Java™ SE Development Kit 8, Update 211 (JDK 8u211)

April 16, 2019

The full version string for this update release is 1.8.0_211-b12 (where "b" means "build"). The version number is 8u211.

IANA Data 2018g

JDK 8u211 contains IANA time zone data version 2018g. For more information, refer to Timezone Data Versions in the JRE Software.

Security Baselines

The security baselines for the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) at the time of the release of JDK 8u211 are specified in the following table:

JRE Expiration Date

The JRE expires whenever a new release with security vulnerability fixes becomes available. Critical patch updates, which contain security vulnerability fixes, are announced one year in advance on Critical Patch Updates, Security Alerts and Bulletins. This JRE (version 8u211) will expire with the release of the next critical patch update scheduled for July 16, 2019.

For systems unable to reach the Oracle Servers, a secondary mechanism expires this JRE (version 8u211) on August 16, 2019. After either condition is met (new release becoming available or expiration date reached), the JRE will provide additional warnings and reminders to users to update to the newer version. For more information, see 23.1.2 JRE Expiration Date in the Java Platform, Standard Edition Deployment Guide.

New Features

core-libs/java.time

 New Japanese Era Name Reiwa

An instance representing the new Reiwa era has been added to this update. Unlike other eras, there is no public field for this era. It can be obtained by calling JapaneseEra.of(3) or JapaneseEra.valueOf("Reiwa"). JDK 13 and later will have a new public field to represent this era.

The placeholder name, "NewEra", for the Japanese era that started from May 1st, 2019 has been replaced with the new official name. Applications that relied on the placeholder name (see JDK-8202088) to obtain the new era singleton (JapaneseEra.valueOf("NewEra")) will no longer work.

See JDK-8205432

core-libs/java.util:i18n

 Square Character Support for Japanese New Era 

The code point, U+32FF, is reserved by the Unicode Consortium to represent the Japanese square character for the new era that begins from May, 2019. Relevant methods in the Character class return the same properties as the existing Japanese era characters (e.g., U+337E for "Meizi"). For details about the code point, see http://blog.unicode.org/2018/09/new-japanese-era.html.

See JDK-8211398

client-libs/2d

 High DPI Auto-Scaling on Windows

If the Windows desktop DPI of the default screen is configured via Display Settings to be 150% or greater (that is 144 dpi or greater), JDK will now ask Windows to auto-scale the entire UI of a Java application to be consistent with the rest of the Windows desktop UI.

Below that value Java applications will appear at the same size as they did in previous releases.

This threshold is chosen as a trade-off between compatibility and legibility of the UI. At higher DPI settings, without this auto-scaling, the Java UI may be just too small to be read comfortably.

There may be some negative consequences such as

• Some elements of the UI may appear somewhat blurry, particularly if the scaling factor is a non-integral value (that is 1.5 rather than 2.0).
• ClearType text is not effective when auto-scaling so grey scale anti-aliasing is used instead by the Swing toolkit.
• Window sizing and positioning calculations may be adversely affected.

In the event that the negative consequences outweigh the benefits, an application can request the old behaviour by specifying:

-Dsun.java2d.dpiaware=true

Conversely, if the application would prefer to be auto-scaled even at lower DPI settings, then specify:

-Dsun.java2d.dpiaware=false

In the absence of either explicit setting, the default behaviour described above will apply.

JDK-8204512 (not public)

core-libs/java.lang

 New Currency Code Points Added

The Java SE 8 Platform spec for java.lang.Character now supports Unicode 6.2 plus an extension to allow new currency code points from Unicode 10.0.

The following currency code points have been added:

    0BB NORDIC MARK SIGN
    20BC  MANAT  SIGN
    20BD RUBLE SIGN
    20BE LARI SIGN
    20BF BITCOIN SIGN

See JDK-8217710

Known Issues

install

 Java Access Bridge Installation Workaround

There is a risk of breaking Java Access Bridge functionality when installing Java on a Windows system that has both a previously installed version of Java and an instance of JAWS running. After rebooting, the system can be left without the WindowsAccessBridge-64.dll in either the system directory (C:\Windows\System32) for 64bit Java products or the system directory used by WOW64 (C:\Windows\SysWoW64) for 32bit Java products.

