Oracle recently released its Critical Patch Update Advisory for July 2020. The advisory includes a list of vulnerabilities in Java 8 Update 251 and earlier versions. The fix is to install the latest version, Java 8 Update 261.

There are eleven Java vulnerabilities listed in the advisory, all of which may be remotely exploitable without authentication (exploited over a network without requiring user credentials).

This is a good time to check whether your Windows computers have Java installed, and either update it, or remove it completely if it’s no longer required.

If you’re not sure whether you need Java, you might as well remove it. If you subsequently encounter an application or web site that doesn’t run properly without Java, it’s easy enough to simply reinstall Java from the main Java download page.

The simplest way to check whether Java is installed is to open up the Windows Control Panel and look for a Java (or Java 32-bit) entry. If you see one, open that and navigate to the About tab.

To update Java, you can use the Update tab of the Java Control Panel applet, or just head to the main Java download page.