Oracle warns: Java users should hold off on updating to macOS Sonoma 14.4

Apple released macOS 14.4 nearly two weeks ago, but if you haven’t yet installed it, you might want to hold off. Oracle recently posted on its Java blog that Java processes on Macs running macOS Sonoma 14.4 will terminate unexpectedly, and that there is currently no workaround. Consequently, Oracle recommends that users who rely on Java should not install macOS 14.4.

The issue affects versions from Java 8 to the early access builds of JDK 22, and all Macs with Apple silicon (Intel-based Macs were not addressed by Oracle). According to the Java blog, the issue involves a feature with Apple silicon that “controls how and when dynamically generated code can be either produced (written) or executed on a per-thread basis.” Basically, what is happening is that the wrong signal is being sent after a just-in-time compile and execute cycle accesses protected memory regions. This incorrect signal terminates the process instead of continuing it.

“Ahead-of-Time compiled applications created with GraalVM Native Image should not be affected, but your ability to build new images may be,” according to the Java blog. The bug is filed in Oracle’s Java Bug Database as JDK-8327860.

Java is an object-oriented programming language designed to allow programmers to “write once, run anywhere,” meaning that software written in Java can run on any platform without needing to be recompiled. Java was created by Sun Microsystems, which was acquired by Oracle in 2009.