Oracle plugs 51 holes

Oracle has released fixes for 51 vulnerabilities that affect its software products.

The update is part of the company's quarterly patch cycle. Oracle pre-announced its patch release last week, when, for the first time, it published an advance notification so customers could plan ahead to apply the fixes.

Oracle's actual Tuesday 'Critical Patch Update' (CPU) has one fix less than the company originally announced. Instead of the planned 27 fixes for its database products, 26 vulnerabilities are addressed in the company's flagship software.

Eric Maurice, manager for security at Oracle, wrote on a corporate blog: "An issue was detected with one of the database fixes for a number of database versions. Per our policy… we removed the fix from the January CPU. We are working to resolve this issue to release the fix on all supported database versions with the next CPU in April."

In addition to the database fixes, Oracle's update repairs 12 flaws in Application Server, seven in E-Business Suite, six in Enterprise Manager and three in PeopleSoft. Many bugs are serious and could allow a system running the vulnerable Oracle software to be compromised remotely by an anonymous attacker, Oracle said.

Maurice wrote: "As usual, we highly recommend that customers apply all patches promptly."

Oracle's next patch release is due on 17 April.

Joris Evers writes for CNET News.com