The security baselines for the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) at the time of the release of JDK 17.0.8 are specified in the following table:

The China National Standard body (CESI) has recently published GB18030-2022, which is an updated version of the GB18030 standard and brings GB18030 in sync with Unicode version 11.0. The Charset implementation for this new standard has now replaced the prior 2000 standard. However, this new standard has some incompatible changes from the prior implementation. For those who need to use the old mappings, a new system property, jdk.charset.GB18030, is introduced. By setting its value to 2000, the previous JDK releases' mappings for the GB18030 Charset are used, which are based on the 2000 standard.

The Windows KeyStore support in the SunMSCAPI provider has been expanded to include access to the local machine location. The new keystore types are:

• "Windows-MY-LOCALMACHINE"
• "Windows-ROOT-LOCALMACHINE"

The following keystore types were also added, allowing developers to make it clear they map to the current user:

• "Windows-MY-CURRENTUSER" (same as "Windows-MY")
• "Windows-ROOT-CURRENTUSER" (same as "Windows-ROOT")

A new Java Flight Recorder (JFR) event has been added to record details of java.security.Provider.getService(String type, String algorithm) calls.

The new event name is jdk.SecurityProviderService and contains the following fields:

This event is disabled by default and can be enabled via the JFR configuration files or via standard JFR options.

Installing into the same, shared jdk-(family) directory is the default behavior for the JDK starting with the July 2023 CPU. It could lead to FilesInUse issues if JDK files are locked by the "System User". We recommend shutting down any apps using the JDK as the "System User" before upgrading.

A new system property, jdk.nio.zipfs.allowDotZipEntry, has been introduced. This system property can be used to remove the newly added restrictions in the Zip FS provider, which currently rejects ZIP files that contain entries with "." or ".." in name elements by default. Refer to the CSR for more detail.

The installation directory of Oracle JDK Debian package has changed from /usr/lib/jvm/jdk-${FEATURE} to /usr/lib/jvm/jdk-${FEATURE}-oracle-${ARCH}.

The Oracle JDK Debian package registers jexec as an interpreter for launching .jar files from the command line.

The Oracle JDK Debian package configures storage for Java Preferences API in /etc/.java/.systemPrefs directory.

The Oracle JDK Debian package registers JDK commands with update-alternatives command and supplies /usr/lib/jvm/.jdk-${FEATURE}-oracle-${ARCH}.jinfo file for update-java-alternatives command.

A regression where the /usr/java/default symlink is not created by RPM installers on Linux platforms has been fixed. Installers will create the /usr/java/default symlink if it doesn't exist, targeting the /usr/java/latest symlink.

The JDK RPM installer will remove incorrectly constructed entries of "java" and "javac" groups registered by older Oracle JDK RPM installers from the alternatives before registering new "java" and "javac" entries.

An incorrectly constructed entry of the "java" group contains commands that are supposed to belong to the "javac" group.

An incorrectly constructed entry of the "javac" group contains commands that are supposed to belong to the "java" group.

All incorrectly constructed entries belonging to Oracle JDK RPM packages will be removed from the alternatives to avoid corruption of the alternatives internal data.

The removal has a potential side effect for users who have installed multiple JDK versions that are not updated to the latest release. Commands from a removed "java" or "javac" group are now unavailable for system Java switch, which potentially changes the current system Java without a warning. For example, if there is an out-of-date JDK RPM from an 11+ release, say 11.0.17, with an incorrectly constructed single "java" group installed and 8u381 RPM with this patch is installed, it will remove an entry from the "java" group belonging to the 11.0.17 RPM and thus will switch the current system Java from 11.0.17 to 8u381. The side effect will only happen when you install a lower JDK family with the fix, such as 8u381, and there is an out-of-date JDK from a higher family, such as 11.0.17, installed on the system. In that case, 8u381 will replace the older 11.0.17 as the latest. The remedy for the user is to install the latest JDK 11.

The following root certificate has been added to the cacerts truststore:

+ TWCA

  + twcaglobalrootca
    DN: CN=TWCA Global Root CA, OU=Root CA, O=TAIWAN-CA, C=TW

The following root certificates have been added to the cacerts truststore:

+ Google Trust Services LLC

 + gtsrootcar1
  DN: CN=GTS Root R1, O=Google Trust Services LLC, C=US

+ Google Trust Services LLC
 + gtsrootcar2
  DN: CN=GTS Root R2, O=Google Trust Services LLC, C=US

+ Google Trust Services LLC
 + gtsrootecccar3
  DN: CN=GTS Root R3, O=Google Trust Services LLC, C=US

+ Google Trust Services LLC
 + gtsrootecccar4
  DN: CN=GTS Root R4, O=Google Trust Services LLC, C=US

The following root certificates have been added to the cacerts truststore:

+ Microsoft Corporation

  + microsoftecc2017
    DN: CN=Microsoft ECC Root Certificate Authority 2017, O=Microsoft Corporation, C=US

+ Microsoft Corporation
  + microsoftrsa2017
    DN: CN=Microsoft RSA Root Certificate Authority 2017, O=Microsoft Corporation, C=US

A virtual machine crash was observed in JDK 11.0.19 and 17.0.7 when executing the GregorianCalender.computeTime() method (JDK-8307683). It was found that although the root cause of the crash is an old issue, a recent fix for a rare issue in the C2 compiler (JDK-8297951) made the crash much more likely. To mitigate this, the fix has been reverted in JDK 11.0.20 and 17.0.8 and will be reapplied once JDK-8307683 is resolved.

Starting with the July 2023 CPU, on operating systems where ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) is enabled, the CDS archive will be placed at a random address picked by the operating system.

This change may have a minor performance impact: (a) Start-up time may increase because the JVM needs to patch pointers inside the CDS archive. (b) Memory usage may increase because the memory used by the CDS archive is no longer shareable across processes. We expect the impact to be small because such increases should be only a small fraction of the overall application usage.

In the unlikely event that you must disable ASLR for CDS, you can use the JVM flags -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions -XX:ArchiveRelocationMode=0. The usage of such flags is not recommended.

A new system property, jdk.jar.maxSignatureFileSize, has been added to allow applications to control the maximum size of signature files in a signed JAR. The value of the system property is the desired size in bytes. The default value is 8000000 bytes.

java.util.zip.ZipFile has been updated to provide additional validation of ZIP64 extra fields when opening a ZIP file. This validation may be disabled by setting the system property jdk.util.zip.disableZip64ExtraFieldValidation to true.