ColdFusion 2018 update 7 released...do you "need" it?

Note: This blog post is from 2019. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.

But note first that the security aspect applies only to those running CF on Windows (and even then not ALL users of CF on Windows, as I will explain).

Then again, the update also includes a bug fix to a CF Admin, for a UI issue (related to updates, in fact), and if you need that, then you do want the fix (regardless of your OS).

So who needs it? If you need a little more guidance, I offer some clarification, as well as links from Adobe for more.

First, note that FWIW there is no update offered today for CF2016, only CF 2018.

What the Adobe resources say

As for whether you "need" to apply the update, the wording in the update's technote and the Adobe blog post about it may leave some wondering (at least as of their first writing today, on which basis I'm writing this post).

I asked some clarifying questions in comments in their blog post, and based on that, here is my take on how to decide if you "need" this update. (Of course, you can apply the update regardless. This is just about whether you "need" to.)

Bottom line, the update addresses two issues:

• a security update (that applies only to Windows users, who have not run the CF2018 auto lockdown tool)
• a CF Admin UI bug fix, resolving a problem in the "Updates" page where you may have noticed there was no scroll bar for each update's text box, which could hide the "download" and "install" buttons. Until you get this update implemented, note that you can click on text within the update and then click the tab key, to cause your browser to find and show the buttons.

How I see it, as to whether it applies to you

So as for whether you DO or DO NOT need to apply this update, it's down to these factors:

• If you are on CF2016, this update does not apply to you. You can stop reading.
• If you are on any OS, and you DO use the CF Admin to download and update CF, then you DO need to need to apply the update. You can stop reading (and go apply the update, noting my tip above about how to find and click the buttons).
• If you are on Linux, Unix, or Mac, and you manually download and apply the CF updates, you don't need this update (as the security fix does not apply to you). You can stop reading.
• If you are on Windows and HAVE run the CF2018 auto-lockdown tool, again the security fix of this update does not apply to you. And if you manually download and apply the CF updates, then you, too, do not need this update. You can stop reading.
• If you are on Windows and HAVE NOT run the CF2018 auto-lockdown tool, then you need the security update aspect of the update, regardless of how you update CF, though you also benefit from the bug fix aspect of the update if you DO use the CF Admin to download and update CF

(I thought about creating a table with boxes, but it was actually more complicated to try to render this that way, so I offer the words above instead.)

Hope that's helpful.

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