As part of ongoing maintenance, the Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 tool chain will be used to build JDK 7 and JDK 8 for Windows. JDK 8u261, in the July 2020 CPU, was built with Visual Studio 2017. With the release of the January 2021 CPU, JDK 7u291 will move to Visual Studio 2017.

Moving to Visual Studio 2017 for JDK 7 and JDK 8 requires changing the runtime library that the JDK/JRE depends on. Before this change, JDK/JRE implementations used and shipped the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86/x64) that included MSVCR100.dll [a][b]. Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 uses a different set of libraries/DLLs.

Native applications (including JNI) that have depended on and assumed the presence of MSCVR100.dll in the JDK/JRE directory will fail to run. When this happens, users will see an error such as:

"The code execution cannot proceed because MSVCR100.dll was not found. Reinstalling the program may fix this problem."

These applications should be rebuilt and shipped with modern C++ runtime dependencies that use a later instance of Visual Studio. Applications should not depend on DLLs included with the JDK/JRE that are not documented in the product as offering support for the specification or other functionality in Java SE.

[a] http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2019667

[b] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/end-of-support/end-of-support-2020

Added support for RSASSA-PSS signature algorithms in JSSE implementation.

JDK 8u261 includes an implementation of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 specification (RFC 8446). For more details including a list of the features that are supported, refer to the Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE) Reference Guide documentation and JEP 332.

For TLS 1.3, the following new standard algorithm names are defined:

1. TLS protocol version name: TLSv1.3
2. SSLContext algorithm name: TLSv1.3
3. TLS cipher suite names for TLS 1.3: TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256, TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

TLS 1.3 is disabled for default SSLContext("SSL" or "TLS") for client end-point.

The TLS 1.3 protocol can be enabled using several mechanisms already available in the JDK. For example, TLS 1.3 protocol can be enabled on SSL/TLS connections using SSLSocket/SSLEngine/SSLServerSocket APIs and system properties by the following:

1. sslSocket.setEnabledProtocols(new String[] { "TLSv1.3", "TLSv1.2"});
2. Setting up and using a TLSv1.3 based SSLContext : SSLContext ctx = SSLContext.getInstance("TLSv1.3");
3. Using the SSLParameters API: sslParameters.setProtocols(new String[] {"TLSv1.3", "TLSv1.2"});
4. The jdk.tls.client.protocols system property can also be used to control the protocols in use for a TLS connection. One may launch their application with this property. For example, java -Djdk.tls.client.protocols="TLSv1.3,TLSv1.2" enables TLSv1.3 and TLSv1.2 on client SSLSockets.
5. The https.protocols system property can also be used to control the protocols on connection obtained through use of the HttpsURLConnection class or URL.openStream() operations. For example, -Dhttps.protocols=TLSv1.3,TLSv1.2.

A new system property, jdk.tls.server.protocols, has been added to configure the default enabled protocol suite in the server side of the SunJSSE provider.

A new security property, jdk.tls.keyLimits, has been added for TLS 1.3. When the specified amount of data of a specific algorithm has been processed, a post-handshake Key and IV Update is triggered to derive new keys.

Note that TLS 1.3 is not directly compatible with previous versions. Although TLS 1.3 can be implemented with a backward-compatibility mode, there are still several compatibility risks to take into account when upgrading to TLS 1.3:

1. TLS 1.3 uses a half-close policy, while TLS 1.2 and prior versions use a duplex-close policy. For applications that depend on the duplex-close policy, there might be compatibility issues when upgrading to TLS 1.3. A new system property, jdk.tls.acknowledgeCloseNotify, is added. The default value of the system property is "false". If the system property is set to "true", a corresponding close_notify alert will be sent when receiving a close_notify alert, and the connection will be duplex closed.
2. The signature_algorithms_cert extension requires that pre-defined signature algorithms are used for certificate authentication. In practice, however, an application can use unsupported signature algorithms.
3. The DSA signature algorithm is not supported in TLS 1.3. If a server is configured to only use DSA certificates, it cannot upgrade to TLS 1.3.
4. The supported cipher suites for TLS 1.3 are not the same as TLS 1.2 and prior versions. If an application hard-codes cipher suites that are no longer supported, it cannot use TLS 1.3 without modifying the application code.
5. The TLS 1.3 session resumption and key update behaviors are different from TLS 1.2 and prior versions. The compatibility impact should be minimal; however, there could be a risk if an application depends on the handshake details of the TLS protocols.
6. The legacy com.sun.net.ssl.dhKeyExchangeFix system property has been removed from the new TLS implementation.

Improved JSSE debug logging format has been introduced to record the logger name, the logger level, the thread ID, the thread name, the time and the caller for each log item. Use the javax.net.debug=all system property to get full debug logs.

