The vulnerability was patched in February, but only for Windows systems

Apr 3, 2012 11:59 GMT  ·  By

A Java vulnerability that remained unpatched in OS X operating systems attracted the attention of cybercrooks who started focusing their efforts on exploiting it.

F-Secure experts say that this isn’t much of a surprise, mainly because the security hole in question was addressed by Oracle back in February, but only for Windows operating systems, giving malware developers the opportunity to freely exploit it on Mac systems.

Furthermore, it’s believed that an exploit which leverages another unpatched Java hole is currently on sale in the underground markets.

Security journalist Brian Krebs revealed a few days ago that the same Java exploit is being incorporated into the infamous BlackHole exploit kit, which means that fraudsters see a lot of potential in this particular weakness.

As you may remember, security experts are constantly advising users to ditch Java in case they don’t need it for any specific tasks because it opens a lot of opportunities for cybercriminals.

Until this particular flaw is addressed, Mac users can check out these instructions on how to disable Java.

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