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Announcing ColdFusion emergency update released March 14 2023 - what to do about it

Note: This blog post is from 2023. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily.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 not heard, a new update has been released (March 14, 2023) for ColdFusion 2021 and 2018. Despite what you may hear, this is an URGENT (rated "Priority 1" by Adobe) update that everyone should apply ASAP, for reasons I will explain in this post. In fact, Hackernews reported yesterday (Mar 16) that the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) had issued an urgent warning about this, giving federal agencies a deadline to apply the update.

TLDR; For some folks, the above may be all you need to hear: you may be dropping your coffee and donuts now to get the update applied. Still others will see this "huge post" and think, "crap, I don't have time for this". For you, skip to the bottom and its "concluding key points". You can then decide what you think you do or don't "need to know" and pick and choose from the sections as you like.

Finally, for those who prefer because of the importance of all this to be led more carefully through understanding things (in a way that's worked for the many people I have helped so far this week, and is far more than either Adobe or Hackernews has shared), please do read on.

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Be aware that ColdFusion 2018 end-of-life (and end of updates) is coming July 2023

Note: This blog post is from 2023. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily.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.
Are you still running ColdFusion 2018? Did you know that its end-of-life is July 13, 2023? That's the date that "core" support ends--meaning, no more updates from Adobe after that, not even security fixes.

As for CF2021, it gets updates into 2025, and the currently running pre-release of CF2023 is a great sign for the continued vitality of CF. But this looming deadline for CF2018 is a reminder that as the years roll on, we not only get new versions but we must say good-bye to old ones.

Wondering what you can do? or when CF2021 or CF2023 support will end also? And what's the difference between "core" and "extended" support Adobe sells? (The extended support plan does NOT provide updates beyond this coming July.) For more on these, including official Adobe documentation that discusses such things, as well as my thoughts on migration, costs, various options to consider, and more, do read on.

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What's new in FusionReactor 9.2.0, released Jan 18 2023

Note: This blog post is from 2023. 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're a user of the wonderful FusionReactor monitoring and observability solution (for ColdFusion, Lucee, Java servers and more), you may delight in hearing news of a new FusionReactor (FR) version. 9.2.0 was released last week, Jan 18, 2023.

You can learn more (in brief) about what's new in the bullets for 9.2.0 offered at the release notes page.

TLDR: For some folks, news of the new version is all the need to hear. For those who may like to hear a bit more about the update, read on.

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Special offer - upgrade to ColdFusion 2021 from CF2016 or earlier, saving perhaps thousands of $$

Note: This blog post is from 2022. 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're running CF2016 or earlier, now's your chance (though the end of the year Feb 28, 2023) to save potentially thousands of dollars in upgrading to the latest current version, CF2021. Intergral, the folks who make the FusionReactor monitoring tool and service, are again offering a special deal of 25% off to upgrade CF2016 or earlier to CF2021 (a deal which even Adobe does not offer).

Read on for more details.

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ColdFusion 2021 "refreshed" installers available (with update 5)...but only in one place for now

Note: This blog post is from 2022. 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.
Update since original posting:
If you find this post in 2023 or beyond and are looking for the CF2021 installers, please read this update before proceeding. I started to get a lot of comments once CF2023 came out. This post is from Oct 2022, about new installers offered at that time, while CF2021 was still the latest version.

To be clear, once Adobe comes out with a new version, they REMOVE the installers of the old version from the public pages of their site. Does that mean you're stuck and CANNOT get the installers, perhaps that "you paid for"? No, it does NOT mean that. You just need to know where to find them.

1) First, if you are the person who BOUGHT CF, then you should have an account at either https://account.adobe.com/products or https://licensing.adobe.com/, and you can find the installers you paid for there.

2) If instead you either DID NOT buy CF (perhaps using the free trial edition), or someone ELSE bought it (maybe you don't know who it is), or you just can't get into that account, note that there is an online repository of old (and new) installers at cfmlrepo.com, which is managed by trusted community members, including myself.

Now, back to what the original post was about...

Here's some surprising news: Adobe has released a "refreshed" installer for CF2021, which includes update 5 (which came out last week) built-in.

Read on for (much) more.

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I'll be presenting at the online CFMeetup, on Adobe's 'new' CFSetup tool, useful for any CF version

Note: This blog post is from 2022. 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 topic may (should) interest folks using CF2021 or even OLDER CF versions. Did you know there's a command line tool to help view/manage as well as export/import CF Admin settings? I will be presenting a talk on this, Thursday. Anyone can attend online.

Folks who are members of the Online ColdFusion Meetup that I run will already have gotten notification about this, but those who are not:

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I'll be presenting at Adobe CF Summit 2022, and marking some anniversaries

Note: This blog post is from 2022. 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'm delighted to have been selected again to speak at October's Adobe ColdFusion Summit 2022 conference, which is being held in-person again finally--in Vegas as before. After I share the news of that talk, I want to also note some anniversaries related to this event and my session.

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My presentation will open CF DevWeek this week - CF, more modern than most realize

Note: This blog post is from 2022. 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 thought I'd post a reminder for folks that I am giving the opening session for the 2022 CF Dev Week, running July 18-22. Registration is free, of course.

My session will be at 9a 930a Eastern on Monday July 18:

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Announcing Java updates of Apr 2022 for for Java 8, 11, 17, and 18 - thoughts and resources

Note: This blog post is from 2022. 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.
New JVM updates have been released today (Apr 19, 2022) for the current long-term support (LTS) releases of Oracle Java, 8, 11, and 17, as well as the new interim update 18. (Note that prior to Java 9, releases of Java were known technically as 1.x, to 8 is referred to in resources below as 1.8.)

The new updates are 1.8.0_331, (aka 8u331), 11.0.15, 17.0.3, and 18.0.1 respectively). And as is generally the case with these Java updates, most of them have the same changes and fixes.

For more on them, including changes as well as the security and bug fixes they each contain, see the Oracle resources I list below, as well as some additional info I offer for if you may be skipping to this from a JVM update from before Apr 2021. I also offer info for Adobe ColdFusion users on where to find the updated Java versions, what JVM versions Adobe CF supports, and more.

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Announcing Java updates of Jan 2022 for Java 8, 11, and 17 - thoughts and resources

Note: This blog post is from 2022. 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.
New JVM updates have been released last week (Jan 18, 2022) for the current long-term support (LTS) releases of Oracle Java, 8, 11, and 17. (Note that prior to Java 9, releases of Java were known technically as 1.x, to 8 is referred to in resources below as 1.8.) I'd shared the news in a tweet last week, but was delayed in getting this post out.

The new updates are 1.8.0_321, (aka 8u321), 11.0.14, and 17.0.2, respectively).

For more on them, including information on the security fixes and bug fixes they each contain, see the Oracle resources I list below, as well as some additional info I offer for if you may be skipping to this from a JVM update from before Apr 2021, as well as info for Adobe ColdFusion users on where to find the updated Java versions, what JVM versions Adobe CF supports, and more.

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