Since January 2018 (8u161, 7u171) unlimited Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) Jurisdiction Policy files have been bundled with the JDK and enabled by default (see JDK Cryptographic Roadmap).

The certificate for the old stand alone jar has expired, and if used the following exception will be seen:

Caused By: java.lang.SecurityException: The jurisdiction policy files are not signed by the expected signer! (Policy files are specific per major JDK release.Ensure the correct version is installed.) at javax.crypto.JarVerifier.verifyPolicySigned(JarVerifier.java:336) at javax.crypto.JceSecurity.loadPolicies(JceSecurity.java:378) at javax.crypto.JceSecurity.setupJurisdictionPolicies(JceSecurity.java:323) at javax.crypto.JceSecurity.access$000(JceSecurity.java:50) at javax.crypto.JceSecurity$1.run(JceSecurity.java:85) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at javax.crypto.JceSecurity.<clinit>(JceSecurity.java:82)

If still required for older releases the re-signed files can be found at https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/oracle-java-archive-downloads.html

Two new system properties have been added to customize the TLS signature schemes in JDK. jdk.tls.client.SignatureSchemes has been added for the TLS client side, and jdk.tls.server.SignatureSchemes has been added for the server side.

Each system property contains a comma-separated list of supported signature scheme names specifying the signature schemes that could be used for the TLS connections.

The names are described in the "Signature Schemes" section of the Java Security Standard Algorithm Names Specification.

The JDK SunJSSE implementation now supports the TLS FFDHE mechanisms defined in RFC 7919. If a server cannot process the supported_groups TLS extension or the named groups in the extension, applications can either customize the supported group names with jdk.tls.namedGroups, or turn off the FFDHE mechanisms by setting the System Property jsse.enableFFDHE to false.

Build Environment Update for macOS Moved to Xcode 10.1 On macOS, the toolchain used to build the JDK has been upgraded from Xcode 4.5 to Xcode 10.1.

Media playback does not work on Ubuntu 20.04. This affects all media formats (such as, mp4, mp3, wav, etc.). In some cases, an error will be thrown. In other cases, the media player will switch to the ready state, but playback will not start. There is no workaround for this issue. This issue should be resolved by JDK-8239095.

The preferred way to copy a collection is to use a "copy constructor." For example, to copy a collection into a new ArrayList, one would write new ArrayList<>(collection). In certain circumstances, an additional, temporary copy of the collection's contents might be made in order to improve robustness. If the collection being copied is exceptionally large, then the application should be (aware of/monitor) the significant resources required involved in making the copy.

Prior to JDK 8u261, the JSSE framework passed an array of Strings of all keytypes in one call to the (delegate) javax.net.ssl.X509KeyManager.chooseClientAlias(String[] keyType, Principal[] issuers, Socket socket) implementation when client authentication is present in an application. Since JDK 8u261, the internal JDK libraries may call the delegate javax.net.ssl.X509KeyManager.chooseClientAlias method in multiple iterations while performing client authentication. One key type per call. https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/javax/net/ssl/X509KeyManager.html#chooseClientAlias-java.lang.String:A-java.security.Principal:A-java.net.Socket-

If application code implements javax.net.ssl.X509KeyManager, ensure that the code logic in that implementation does not assume that all keytypes are passed in the keyType String array in the first call to chooseClientAlias: String chooseClientAlias​(String[] keyType, Principal[] issuers, Socket socket)

This version of the JDK no longer includes Java Mission Control (JMC). The jmc launcher has been removed from the JDK bin directory, and the missioncontrol directory has been removed from the JDK lib directory. The .jfr file association is not registered by JDK installers. JMC is now available as a separate download. Please visit https://www.oracle.com/javase/jmc for more information.

JDK 8u261 release includes an implementation of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 specification (RFC 8446). The following are descriptions of "Known Issues" which an application might encounter during a SSL handshake, post upgrade to Oracle JDK/JRE 8u261:

1. SSL handshake fails on client side with an exception message "Received fatal alert: handshake_failure"

javax.net.ssl|SEVERE|C8|....|TransportContext.java:319|Fatal (HANDSHAKE_FAILURE): Received fatal
alert: handshake_failure (
"throwable" : {
  javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Received fatal alert:
handshake_failure
        at sun.security.ssl.Alert.createSSLException(Alert.java:131)
        at sun.security.ssl.Alert.createSSLException(Alert.java:117)
        at sun.security.ssl.TransportContext.fatal(TransportContext.java:314)
        at sun.security.ssl.Alert$AlertConsumer.consume(Alert.java:293)
        at sun.security.ssl.TransportContext.dispatch(TransportContext.java:187)
        at sun.security.ssl.SSLTransport.decode(SSLTransport.java:154)
        at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.decode(SSLSocketImpl.java:1198)
        at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readHandshakeRecord(SSLSocketImpl.java:1107)
        at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:400)
       at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(SSLSocketImpl.java:372)

