Oracle patches critical vulnerabilites in major update

The update includes patches for 16 vulnerabilities in Oracle Database 11g, 10g and 9i.

The most serious is a flaw in Oracle Resource Manager, which was given a Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) score of nine.

Other affected products include Oracle Application Server, which was allocated 12 security fixes, and several BEA products, including two with CVSS scores of 10.

Vulnerabilities in the Oracle JRockit runtime platform and WebLogic Server itself could both be exploited remotely by a hacker to steal information without the need for username or password authentication, Oracle said.

Other fixes were released for Oracle's E-Business Suite and the PeopleSoft Enterprise product line.

"Due to the threat posed by a successful attack, Oracle strongly recommends that customers apply fixes as soon as possible. Until you apply the fixes, it may be possible to reduce the risk of successful attack by restricting network protocols required by an attack," the firm said in a statement.

"For attacks that require certain privileges or access to certain packages, removing the privileges or the ability to access the packages from unprivileged users may help reduce the risk of successful attack."