topics in both those areas.

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Presenting "Migrating apps to ColdFusion 2023 from earlier versions" Thurs Dec 14, Online CFMeetup

It's that time of the year...well, I don't mean the holidays: I mean time to talk about migrating to CF2023, which came out several months ago. I'm getting asked more and more about it, as people proceed with making or considering the move--and sorry for the brief notice, but I thought I better get this talk out before the end of the year, and before the holidays.

I will be presenting presented the talk online this Thursday, at noon US Eastern, on the CFMeetup youtube livestream (which will be was recorded). Folks who are members of the Online ColdFusion Meetup will already have gotten notification about this, but for those who are not, here are the details:

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My meta resource page about updating CF, the Java underlying it, the wsconfig, and more

With all the recent updates to CF (and the ongoing need to keep up and related things up-to-date), I wanted to share some news: I've long had on my site a meta resource page regarding keeping ColdFusion updated, where I offered both links and tips related to updating CF as well as the JVM underlying CF, the web server connector(wsconfig), the CF PMT, FusionReactor, CF Builder (old Eclipse and new VSCode versions) and even Lucee.

It's been on my site as my "CFUpdate" page (linked to from my old-school top-level nav bar), and I've kept the page updated. [Hey, updating my meta resource on updates. That's SO meta!]

But I suspect a lot of people may never find it for one reason or another, so I wanted to offer a link to it here.

Check it out, and I welcome comments or feedback here.

Beware you can't install CF updates via the CF Admin after Jul 2023 JVM update

Be aware: if you update ColdFusion to run using the latest JVM updates (released July 18, 2023), you will encounter challenges, which have solutions as I describe here.

You will find that you can no longer INSTALL CF updates via the CF admin, if CF is using this new Java version. And even if the CF update is run from the command line, if using this newer Java version that also will fail. In either case, there is a new JVM argument that solved the problem, as I discuss below.

This is happening in CF2023, 2021, and 2018. (And this may continue to happen with future JVM updates, until Adobe otherwise addresses the problem.)

As an update, you may want to read a more recent post I did on this matter, in October 2023.

As an another update, when I first created this post originally on July 21st, another problem was that you would find that you could no longer use the CF Administrator to download CF updates, if CF was running this new Java version. You would get an error reporting, "Failed Signature verification"--or in some cases you may see only "error failed". But within a couple of weeks, I found that the CF Admin COULD now download updates (including the August 2023 CF update) but the CF update STILL fails to install correctly, as discussed in this post, unless the workaround offered is used.

FWIW, Adobe has also updated the technotes for CF2021 update 10 and CF2023 update 4 with a text box at the top that acknowledges this issue and points to this post for more detail.

In this post, I explain a) what this is all about, then b) how you can fix the problem of INSTALLING the update using the CF Admin, I'll explain how it seems we HAVE to workaround that problem (for now). I also offer a link to a bug report I've filed. I even offer a thought on how this new JVM update may prove over time to affect MORE than just this, and even MORE than just CF (and Lucee) but many java apps. Read on for more.

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A third Priority 1 CF security update has been released, Jul 19 2023

Just days after two P1 CF security updates were released on Jul 11 and 14, Adobe has released yet another on Jul 19.

Yes, this is shocking. Yes, unless there's a good explanation, I can understand how many would feel "someone on the CF team should be flogged". Don't shoot me: I'm just the messenger. I don't work for Adobe.

But I will add that in this post, besides just sharing news about the update (and more than JUST pointing to the update), I also offer an ADDITIONAL "fix" some will want to consider, to go BEYOND what this update addresses. See the discussion on "blocking the _cfclient query string".

Read on for more, where I cover:

  • Finding more info on this update
  • A suggestion on blocking the _cfclient query string
  • News for those doing manual offline installs: this update DOES have a zip
  • As for doing a Java update along with this update
  • CF2018 WAS indeed also updated

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A second priority 1 CF security update in one week, released Jul 14 2023

Just days after a P1 security update released on Jul 11, Adobe has released yet another on Jul 14. (I don't recall such a short gap between updates before, so yes: it's unusual.)

For more on the update, and some additional thoughts, read on.

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