Cause: One possible cause is old server intolerance to FFDHE arguments. As per TLS RFC 7919 on server behavior If a compatible TLS server receives a Supported Groups extension from a client that includes any FFDHE group (i.e., any codepoint between 256 and 511, inclusive, even if unknown to the server), and if none of the client-proposed FFDHE groups are known and acceptable to the server, then the server MUST NOT select an FFDHE cipher suite. In this case, the server SHOULD select an acceptable non-FFDHE cipher suite from the client's offered list. If the extension is present with FFDHE groups, none of the client's offered groups are acceptable by the server, and none of the client's proposed non-FFDHE cipher suites are acceptable to the server, the server MUST end the connection with a fatal TLS alert of type insufficient_security(71).

Solution: In Oracle JDK 8u261, Finite Field Diffie-Hellman Ephemeral (FFDHE) is enabled by default. User can disable FFDHE via security property "-Djsse.enableFFDHE=false on the server (See JDK-8252716)

2. Post upgrade to 8u261 client application encounters close_notify exception during a ClientHello SSL handshake.

javax.net.ssl.SSLProtocolException: Received close_notify during handshake

       at sun.security.ssl.Alert.createSSLException(Unknown Source)
        at sun.security.ssl.Alert.createSSLException(Unknown Source)
        at sun.security.ssl.TransportContext.fatal(Unknown Source)
        at sun.security.ssl.TransportContext.fatal(Unknown Source)
        at sun.security.ssl.TransportContext.fatal(Unknown Source)
        at sun.security.ssl.Alert$AlertConsumer.consume(Unknown Source)
        at sun.security.ssl.TransportContext.dispatch(Unknown Source)
        at sun.security.ssl.SSLTransport.decode(Unknown Source)
        at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.decode(Unknown Source)
        at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.readHandshakeRecord(Unknown Source)
        at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(Unknown Source)
        at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.startHandshake(Unknown Source)
        at sun.net.www.protocol.https.HttpsClient.afterConnect(Unknown

Cause: In case of an SSL abbreviated handshake (session resumption) SSL client is adding extra extensions than the agreed protocol's supported extensions. While it is TLS RFC complaint, some old non-compliant server implementations may reject this ClientHello.

Solution: As a work around specify System property -Djdk.tls.client.protocols= or use setEnabledProtocols API to set on the client end to mitigate the issue.

3. On upgrade to 8u261, under certain conditions user application may observe higher CPU utilization and slower response time.

Following method reference count would increase in memory profilers

   HashMap$Node[] java.util.HashMap.resize()
   void sun.security.ssl.SSLSessionContextImpl.put(SSLSessionImpl)
   void sun.security.util.MemoryCache.put(Object, Object)
   Object java.util.HashMap.put(Object, Object)
   Object java.util.HashMap.putVal(int, Object, Object, boolean, boolean)
   HashMap$Node[] java.util.HashMap.resize()

Cause: In 8u261, System Property SSLSessionContext.getSessionCacheSize default value was changed from 0 to 20480 ( see JDK-8210985 ) The change was made since with larger heaps, applications are running into situations where the cache ends up with several million entries at the 24 hour mark, at which time many of them are invalidated at almost the same time, which can result in multi-minute pauses, which are effectively service failures.

Solution: Revert back to JDK 8u251 behaviour by setting System Property "-Djavax.net.ssl.sessionCacheSize=0" (set number of entries in the SSL session cache to infinite)

4. TLS connection issues with applications using javax.net.ssl.SSLEngine

Cause: The internal implementation of the SSLEngine and associated classes has been reworked with the introduction of TLS v1.3 support. Buffer usage has been improved in the SSLEngine area.

Solution: If an SSLEngine application encounters issues after upgrading to JDK 8u261 or later, refer to the Java 8 API to ensure application code is correct. In particular, applications using SSLEngine should not just depend on SSLEngineResult.Status.BUFFER_UNDERFLOW or SSLEngineResult.Status.BUFFER_OVERFLOW results in order to flush pending data. Buffers should always be flushed after an SSLEngine wrap operation if such a call produces data (where SSLEngineResult.Status.OK may be returned).

5. Post upgrading client machine with 8u261, during a SSL handshake, the "Request Authentication" popup dialog does not display any certificates if user has set deployment System Property deployment.security.clientauth.keystore.auto=false

Cause: If deployment.security.clientauth.keystore.auto=false in the deployment.properties file Java Plugin and Java Web Start show “Request Authentication” dialog regardless the number of available certificates. However due to some modifications introduced by TLS 1.3 framework sometimes the list of available certificates might be empty.

