Java vs. Banner

[David Curry <david.curry () NEWSCHOOL EDU>]

As those of you at schools using Banner know, Ellucian has still not
certified Banner to run on Java 7; Java 6 (including the browser plug-in)
must be installed on end users' desktops. Java 6, of course, has reached
the end of its public update period, which means any future updates after
the end of this month will come through Ellucian rather than Oracle (or so
they tell us).

Aside from the increased difficulty of trying to keep a down-rev version of
Java installed on systems used by Banner users, especially since our users
have admin rights and are therefore free to update Java when they want and
will do so if another application asks them to, we are of course concerned
that maintaining a down-rev version of the Java plug-in will expose these
systems to increased risk of compromise because of security
vulnerabilities. This is particularly worrying because, of course, the
people who use Banner are also the people who work with lots of personally
identifiable information.

Java 7 support from Ellucian doesn't appear to be imminent, so we believe
we need to find a medium-term solution to this problem that lets our Banner
users continue to use Java 6, but does not expose them to increased risk by
allowing them to use a browser containing the Java 6 plug-in to access the
Internet. We have some preliminary thoughts on ways to address the issue,
ranging from "use this browser to access Banner and that browser to access
the Internet" (which doesn't come with a very high assurance level) to
installing Windows XP Compatibility Mode on all Banner users' machines and
running Banner+Java 6 in a virtual machine (a lot of work to implement).

Before we go one way or the other, we thought we'd ask the list -- what is
your school doing in response to the whole Java vs. Banner thing?

Thanks,
--Dave


--

*DAVID A. CURRY, CISSP* • DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION SECURITY

*THE NEW SCHOOL* • 55 W. 13TH STREET • NEW YORK, NY 10011

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