The Java 7 Update 10 on December 2012 was exposed to vulnerabilities against hackers and cyber criminals. The new update on Jan 13, 2013 has two new flaws which also makes it susceptible to digital attacks.

The two new bugs in the latest Java version can also be combined to bypass the security measures in the Oracle-based platform. Applets are small applications inside every browser and the most commonly known of its kind are plugins. Most plugins are required to run programs inside the browser to enhance viewing, graphic acceleration.

But cyber attacks can be in a form of applet which attaches itself to the browser of unsuspecting computer users. Once it is inside, it can hack information, manipulate the computer system, and do all things to control the entire device.

According to the blog of Esteban Guillardoy, a security researcher with Immunity, he noted that the update successfully patched made a reflection vulnerability, "The patch did stop the exploit, fixing one of its components, but an attacker with enough knowledge of the Java code base and the help of another zero day bug to replace the one fixed can easily continue compromising users."

Adam Gowdiak, CEO of Security Explorations commented, "Recently made security improvements to Java 7 don't prevent silent exploits at all."

The new update does not entirely protect the user with exploits and from running applets without any warning. It seems like hackers have stepped up to a new level against Java security and the browser's plug-in.

Mr Gowdiak suggested that people should have a "click-to-play" feature which allows them to authorise a plug-in's execution to notify about certain possibility of exploitation of their browser to the Internet.

Such feature may help prevent automatically exploitation from both known or not-yet addressed Java plug-in vulnerabilities.

RELATED STORIES