Solution: There are two possible ways to resolve the issue:

1. Set deployment System Property deployment.security.clientauth.keystore.auto=true

2. Upgrade to new version 8u281 of Oracle JDK contained the fix for the issue

(see JDK-8253502 )

6. Post upgrade to 8u261, during a SSL handshake, user may observe the following "Warning" message in the log

javax.net.ssl|WARNING|03|Finalizer|2020-08-31 09:42:20.203 EDT|null:-1|SSLSocket duplex close failed (
"throwable" : {
java.net.SocketException: Socket is not connected
at java.net.Socket.shutdownOutput(Unknown Source)
at sun.security.ssl.BaseSSLSocketImpl.shutdownOutput(Unknown Source)
at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.duplexCloseOutput(Unknown Source)
at sun.security.ssl.SSLSocketImpl.close(Unknown Source)
at sun.security.ssl.BaseSSLSocketImpl.finalize(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.System$2.invokeFinalize(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ref.Finalizer.runFinalizer(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ref.Finalizer.access$100(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ref.Finalizer$FinalizerThread.run(Unknown Source)}

Cause: JDK 8u261 introduced a new format for TLS logging. Additional data is now captured per event and logged. Exceptions handled by the JDK TLS library code may print verbose information about the cause of such exceptions when logging is enabled.

Solution: User can safely ignore these Warning messages

7. Ensure you 3rd party libraries are fully patched. Examples: Bouncy Castle, Apache, OpenSSL, Jetty

Symptoms: New/Unexpected issues from 3rd party library software being used in conjunction with the JDK.

Cause: The new TLS implementation introduces significant changes to the internal, underlying, design of the JDK TLS security libraries. The new design has exposed some bugs in 3rd party software libraries. For the most part, these issues have already been patched in such 3rd party libraries.

Examples include: Apache http-core Bouncy Castle Jetty

Solution: It's good practice to ensure that 3rd party library products being used in conjunction with the JDK TLS API are patched and up to date.

On Windows 7, the Internet Explorer 11 (IE 11) JavaScript engine does not interact properly with Java Applets because, beginning with 8u261, the JDK/JRE is compiled with VisualStudio 2017. For example, an application that uses the JavaScript methods setTimeout() and setInterval() may cause IE 11 to hang when a modal dialog is shown by a Java Applet.

Communication with the alternatives framework of JDK RPM installer starting from 8u261 has changed. JDK RPM installers of prior versions registered two groups of symbolic links with alternatives framework, java and javac. Some names of links in these groups were duplicated, which resulted in installation failures for some versions of alternatives framework. The JDK RPM installer beginning with 8u261 doesn't register the javac group with alternatives framework. All links unique to the javac group have been moved into the java group, but the set of symbolic links registered by the installer have not changed; only the duplicated links have been dropped.

The implication of this change is that if this version of JDK and 8u251 or older versions of the JDK are installed and the previous version is uninstalled, the symbolic links from the java group that are managed by the alternatives framework will be deleted. To restore deleted links, run the command: /usr/sbin/alternatives --auto java

When executing in a container, or other virtualized operating environment, the following OperatingSystemMXBean methods in this release return container specific information, if available. Otherwise, they return host specific data:

• getFreePhysicalMemorySize()
• getTotalPhysicalMemorySize()
• getFreeSwapSpaceSize()
• getTotalSwapSpaceSize()
• getSystemCpuLoad()

The default SSL session cache size has been updated to 20480 in this JDK release

BoringSSL is an SSL library deployed on some popular websites such as those run by Google/YouTube. An interoperability issue with the BoringSSL library can lead to a connection failure if TLSv1.3 is presented as the only enabled protocol in the ClientHello message and the certificate status_request extension is disabled. Enabling the certificate status_request extension by setting the jdk.tls.client.enableStatusRequestExtension system property to true will provide mitigation in such scenarios.

When setting a serialization filter by using java.io.ObjectInputStream.setObjectInputFilter the method must be called before reading any objects from the stream. If the methods readObject or readUnshared are called, the setObjectInputFilter method throws IllegalStateException.

In TLS, a ciphersuite defines a specific set of cryptography algorithms used in a TLS connection. JSSE maintains a prioritized list of ciphersuites. In this update, GCM-based cipher suites are configured as the most preferable default cipher suites in the SunJSSE provider.

In the SunJSSE provider, the following ciphersuites are now the most preferred by default:

TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256

TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384
TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384

TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
TLS_ECDH_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256
TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256

Note that this is a behavior change of the SunJSSE provider in the JDK, it is not guaranteed to be examined and used by other JSSE providers. There is no guarantee the cipher suites priorities will remain the same in future updates or releases.