There is yet another Java exploit for you to worry about. Hackers have found a way to infect machines with the McRat trojan, even if you have the latest Java update.
This latest exploit affects any user running version 1.6 update 41 and 1.7 update 15, which is the latest version of Java. For some reason, older versions of Java, like Java 7 Update 10, aren’t affected by this exploit. It seems that this exploit is targeted at specific companies or individuals to try and steal information. In the last few weeks, big names like Apple, Google, and Microsoft have reported that some of their computers have been hacked using a Java exploit.
Security researchers at FireEye have said that this latest zero-day exploit isn’t very reliable as it has to write a large amount of data to memory, which may or may not execute the trojan. For a machine to be infected, all a user has to do is activate the Java plugin on a site with malicious code. Users should be wary about what sites they give permission to run Java.
If you don’t want any chance of being infected, the best thing to do is uninstall Java altogether.
Is Java really necessary any more? Let us know if you still use Java on your computer.
Source: Ars Technica
