IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 25, Number 7

February 13, 2023

Doug Bidwell

This week brought more security vulnerabilities in the airspace above us, and also around the world with weird sightings in the United States, Canada, China, and Russia. Now we have security vulnerabilities in open source code that is part of the IBM i stack.

First, we have a Security Bulletin. IBM Java SDK and IBM Java Runtime for IBM i are vulnerable to bypassing security restrictions, denial of service attacks, and data integrity impacts due to multiple vulnerabilities, which you can find out more about at this link. There are fixes as shown below by IBM i release and by 5770-JV1 Group PTF Number and Level:

IBM i 7.5 – SF99955 Level 4
IBM i 7.4 – SF99665 Level 17
IBM i 7.3 – SF99725 Level 28
IBM i 7.2 – SF99716 Level 38

Second, we have Security Bulletin: IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty is vulnerable to information disclosure due to Apache James MIME4J (CVE-2022-45787), which you can find out more about at this link. IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty releases 21.0.0.12 through 23.0.0.1.

Now, here is the rundown of PTF Groups by IBM i release level since we last published:

PTF Groups 7.5:

HIPERs (High Impact/Pervasive)

PTF Groups 7.4:

HIPERs (High Impact/Pervasive)
WebSphere App Server V8.5
Fix list for IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty 23.0.0.1

PTF Groups 7.3:

HIPERs (High Impact/Pervasive)
WebSphere App Server V8.5
Fix list for IBM WebSphere Application Server Liberty 23.0.0.1

PTF Groups 7.2:

New (or Updated) links added to the ‘Links’ tab in the guide this week:

New (or Updated) links added to the ‘QMGtools’ tab in the guide this week:

New (or Updated) links added to the ‘ACS_NAV’ tab in the guide this week:

New (or Updated) links added to the ‘Prtr Links’ tab in the guide this week:

New (or Updated) links Redbooks added this week:

Tips/Definitions: How long has it been since you did a SAVE 21?

The Guide at a glance: There are new defectives this week (02/11/23). Here is the defective PTF rundown, which is the last defective for each release:

Defect Defective APAR Fixing
Date PTF PTF
——– ——– ——- ——-
7.5 02/08/23 MF70682 MA50037 MF70684 (When available)
MF70583
MF70581
MF70504
MF70402
7.4 02/08/23 MF70686 MA50037 MF70688 (When available)
MF70573
MF70571
MF70506
MF70457
7.3 01/13/23 MH01946 MB04386 MH01947 (5733-910, When available)
MH01945
7.2 12/08/21 SI77634 SE73420 SI78039 (Read the link in the guide!)

Be sure to access the link in the Guide for further details.

Below is the usual archive of the IBM i PTF Guide to help you work through the PTFs in chronological order:

