Oracle announced on Thursday the release of a security patch to address a zero-day exploit in the Java runtime that was uncovered earlier this week. The security patch also addresses two other less serious issues affecting Java.
The zero-day exploit allowed the bad guys to install executable software on target machines from maliciously-crafted webpages, a serious security breach.
The release is for the Java 1.7 runtime, which is installed on some Macs running OS X versions earlier than Lion. Starting with Lion, Apple removed Java from OS X, prompting users to download a session-specific Java runtime when needed. Apple joined the OpenJDK project in 2010, an open source project to maintain Java for the Mac.
If you want Java on your Mac or already have it, you can download the current version from Oracle’s Java site.