Java

Ah, that first cup of coffee in the morning always seems to taste better while sitting outside in the garden. Except I'm not here to talk about the joys of early morning outside. No, this is neither about that morning wake-up cup of java nor the island located south of Borneo in Indonesia. Remember, this is the "Security" Garden. This topic is about the Java "language".

What is special about Java? Simply stated, Java is a language that allows coded web pages to be viewed on the browser. Do you need Java on your computer? No. It just makes the internet experience more fun. As indicated at Java.com:

Java technology is everywhere

From the Mars Rover all the way to your mobile phone, Java technology is changing the world around us, and beyond. It's used in practically every major industry, from education, government, and space exploration to transportation, finance, telecommunications, and more. It enables applications and products of all kinds to do something unique and incredible: Communicate. Integrate. Animate. Interact. Protect.

The problem, as discussed in a very long topic at Broad Band Reports entitled, "Winfixer/ Vundo / Virtumonde Victims : Please Read", started by Microsoft MVP CalamityJane, is that computers with older versions of Sun Java are vulnerable to the "Vundo" infection. It doesn't matter if the latest update was applied. If the older versions are still resident on the machine, the vulnerability is definitely there. So, what do we recommend? Definitely to uninstall all prior versions of Java. The instructions that seem to work best follow. The current version is Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0, Update 8.

Sun Java Installation/Update Instructions

The following procedure is strongly encouraged to remove older version Java components:

1. Close any open programs you may have running, especially your web browser
2. Click Start > Control Panel (Depending on your OS or configuration, you may have to click Start > Settings > Control Panel)
3. Open Add or Remove Programs (If you have Windows 98 or Windows 2000, open Add/Remove Programs)
4. Click once on any item listing J2SE, Java Runtime Environment or Java WebStart in the name. (Not every version of Java will begin with "Java" so be sure to read each entry in the list)
   
5. Click the Remove or Change/Remove button
6. Follow steps 4 and 5 as many times as necessary to remove all versions of Java
7. Search 'Programs' and 'Application Data' and remove old version files manually.
   1. C:\Program Files\
   2. C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\
8. Restart your PC once all Java components have been removed
9. Proceed with reinstalling Java by going to http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp
10. Click the "Download" button to the right of
    
    Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 5.0 Update 8
    The J2SE Runtime Environment (JRE) allows end-users to run Java applications.
    Installation Instructions | ReadMe | ReleaseNotes | Sun License | Third Party Licenses
11. Accept the agreement at the page that opens:
    
    Required: You must accept the license agreement to download the product.
    
12. Click: Accept License Agreement
13. The page will refresh to Windows Platform - J2SE™ Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 8
14. It is recommended that you select:
    
    Windows Offline Installation, Multi-language jre-1_5_0_08-windows-i586-p.exe 15.74 MB
    
15. After installing the downloaded file, restart your system again to finalize the process.

23Aug06: See Java Update for information on Sun Alert ID 102557.