To prevent breaking Java Access Bridge functionality, use one of the following workarounds:

• Stop JAWS before running the Java installer.
• Uninstall the existing JRE(s) before installing the new version of Java.
• Uninstall the existing JRE(s) after the new version of Java is installed and the machine is rebooted.

The goal of the workarounds is to avoid the scenario of uninstalling existing JRE(s) from Java installer when JAWS is running.

JDK-8223293 (not public)

hotspot/compiler

 Possible Performance Regression in JDK 8 Updates 202, 211, and 212

Due to a known issue with the fix for JDK-8155635, introduced in JDK 8 update 202, some applications may experience a performance regression (lower throughput and/or higher CPU consumption) when migrating from earlier releases. Examples of code that might trigger this regression include heavy use of sun.misc.Unsafe and the Reflection API. This performance regression is addressed in JDK-8221355.

See JDK-8221355

Changes

security-libs/java.security

 Added GlobalSign R6 Root Certificate 

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

• GlobalSign

  • globalsignrootcar6

    DN: CN=GlobalSign, O=GlobalSign, OU=GlobalSign Root CA - R6

JDK-8216577 (not public)

security-libs/javax.net.ssl

 Distrust TLS Server Certificates Anchored by Symantec Root CAs 

The JDK will stop trusting TLS Server certificates issued by Symantec, in line with similar plans recently announced by Google, Mozilla, Apple, and Microsoft. The list of affected certificates includes certificates branded as GeoTrust, Thawte, and VeriSign, which were managed by Symantec.

TLS Server certificates issued on or before April 16, 2019 will continue to be trusted until they expire. Certificates issued after that date will be rejected. See the DigiCert support page for information on how to replace your Symantec certificates with a DigiCert certificate (DigiCert took over validation and issuance for all Symantec Website Security SSL/TLS certificates on December 1, 2017).

An exception to this policy is that TLS Server certificates issued through two subordinate Certificate Authorities managed by Apple, and identified below, will continue to be trusted as long as they are issued on or before December 31, 2019.

The restrictions are enforced in the JDK implementation (the SunJSSE Provider) of the Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE) API. A TLS session will not be negotiated if the server's certificate chain is anchored by any of the Certificate Authorities in the table below.

An application will receive an Exception with a message indicating the trust anchor is not trusted, ex:

"TLS Server certificate issued after 2019-04-16 and anchored by a distrusted legacy Symantec root CA: CN=GeoTrust Global CA, O=GeoTrust Inc., C=US"

If necessary, and at your own risk, you can work around the restrictions by removing "SYMANTEC_TLS" from the jdk.security.caDistrustPolicies security property in the java.security configuration file.

The restrictions are imposed on the following Symantec Root certificates included in the JDK:

Root Certificates distrusted after 2019-04-16

Subordinate Certificates distrusted after 2019-12-31

If you have a TLS Server certificate issued by one of the CAs above, you should have received a message from DigiCert with information about replacing that certificate, free of charge.

You can also use the keytool utility from the JDK to print out details of the certificate chain, as follows:

keytool -v -list -alias <your_server_alias> -keystore <your_keystore_filename>

If any of the certificates in the chain are issued by one of the root CAs in the table above are listed in the output you will need to update the certificate or contact the organization that manages the server if not yours.

See JDK-8207258

core-libs/java.time

The JapaneseEra class and its of(int), valueOf(String), and values() methods are clarified to accommodate future Japanese era additions, such as how the singleton instances are defined, what the associated integer era values are, etc.

See JDK-8212941

Bug Fixes 

This release also contains fixes for security vulnerabilities described in the Oracle Critical Patch Update.