On August 18th, 2026 a mail pops up on the hotspot-compiler-dev mailing list and it describes something that is not supposed to happen: a serious new bug in a JDK release candidate phase, just a few weeks before general availability. Apparently, under very specific circumstances, some buffer contents aren't correctly copied and strings can get corrupted. This is bad, very bad even, and obviously requires analysis and a fix. This is the story of the structure and community that fixes bugs like these and how they operate. We also take a quick look at JavaOne, the Inside Java Podcast, and JDK 28, which is shaping up to be a big release.

Links:

A critical bug:

• JEP 3: https://openjdk.org/jeps/3
• the original issue: https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8373591
• the original PR: https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/pull/28789
• Lorenzo's bug description: https://mail.openjdk.org/archives/list/hotspot-compiler-dev@openjdk.org/thread/5NVKBE3C5T5ULKVO5T3RTUQZDIXQMHBE/
• Chris' alarm for the P1 bug: https://mail.openjdk.org/archives/list/jdk-dev@openjdk.org/thread/EPJNIMIAROC2QELIZE5MAGU4D6S3FEVG/#K52LJL4HZJE565UBU465PT4ZBRC2XV4Y
• the bug in JDK 27: https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8390546
• backing out the change on the mail branch: https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8390590
• backporting the backout to JDK 27: https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8390663
• Mark's confirmation: https://mail.openjdk.org/archives/list/jdk-dev@openjdk.org/message/K52LJL4HZJE565UBU465PT4ZBRC2XV4Y/
• redoing the change on the main branch: https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8390617
• Quality Outreach: https://wiki.openjdk.org/spaces/quality/pages/18448461/Quality+Outreach

JavaOne: https://javaone.com

JDK 28:

• early-access builds: https://inside.java/podcast/
• feature list: https://openjdk.org/projects/jdk/28/