I have gotten this exception twice recently. I'm using 32-bit Java 7 and I do not let it patch automatically. In both cases where the exception was thrown, I ignored it and the patch session seemed to complete as expected.
I personally think this is just Java being flaky. At least, I have not so far seen anything that looks like a bug in the patcher.
The thread does raise an interesting question: if I did suspect a bug in the patcher, where would I report it?
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