Oracle Patches 59 Vulnerabilities

Oracle is set to patch 59 vulnerabilities in its products Tuesday as part of its quarterly Critical Patch Update program. Of those vulnerabilities, 21 are in the Solaris product suite.

"Due to the threat posed by a successful attack, Oracle strongly recommends that customers apply Critical Patch Update fixes as soon as possible," the company said in a statement.

The patch update contains 13 new security fixes for the Oracle Database Server, patching eight different Oracle Database components: Application Express, Export, Listener, Net Foundation Layer, Network Layer, Oracle OLAP, Oracle Secure Backup, and TimesTen In-Memory Database.

Six of the fixes are for Oracle Database Server itself, and four of those vulnerabilities can be remotely exploitable without authentication -- as in, no username or password would be required. Two of the fixes are for the TimesTen In-Memory Database, and can also be exploited remotely, without authentication. Finally, there are five security fixes for Oracle Secure Backup, three of which are remotely exploitable without authentication.

In terms of severity, the vulnerabilities affecting the TimesTen In-Memory Database and Oracle Secure Backup rate a "10" -- the highest possible severity rating -- on Oracle's interpretation of version 2.0 of the common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS), an open standard for rating software vulnerabilities. CVSS takes into account the preconditions required for exploiting a vulnerability, the ease of exploitation, and the impact of a successful attack, using a formula to convert the vulnerability threat into a numeric score between 0 and 10, to help IT managers know which threats to remediate first.

For the Oracle Solaris Products Suite, seven of the 21 vulnerabilities could be remotely exploitable without authentication. The same goes for five of the seven vulnerabilities patched in Oracle Fusion Middleware and for one critical vulnerability in Oracle Enterprise Manager.

For Oracle applications, the Critical Patch Update includes seven new security fixes for Oracle E-Business Suite; five can be remotely exploitable without authentication. Oracle Supply Chain Products Suite gets two fixes, one exploitable remotely without authentication. Finally, the Oracle PeopleSoft and JDEdwards Suite gets eight patches, none of which can be remotely exploitable without authentication.