A new -groupname option has been added to keytool -genkeypair so that a user can specify a named group when generating a key pair. For example, keytool -genkeypair -keyalg EC -groupname secp384r1 will generate an EC key pair by using the secp384r1 curve. Because there might be multiple curves with the same size, using the -groupname option is preferred over the -keysize option.

The "certificate_authorities" extension is an optional extension introduced in TLS 1.3. It is used to indicate the certificate authorities (CAs) that an endpoint supports and should be used by the receiving endpoint to guide certificate selection.

With this JDK release, the "certificate_authorities" extension is supported for TLS 1.3 in both the client and the server sides. This extension is always present for client certificate selection, while it is optional for server certificate selection.

Applications can enable this extension for server certificate selection by setting the jdk.tls.client.enableCAExtension system property to true. The default value of the property is false.

Note that if the client trusts more CAs than the size limit of the extension (less than 2^16 bytes), the extension is not enabled. Also, some server implementations do not allow handshake messages to exceed 2^14 bytes. Consequently, there may be interoperability issues when jdk.tls.client.enableCAExtension is set to true and the client trusts more CAs than the server implementation limit.

As an additional way to launch processes on Linux, the jdk.lang.Process.launchMechanism property can be set to POSIX_SPAWN. This option has been available for a long time on other *nix platforms. The default launch mechanism (VFORK) on Linux is unchanged, so this additional option does not affect existing installations.

POSIX_SPAWN mitigates rare pathological cases when spawning child processes, but it has not yet been excessively tested. Prudence is advised when using POSIX_SPAWN in productive installations.

The named elliptic curve groups x25519 and x448 are now available for JSSE key agreement in TLS versions 1.0 to 1.3, with x25519 being the most preferred of the default enabled named groups. The default ordered list is now:

    x25519, secp256r1, secp384r1, secp521r1, x448,

    ffdhe2048, ffdhe3072, ffdhe4096, ffdhe6144, ffdhe8192

The default list can be overridden by using the system property jdk.tls.namedGroups.

When signing a file that contains POSIX file permission or symlink attributes, jarsigner now preserves these attributes in the newly signed file but warns that these attributes are unsigned and not protected by the signature. The same warning is printed during the jarsigner -verify operation for such files.

Note that the jar tool does not read/write these attributes. This change is more visible to tools like unzip where these attributes are preserved.

Oracle JDK-11.0.10 and later for Solaris 11 requires that the OS provide the package library/desktop/harfbuzz as part of the system installation. This package is provided for Solaris 11.3 and later.

$ pkg info harfbuzz

       Name: library/desktop/harfbuzz
     Summary: HarfBuzz is an OpenType text shaping engine
   Description: HarfBuzz is a library for text shaping, which converts
          unicode text to glyph indices and positions. HarfBuzz is
          used directly by libraries such as Pango, and the layout
          engines in firefox.
     Category: Desktop (GNOME)/Libraries
      State: Installed
    Publisher: solaris

This is a desktop library, but the font processing it does is part of some common backend server workloads. It should always be considered as required.

If this library is missing, then the pkg mechanism will require it during installation of the JDK. If installing the JDK by using a tar.gz bundle (for example) and the library/desktop/harfbuzz package is missing, a runtime link failure will occur when this package is needed.

The JDK update incorporates tzdata2020d. The main change is

• Palestine ends DST earlier than predicted, on 2020-10-24.

Please refer to https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz-announce/2020-October/000062.html for more information.

The JDK update incorporates tzdata2020c. The main change is

• Fiji starts DST later than usual, on 2020-12-20.

Please refer to https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz-announce/2020-October/000060.html for more information.

Following the JDK's update to tzdata2020b, the long-obsolete files named pacificnew and systemv have been removed. As a result, the "US/Pacific-New" Zone name declared in the pacificnew data file is no longer available for use.

Information regarding this update can be viewed at https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz-announce/2020-October/000059.html