Oracle patches 45 bugs

Oracle Tuesday posted its third security update of the year, patching 45 vulnerabilities in its flagship database and its application server, collaboration suite, e-business line and PeopleSoft software.

Nearly one-third of the bugs -- 13 -- can be exploited remotely by hackers without needing to authenticate using a valid username and password. Oracle counts those flaws as the most dangerous. "This means that an attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities remotely without having to authenticate directly to the targeted system," explained Eric Maurice, Oracles' security manager, in an entry on the company's security blog Tuesday.

Here's a breakdown of the 45 fixes deployed in the July Critical Patch Update (CPU):

• 18 are for Oracle Database Server, with two that patch flaws that are remotely exploitable without credentials.
• One is for Oracle Application Express.
• Four are for Oracle Application Server, including three that patch flaws that are remotely exploitable.
• One is for Oracle Collaboration Suite, patching a flaw that can be exploited remotely.
• 14 are for on Oracle E-Business Suite, with six that patch flaws that are remotely exploitable.
• Seven are for Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise, with one for a remotely exploitable flaw.

In its January and April CPU releases, Oracle patched 51 and 36 vulnerabilities, respectively, so the latest update puts the 2007 tally at 132.

Relatively few of the vulnerabilities, however, were said to have been discovered by outside researchers. Alexander Kornbrust of Red Database Security GmbH, a German database security vendor, was credited with finding three. Of Kornbrust's trio, one was reported to Oracle in October 2006, a second in November and the third this past May.

The next scheduled Oracle security fix will be released Oct. 16.