Is JRE safe to enable in LO?

[LKeithJordan]

I am a MS-Office power user, but I am relatively new to LO (and I really like it so far). One problem I have seen is that Java Runtime Environment (JRE) is required to run macros, to code script, or to work with Base (which I have not had time to explore, but for which I plan to use FirebirdSQL).

I am aware that using Java is currently considered highly risky. I have disabled or removed Java on all my machines.

So far, I have found nothing on this forum or on the web at large to answer one simple question: Is JRE safe to enable in LO?

Would someone please answer this question for me and refer me to some links that support your position? I would really like to use all LO functionality and not limit myself unnecessarily, but I don’t want to open a major security problem on my computers to do it.

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Thanks, @rautamiekka, for your answer. As a matter of fact, I was just about to update my question when I found your answer – so let me do so now:

I recently updated to LO 5.1x (64-bit) on both my Windows and Linux laptops. JRE is disabled on both installations. Now when I startup LO Calc on the Linux machine (I can’t remember about other LO apps at the moment), LO notifies me that JRE is not enabled and asks if I want to enable it. After I decline, Calc loads and seems to run just fine.

Prior to the update, both machines were running 4.x or 5.0x versions of LO (with JRE disabled) and neither asked me to enable JRE (as far as I remember, they never did).

Two follow-up questions:

1. Why the difference?
2. Is there any hope that Java will disappear from LO completely and be replaced by a different scripting language?

I am particularly concerned about the second follow-up question because I am beginning to recommend LO to my CPA peers, but I also have warned them about the dangers of using Java. I need to be able to intelligently reconcile the two positions. All help is appreciated (**please help me by including some links to authoritative sources that supports your position**).

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Thanks, @rautamiekka.

@oweng, thank you very much for the links to the threads. With my current schedule, it may be awhile before I can follow the links off the threads you supplied, but I plan to do so as soon as possible.

I have a number of concerns and questions, but I don’t want to turn this post into a book, so I will ask them later after I get a chance to follow the thread links and do some more research. Meanwhile, I’ll mark the question answered. Again, my thanks to you both.

[rautamiekka]

I think Java is needed for 2 things: Java scripts and Base where at least some features are made of Java. Primarily needed for Java-based database access, named JDBC (Java Database Connectivity). Would need an LO dev to do the talking.

[oweng]

Related questions here and here.

[rautamiekka]

Java is necessary for many genuine purposes and isn’t as big risk as you think. Just make sure you’re running latest non-alpha, non-beta release and you’re good. If you don’t play Java browser games, you can always disable the browser plugin (RuneScape is one game), and Java browser plugin-based attacks are extremely rare by my experience.