February 13, 2023: Volume 25, Number 7

February 4, 2023: Volume 25, Number 6

January 28, 2023: Volume 25, Number 5

January 21, 2023: Volume 25, Number 4

January 14, 2023: Volume 25, Number 3

January 7, 2023: Volume 25, Number 2

January 1, 2023: Volume 25, Number 1

December 10, 2022: Volume 24, Number 50

December 3, 2022: Volume 24, Number 49

November 26, 2022: Volume 24, Number 48

November 19, 2022: Volume 24, Number 47

November 12, 2022: Volume 24, Number 46

November 5, 2022: Volume 24, Number 45

October 29, 2022: Volume 24, Number 44

October 22, 2022: Volume 24, Number 43

October 15, 2022: Volume 24, Number 42

October 8, 2022: Volume 24, Number 41

October 1, 2022: Volume 24, Number 40

September 24, 2022: Volume 24, Number 39

September 17, 2022: Volume 24, Number 38

September 10, 2022: Volume 24, Number 37

September 3, 2022: Volume 24, Number 36

August 27, 2022: Volume 24, Number 35

August 20, 2022: Volume 24, Number 34

August 13, 2022: Volume 24, Number 33

August 6, 2022: Volume 24, Number 32

July 30, 2022: Volume 24, Number 31

July 23, 2022: Volume 24, Number 30

July 16, 2022: Volume 24, Number 29

July 9, 2022: Volume 24, Number 28

June 25, 2022: Volume 24, Number 26

June 18, 2022: Volume 24, Number 25

June 11, 2022: Volume 24, Number 24

June 4, 2022: Volume 24, Number 23

May 28, 2022: Volume 24, Number 22

May 25, 2022: Volume 24, Number 21

May 14, 2022: Volume 24, Number 20

May 7, 2022: Volume 24, Number 19

April 30, 2022: Volume 24, Number 18

April 23, 2022: Volume 24, Number 17

April 16, 2022: Volume 24, Number 16

April 2, 2022: Volume 24, Number 14

March 26, 2022: Volume 24, Number 13

March 19, 2022: Volume 24, Number 12

March 12, 2022: Volume 24, Number 11

March 5, 2022: Volume 24, Number 10

February 26, 2022: Volume 24, Number 9

February 19, 2022: Volume 24, Number 8

February 12, 2022: Volume 24, Number 7

February 5, 2022: Volume 24, Number 6

January 29, 2022: Volume 24, Number 5

January 22, 2022: Volume 24, Number 4

January 15, 2022: Volume 24, Number 3

January 8, 2022: Volume 24, Number 2

January 1, 2022: Volume 24, Number 1

December 6, 2021: Volume 23, Number 48

November 20, 2021: Volume 23, Number 47

November 13, 2021: Volume 23, Number 46

November 6, 2021: Volume 23, Number 45

October 30, 2021: Volume 23, Number 44

October 23, 2021: Volume 23, Number 43

October 16, 2021: Volume 23, Number 42

October 9, 2021: Volume 23, Number 41

October 2, 2021: Volume 23, Number 40

September 25, 2021: Volume 23, Number 39

September 18, 2021: Volume 23, Number 38

September 11, 2021: Volume 23, Number 37

September 4, 2021: Volume 23, Number 36

August 28, 2021: Volume 23, Number 35

August 21, 2021: Volume 23, Number 34

August 14, 2021: Volume 23, Number 33

August 7, 2021: Volume 23, Number 32

July 31, 2021: Volume 23, Number 31

July 24, 2021: Volume 23, Number 30

July 17, 2021: Volume 23, Number 29

July 10, 2021: Volume 23, Number 28

July 3, 2021: Volume 23, Number 27

June 26, 2021: Volume 23, Number 26

June 19, 2021: Volume 23, Number 25

June 12, 2021: Volume 23, Number 24

June 5, 2021: Volume 23, Number 23

June 5, 2021: Volume 23, Number 22

May 22, 2021: Volume 23, Number 21

May 15, 2021: Volume 23, Number 20

May 8, 2021: Volume 23, Number 19

May 1, 2021: Volume 23, Number 18

April 24, 2021: Volume 23, Number 17

April 17, 2021: Volume 23, Number 16

April 10, 2021: Volume 23, Number 15

April 3, 2021: Volume 23, Number 14

March 27, 2021: Volume 23, Number 13

March 20, 2021: Volume 23, Number 12

March 13, 2021: Volume 23, Number 11

March 6, 2021: Volume 23, Number 10

February 27, 2021: Volume 23, Number 9

February 20, 2021: Volume 23, Number 8

February 13, 2021: Volume 23, Number 7

February 6, 2021: Volume 23, Number 6

Cutting IT Costs Is Not A Priority, And That’s Good News

February 13, 2023

Timothy Prickett Morgan

For the past nine years that Fortra (formerly HelpSystems) has been putting together the IBM i Marketplace Survey, one of the first things we always look at is the Top IT Concerns part of the survey results. It is a barometer that tells you what IBM i shops are thinking might happen in the future even if it is not an actual prediction about what will happen in our economy and the IBM i community.

It’s sentiment informed by the budgetary processes that were at work as 2022 came to a close.

The most important thing I look at every year is what is the propensity of the IBM i shops surveyed to reduce IT spending in the coming year. If this category of concern is moving to the left on the column chart, that is bad news. And if it is moving to the right that is good news because if companies are not worried about reducing spending, then they probably have enough budget to take on the issues that are concerning as well as maintaining the application portfolio.

In this year’s report (and hence the October 2022 survey), reducing IT spending was the tenth most important concern among the more than 300 people who were surveyed, cited by 18 percent of respondents. In last year’s report, reducing IT spending was the number six concern and it was cited by 35 percent of those polled. That is half the share of respondents saying they need to cut IT spending and it is four positions to the right on the column chart – all of this in the face of a similar degree of economic uncertainty as far as we are concerned. There are economic uncertainties, to be sure, but there are nine other more important concerns, at least according to this survey.

The top concern, as we covered last week in detail, was cybersecurity, which stands to reason given the interconnectedness of systems in the 21st century and the prevalence of hacking and ransomware. The weird thing as far as we are concerned is that security was cited by 75 percent of respondents in last year’s report and it dropped to 68 percent in this year’s report. First, any drop is strange, and considering how “pervious” are systems seem to be (look at how many security bulletins we report on and track in the IBM i PTF Guide), why is security not cited by 100 freaking percent of the respondents? Do we really think that one third of IBM i companies feel secure about their system security? We suggest that this is probably a false sense of security, based on the number of things we hear security experts finding when they actually look under the hood at real IBM i shops.

Modernizing applications, high availability and disaster recovery, and IBM i skills continue to rank high, and over the next few years we expect for IBM i skills to become the number two concern – and intimately linked with modernizing applications.

For all of the talk about cloud, migrating to the cloud was number ten in last year’s report, cited by 17 percent of respondents, and has moved two positions to the left with 20 percent now citing it as a concern. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are appearing on the long range radar, with 10 percent of respondents citing it as one of their top five concerns.

RELATED STORIES

The IBM i Power10 Upgrade Cycle Forecast Looks Favorable (2023 Survey)

How Do You Stay In Touch With The IBM i Community? (2023 Survey)

Security Still Top Concern, IBM i Marketplace Study Says (2023 Survey)

The State Of The IBM Base 2022, Part Three: The Rusting Iron

The State Of The IBM i Base 2022, Part One: The Operating System

The State Of The IBM i Base 2022, Part Two: Upgrade Plans

The Real IBM i Legacy Is The People

IBM i Salaries: Underpaid, Yet Highly Valued And Hard To Replace

Marketplace Study Shows How IBM i Language Use Evolves

Security Again Top Concern in HelpSystems Marketplace Study

The Distinguished Professionals Of IBM i

Are You Experienced? IBM i Users Weigh In

Settling In With IBM i For The Long Haul

IBM i Has Been Getting With The Program For Years

The IBM i Base Did Indeed Move On Up

The IBM i Base Is Ready To Move On Up

Investment And Integration Indicators For IBM i

Security Still Dominates IBM i Discussion, HelpSystems’ 2018 Survey Reveals

The IBM i Base Not As Jumpy As It Has Been

The Feeds And Speeds Of The IBM i Base

IBM i Priorities For 2017: Pivot To Defense

IBM i Trends, Concerns, And Observations

IBM i Survey Gets Better As Numbers Grow

Where Do Those IBM i Machines Work?