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Ubuntu LinuxOperating system · Canonical

CVE-2014-6601

HIGH · 10.0 CVSS v2.0 Published 2015-01-21
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Unspecified vulnerability in Oracle Java SE 6u85, 7u72, and 8u25 allows remote attackers to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability via unknown vectors related to Hotspot.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

Unspecified vulnerability in the Java Hotspot JVM affecting Oracle Java SE versions 6u85, 7u72, and 8u25. Given the CVSS 10 score and impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, this is likely a remote code execution vulnerability in the Hotspot component, though the exact technical details are not specified in the CVE description.

MitigationUpdate Oracle Java SE to versions later than 8u25 (or later than 7u72 and 6u85 as appropriate) to obtain the patched Hotspot component, as Oracle Critical Patch Updates address this and similar Hotspot vulnerabilities.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Ubuntu LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 10.04= 12.04= 14.04= 14.10
Debian LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 7.0= 8.0
Enterprise LinuxOperating system
Affected:= 5.0= 6.0= 7.0
Suse Linux Enterprise DesktopOperating system
Affected:= 11.0
Suse Linux Enterprise ServerOperating system
Affected:= 12.0
OpensuseOperating system
Affected:= 13.2
JdkApplication
Affected:= 1.6.0= 1.7.0= 1.8.0
JreApplication
Affected:= 1.6.0= 1.7.0= 1.8.0

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Authentication
None
Confidentiality
Complete
Integrity
Complete
Availability
Complete

AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed Java runtime
    Run 'java -version' and 'which java' to locate and identify the installed Java executable
    Affected if No Java is installed or the command fails - not affected in that case, but if Java is present, continue to next step
  2. Verify Hotspot JVM is in use
    Examine the output of 'java -version' - it typically displays 'HotSpot' or 'OpenJDK' with Hotspot as the VM. Alternatively, run 'java -version -verbose' or check the JRE directory for hotspot in the path
    Affected if The JVM vendor shown is not Oracle or OpenJDK with Hotspot (e.g., IBM J9, Eclipse OpenJ9) - the vulnerability is specific to Hotspot
  3. Compare version against affected ranges
    Run 'java -version' and check the full version string (e.g., 1.8.0_25, 1.7.0_72, 1.6.0_85). For JDK, also run 'javac -version'. Compare against 1.6.0 up to and including 85, 1.7.0 up to and including 72, and 1.8.0 up to and including 25
    Affected if The installed version is 1.6.0 up to 85, 1.7.0 up to 72, or 1.8.0 up to 25 (exact versions as shown in the CVE)
  4. Check system package manager for distro-packaged Java
    On Debian/Ubuntu run 'dpkg -l | grep -i java' or 'apt list --installed | grep -i openjdk'. On RHEL/CentOS run 'rpm -qa | grep -i java'. On SUSE run 'rpm -qa | grep -i jdk'
    Affected if The installed package version matches the vulnerable Oracle Java SE versions as shipped by the distribution

A system is affected if it runs Oracle Java SE or OpenJDK with Hotspot JVM versions 1.6.0 through 85, 1.7.0 through 72, or 1.8.0 through 25 on the affected Linux distributions.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch www.oracle.com →
Interim mitigation

Update Oracle Java SE to versions later than 8u25 (or later than 7u72 and 6u85 as appropriate) to obtain the patched Hotspot component, as Oracle Critical Patch Updates address this and similar Hotspot vulnerabilities.

Recommended fix High confidence

Oracle Java SE 6u85, 7u72, or 8u25 (or later versions in each respective release line)

  1. 1. Identify the currently installed Java version by running 'java -version' or 'javac -version'
  2. 2. For Oracle Java/JDK: Download the patched version from Oracle's official download page - Java SE 6u85, 7u72, or 8u25 depending on your product line
  3. 3. For OpenJDK on Debian/Ubuntu: Run 'sudo apt-get update' followed by 'sudo apt-get upgrade openjdk-7-jdk' or 'openjdk-8-jdk'
  4. 4. For RHEL/CentOS/Enterprise Linux: Run 'sudo yum update java-1.7.0-openjdk' or 'java-1.8.0-openjdk'
  5. 5. For SUSE: Use 'sudo zypper update' to apply available security patches
  6. 6. After installation, verify the fix by running 'java -version' and confirming it shows the patched version
  7. 7. Ensure any running applications are restarted to use the updated Java runtime
Caveat Minor - some legacy applications may have compatibility issues with newer Java versions; test in non-production environment first

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Ubuntu Linux Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,760
Get the patch applied

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2014-6601 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data