It was discovered that the password-based encryption (PBE) implementation in the Libraries component of OpenJDK specified incorrect key length. This could lead to generation of keys that were weaker than expected in certain cases.
Public now via Oracle Critical Patch Update - January 2016. Fixed in Oracle Java SE 8u71. External References: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/security/cpujan2016-2367955.html#AppendixJAVA
OpenJDK 8 upstream commit: http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk8u/jdk8u/jdk/rev/5ea62bb625b6
This issue has been addressed in the following products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Via RHSA-2016:0050 https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-0050.html
This issue has been addressed in the following products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Via RHSA-2016:0049 https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-0049.html
This issue has been addressed in the following products: Oracle Java for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Oracle Java for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Via RHSA-2016:0055 https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-0055.html
Oracle JDK 8u71 has this note related to this change: Problem with PBE algorithms using AES crypto corrected An error was corrected for PBE using 256-bit AES ciphers such that the derived key may be different and not equivalent to keys previously derived from the same password. JDK-8138589 (not public) http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/8u71-relnotes-2773756.html
This issue has been addressed in the following products: Supplementary for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Via RHSA-2016:0098 https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2016-0098.html