Oracle joins patch party

Company issues 36 security fixes. Oracle has issued a massive security update for twenty of its enterprise computing offerings.

The update encompasses all supported copies of Oracle Database, Application Server, E-Business Suite, People Soft Enterprise, JD Edwards, WebLogic Server and Workshop for WebLogic.

Fifteen of the security patches address issues in the company's flagship Database software. Only one, however, would allow an attacker to remotely access a database system without authorization. The update will not need to be installed on machines running the client version of the database software.

The remainder of the security patches were distributed evenly amongst the other applications. Included in the update are fixes for a pair of remotely-exploitable flaws in Application Server and two in the E-Business Suite offering.

The company is strongly recommending that administrators apply the updates as soon as possible in order to avoid a potentially serious attack or data leak.

Oracle's patch release could lead to a busy week for IT departments. The release of the Oracle update comes just one day after Microsoft issued the October edition of its monthly security update which included critical fixes for Windows, Office and Internet Explorer.

Author: Shaun Nichols @ www.vnunet.com