Josh Fruhlinger
Contributing Writer

Beware evil GIFs with built-in Java

how-to
Jul 7, 20081 min

Word from a shadowy black hat webinar is that Java could be used as an attack vector — by embedding executable Java code in GIFs. It’s not clear if this would be a client- or server-based attack, but the core concept behind the technique — building a GIF file that’s also a JAR — is pretty intriguing. Sun may be working on a patch for this, which would obviously be good. But the important question is: Will this improve Java’s reputation among l33t hax0r d00ds?