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Announcing ColdFusion updates released June 11 2024: another possible breaking change

This is another important heads-up for my readers: there was an important security update released today by Adobe for ColdFusion 2023 (its update 8) and ColdFusion 2021 (its update 14). Just like the recent CF updates in March, this one again has a potential breaking change (trading away compatibility for the sake of security), and it adds yet another JVM arg that allows you to "revert" to the previous default behavior--to let you benefit from OTHER security aspects of the update, while you give time to addressing what should be changed.

In this case, it's about if you use CF encryption-related functions, the default encryption algorithm is changing--and that means that those who encrypt/decrypt (or hash or randomize) data in their apps MUST take steps before applying this updates. For more, read on.

Update: As a heads-up, a few weeks after this post ANNOUNCING the update and its key change, I created another that address confusion many still seem to have after reading the Adobe technote on the update (links below).You may want to skip to reading that post first, On handling the June 2024 CF update change of default algorithm from CFMX_COMPAT.

Otherwise, read on for what I wrote originally.

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Recent critical Lucee security vulns: make sure you're protected, finding out more about them

There has been important news released (this week and last week) about a critical Lucee security vuln (an RCS or remote code execution vuln). You'll want to make sure your Lucee instances are protected either by updates or configuration (or both). There are actually 3 matters to beware.

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

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

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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About the log4jshell pandemic, and what CF folks can do about it

Updated later Dec 14, 17, 21, 28, then Jan 11. See more below.

You can find lots of info in the CF and IT worlds about the log4jshell (or log4shell) "pandemic", since the news broke late Dec 9. If you have not found those yet, first here's a post I did on the Adobe CF portal yesterday with my thoughts (and a "mask" to consider, especially while we await a formal update, "the shot", from Adobe):

My lengthier post at the CF Portal: Dealing with the recent log4j vulnerability, before Adobe releases an update

I have more that I offered originally in this post here, on my carehart.org blog, but first I want to track recent updates and news since I first posted these two blog entries on the morning of Dec 14:

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Announcing Java updates of Oct 2021 for 8, 11, and 17: resources and thoughts

Note: This blog post is from 2021. 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 yesterday (Oct 19, 2021) 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.) While the news has been announced by Oracle and shared in the IT press, I know that some of my readers don't necessarily follow those sources closely.

The new updates are 1.8.0_311, (aka 8u311), 11.0.13, and 17.0.1, 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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Beware of ransomware attacks happening on ColdFusion 9 and earlier

Note: This blog post is from 2021. 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 CF9 or 8, beware: a recent spate of ransomware attacks have occurred, hitting such old CF servers that were not updated (in ways offered by Adobe in 2010!) This news has been reported in various security industry press, but I want to share here more that they generally did not.

TLDR; A most basic message to hear is "get off of CF9", or any version of CF that is no longer supported. But for the sake of those who wonder, "while I work on that, is my CF 9 really impacted?", I address that, and more. But again updating 9 to just "leave it at that" and get on with your life is NOT the main message to be hearing!

Of course, it's always risky to run old versions of software, and to be clear, CF9 was released in 2009 and CF8 in 2007. Sadly, some shops drag their feet to keep even such old software updated (they each got updates for 5 years after their release). But the problem is really coming home to roost for some.

Who's affected, and who's not? And what can you do, if still on CF9 or 8? And what more is known about the attack?

For more, read on. (BTW, yes I am aware that this is not "new info", as some were sharing it as much as 2 weeks ago. It simply took me time to gather up all the info below, to provide more specifics than those general interest articles were sharing.)

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Why should one be careful about securing ColdFusion ARchive (CAR) files?

Note: This blog post is from 2020. 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.
You may hear (starting today) about a new admonition (a "strong recommendation") from Adobe that one should be careful to "delete CAR files once they are used". What's that about? And why is it a concern? (And is it ever NOT a concern?) Indeed why is it a new admonition? (To be clear: the recommendation should be heeded even by those using CF versions BEFORE this update and older versions like 11, 10, and so on.)

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ColdFusion 2018 update 7 released...do you "need" it?

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.
Adobe released update 7 for CF2018 today, and as it includes a security fix, some might think I'd say everyone should apply it.

But note first that the security aspect applies only to those running CF on Windows (and even then not ALL users of CF on Windows, as I will explain).

Then again, the update also includes a bug fix to a CF Admin, for a UI issue (related to updates, in fact), and if you need that, then you do want the fix (regardless of your OS).

So who needs it? If you need a little more guidance, I offer some clarification, as well as links from Adobe for more.

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Preview available for new ColdFusion updates for CF2016 and 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.
Update (Nov 20, 2019): Adobe announced today that they'd come out with the "final" versions of this pair of "preview" updates. If you already applied either one, you don't need to do the update, as they are unchanged from the preview. But do note that if you changed your CF Admin update "settings" feature to point to the new "preview" feed url, you should use the button there to revert back to the default update feed url.

Adobe has announced today (Nov 13, 2019) new preview updates for ColdFusion 2016 (preview update 13) and 2018 (preview update 6).

https://coldfusion.adobe.com/2019/11/preview-builds-coldfusion-2018-release-update-6-and-coldfusion-2016-release-update-13-released

These updates address issues reported with the Sept 2019 updates (which I was tracking and warned about when the update was released). If you experienced any of those or other issues discussed in Adobe's post, you should try out the new updates while they are in this preview mode (to share with Adobe any remaining concerns) over the next couple of weeks.

Notice also my initial comment in that Adobe post, with a couple of potentially important reminders regarding the preview, as well as a reminder of my plea for a new approach to updates that would allow one to select to get only the latest security updates of a new update (deferring any bug fixes or new features to the next update), which could have helped many in the case of the Sept updates, that had so many issues seemingly caused by new features and bug fixes.

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