Yesterday, Oracle released their quarterly Critical Patch Update (CPU) for October 2013. If you haven’t heard of them, CPUs are Oracle’s quarterly collections of security updates, which fix vulnerabilities in a wide-range of their products. Oracle publishes their quarterly updates on the Tuesday closest to the 17th of the month (in this case, October 15th). Previously, Oracle decoupled their Java updates from their quarterly CPU cycle. However, that changes as of this release. From now on, Oracle plans to release Java updates quarterly, so this quarter’s Oracle CPU includes a Java security update as well.
Overall, the CPU and Java updates fix around 133 security vulnerabilities in many different Oracle products and suites. The table below outlines the affected products, and the severity of the fixed flaws. The flaws with the highest CVSS rating are the most risky, meaning you should handle them first:
| Product or Suite | Flaws Fixed (CVE) | Max CVSS |
|---|---|---|
| Java SE | 51 | 10 |
| Database Server | 4 | 6.4 |
| MySQL | 12 | 8.5 |
| Fusion Middleware | 17 | 7.5 |
| Enterprise Manager Grid Control | 4 | 4.3 |
| Siebel CRM | 9 | 6.8 |
| E-Business Suite | 1 | 5.0 |
| Supply Chain Product Suite | 2 | 5.0 |
| Industry Applications | 6 | 5.5 |
| PeopleSoft Products | 8 | 5.0 |
| iLearning | 2 | 6.8 |
| Financial Services Software | 1 | 6.0 |
| Primavera Products Suite | 2 | 5.0 |
| Sun Systems Products Suite | 12 | 6.1 |
| Virtualization | 2 | 5.0 |
Oracle’s advisory doesn’t describe every flaw in technical detail. However, they do describe the general impact of each issue, and share CVSS severity ratings. While the severity of the 133 vulnerabilities differs greatly, some of them pose a pretty critical risk; especially the Java SE ones.
Almost everyone has Java installed. If you do, I recommend you install the Java update immediately, or perhaps consider uninstalling Java or restricting it in some way using its security controls. With a CVSS rating of 10, the Java exploits allow remote attackers to install malware on your computer via web-based drive-by download attacks; and right now attackers really like targeting Java flaws.
Of course, if you use any of the other affected Oracle software, you should update it as well. I recommend scheduling the updates based on the max CVSS rating for the products. For instance, if you use MySQL, update it quickly, but you can allow yourself to more time to fix the Grid Control issues. You’ll find more details about these updates in the Patch Availably section of Oracle’s alert. — Corey Nachreiner, CISSP (@SecAdept)