What critical patch updates to apply after Apps upgrade ?

If you are planning to upgrade your E-Business Suite version to 11.5.10.2 or 12.0.2, it is a good idea to apply all quarterly security patches. 11.5.10.2 comes pre-loaded with April 2005 Critical Patch Update. Since on 11i, E-biz security patches are not cumulative, to be current you need to apply all E-Business security patches from July 2005 CPU to July 2007 CPU. A great gotcha here is that after upgrading your 11i E-Business Suite to 11.5.10, you have to reapply any security patches which you applied for previous versions. As per Integrigy, a lot of patches are release specific. It is very murky to determine exactly which CPU patches are required during a major upgrade. You should review all modules patches to determine if different patches were available for 11.5.9 and 11.5.10, if so these patches typically have to be reapplied if released prior to 11.5.10.2. What happens is that the CPU patch updates a file (say version 115.2) to something like for 11.5.9 = 115.3.115090.1 and for 11.5.10 = 115.4.115100.2. The 11.5.10.2 patch then will update to 115.4, but not 115.4.115100.2. So you applied the patch for 11.5.9, but 11.5.10 will replace the file with a vulnerable version. This only happens for a subset of files and not all files work this way. Where it is usually happens is in functional modules where there are dependencies. So to be on the safer side, it is best to reapply all quarterly CPUs starting from Jul 2005 - July 2007 for 11i.


Here's a ready reference of the metalink notes for these quarterly CPUs:

432882.1 July 2007 CPU for E-biz
311040.1 July 2005 CPU for E-biz
333963.1 Oct 2005 CPU for E-biz
343389.1 Jan 2006 CPU for E-biz
360468.1 April 2006 CPU for E-biz
372931.1 July 2006 CPU for E-biz
391564.1 Oct 2006 CPU for E-biz
402670.1 Jan 2007 CPU for E-biz
420072.1 Apr 2007 CPU for E-biz
432882.1 July 2007 CPU for E-biz
455294.1 October 2007 CPU for E-biz
467742.1 Jan 2008 CPU for E-biz
557157.1 Apr 2008 CPU for E-biz


Fortunately, in Release 12, the E-biz patches are cumulative. If you apply R12 RUP2, it includes all security patches including July 2007 CPU. The version becomes 12.0.2 after applying R12 RUP2.