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Why are the Java plugins required by medical systems not allowed to be re-enabled, which would allow medical facilities to continue functioning?

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  • Last reply by JRChadwick

JRChadwick
JRChadwick
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The problem with the most recent blacklist is is that the health care industry is behind in technology. Many medical systems are old and require older versions of Java to function. The blacklist has caused countless facilities to lose the ability to order life saving medications. Even my tech support desk has been bombarded with calls about this for the last 2 days. What can be done to allow these older versions of Java work within Firefox and restore facilities back to full operation?

The problem with the most recent blacklist is is that the health care industry is behind in technology. Many medical systems are old and require older versions of Java to function. The blacklist has caused countless facilities to lose the ability to order life saving medications. Even my tech support desk has been bombarded with calls about this for the last 2 days. What can be done to allow these older versions of Java work within Firefox and restore facilities back to full operation?

Chosen solution

Hi JRChadwick,
Sorry to hear about the health care industry's lag in technology. There are old versions of Java being actively exploited. Oracle released an update in February that fixes the vulnerability. What Mozilla did was put a softblock on it, which means that users get a notice that he plugin will be disabled, and give them the option of enabling it. To enable it:

  1. Go to Tools > Add-ons > Plugins.
  2. Beside Java, click Enable.

If the Enable button is not available, the blocklist must have been updated before Mozilla changed it to a softblock, instead of a hardblock. In which case, do this:

  1. Go to Help > Troubleshooting Information.
  2. Click on Open Containing Folder. That should open your profile folder in Windows Explorer.
  3. Close Firefox.
  4. In your profile folder, delete the files blocklist.xml and pluginreg.dat.
  5. Start Firefox.

At some point after that, you should then get the blocklist prompt again, but this time the option not to disable it should be there.

But I really can't stress this enough: those versions of Java are being being actively exploited and the latest version is not vulnerable. If there's any chance you can use the latest version of Java with the medical systems, that's the way to go.

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All Replies (3)

JRChadwick
JRChadwick Question owner
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Additionally, I am now blocked from creating alert messages for our customers because of the system requirements of our messaging program and the block of Java 6 Update 26

Chris Ilias
Chris Ilias
  • Moderator
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Chosen Solution

Hi JRChadwick,
Sorry to hear about the health care industry's lag in technology. There are old versions of Java being actively exploited. Oracle released an update in February that fixes the vulnerability. What Mozilla did was put a softblock on it, which means that users get a notice that he plugin will be disabled, and give them the option of enabling it. To enable it:

  1. Go to Tools > Add-ons > Plugins.
  2. Beside Java, click Enable.

If the Enable button is not available, the blocklist must have been updated before Mozilla changed it to a softblock, instead of a hardblock. In which case, do this:

  1. Go to Help > Troubleshooting Information.
  2. Click on Open Containing Folder. That should open your profile folder in Windows Explorer.
  3. Close Firefox.
  4. In your profile folder, delete the files blocklist.xml and pluginreg.dat.
  5. Start Firefox.

At some point after that, you should then get the blocklist prompt again, but this time the option not to disable it should be there.

But I really can't stress this enough: those versions of Java are being being actively exploited and the latest version is not vulnerable. If there's any chance you can use the latest version of Java with the medical systems, that's the way to go.

Modified by Chris Ilias

JRChadwick
JRChadwick Question owner
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Thank you very much for supplying this solution. It works great - I even used it on my PC. I do appreciate the caution and agree with you about the danger of exploitation. We are upgrading facilities when they do not have a Java version limit requirement; we also provide fair warning to those facilities that can not upgrade because of other software limitations. I can't thank you enough, you have helped us greatly.