News

Microsoft Ends Java Virtual Machine Support

• By Jabulani Leffall
• 07/06/09

Microsoft gave notice Thursday that it removed 10 security patch downloads, all associated with Microsoft Java Virtual Machine (JVM) technology.

Patch downloads were removed from the following security bulletins: MS03-011, MS02-069, MS02-052, MS02-013, MS00-081, MS00-075, MS00-059, MS00-011, MS99-045 and MS99-031. Some of those bulletins date back nine years.

The bulletins addressed bugs that could use Java-based applets to take over a workstation after a user visited a malicious Web site. The Microsoft JVM technology that was being patched affected older operating systems, such as Windows 95, and older Web browsers, such as Internet Explorer 5.

Microsoft originally licensed its JVM technology from Sun Microsystems. Redmond now no longer supports Microsoft JVM technology. The support ended as of June 30, 2009, according to the security bulletins and a Microsoft support page.

The discontinuance of support for Microsoft JVM technology comes a little more than two months after Oracle agreed to buy Sun Microsystems. If the deal passes the approvals processes, Oracle might consolidate some of Sun's Java-based tools.

Java itself likely won't be affected by the deal. Sun placed most of the Java programming language under the open source GNU General Public License.

The scuttling of patch support for Microsoft JVM follows a massive security update issued by Redmond in June. The company likely will provide a preview of its July patch next week.

Meanwhile, this week, Redmond issued four service packs for its Forefront and Antigen enterprise-class security software. The releases include Forefront Security for Exchange Servers SP2, Forefront Security for SharePoint SP3, Antigen for Exchange Spam Manager 9.0 SP2 and Antigen for SMTP Gateways Spam Manager 9.0 SP2.

Last month, Microsoft issued a number of betas for its Forefront products.