Adobe issues emergency update to fix cross-platform Flash exploit

“Adobe on Friday released a security bulletin that announced an emergency update that affects all versions of its Flash Player, though it seems the exploit is currently being used to target Windows PCs running Microsoft’s Internet Explorer,” AppleInsider reports.

“Dubbed an ‘object confusion vulnerability,’ the bug tricks a user into opening a malicious file sent in an email message which can cause Flash to crash, potentially giving the attacker control of the affected PC,” AppleInsider reports.

“First reported by Microsoft Vulnerability Research, the bug resides in Flash Player code for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android, though Adobe claims that the exploit being used only targets Internet Explorer for Microsoft’s OS,” AppleInsider reports. “Users who installed Flash on Google Chrome are unaffected as the browser updated automatically.”

Read more in the full article here.

More info and download link via Adobe.com here.

13 Comments

  1. Just thinking of Adobe makes me angry. I know quite a few Mac users depend on some of their products for their profession. After recent experiences with them, we – an all Mac department in a public agency – will not purchase any of their products.

    We purchased several licenses for Adobe Acribat X Pro. It failed to work on any Mac other than to assemble PDFs. Preview does that. It won’t even convert Word or other file formats to PDF. Bear in mind, that’s the stated purpose of the software. When we spoke with Adobe, thy said it is one of the limitations of the Mac version now, even though older versions worked fine.

    At $400 per license, I cannot believe the crap Adobe is peddling. Frankly,this is not the only Adobe product that I silts Mac users. I will stay clear of that company.

      1. Our IT people did the search and recommended Acrobat. We haven’t found a free product that you can drop in multiple file types and produce a single PDF document. The Windows version does this well apparently. The Mac version is suppose to do the same. Preview does some of it, but not as simply. When you’re compiling a document with 200 pages and the source file types are Pages, Word, Excel etc, such a product is necessary.

  2. Adobe Flash is an abomination that needs to be eliminated. And I really hate that Creative Suite forces a Java install. That said, I work in InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and Acrobat Pro every day. There are no substitutes for them. InDesign and Photoshop are the best of their game of any other apps in the field. So, much like politicians, you take the good with the bad.

  3. Just to be clear: At this time, Mac users are NOT susceptible to this crash & pwn problem. But as usual, they COULD be in the future.

    As with Java, which is now a modern security abomination, do NOT use Flash unless you have some compelling reason. You can do this using lots of FREE tools. I particularly like these:
    – FlashFrozen: Runs in your menubar, offering total and universal Flash KILL control.
    – ClickToFlash: A Safari extension that stops Flash from loading unless you click on the “F” symbol in the Flash window.
    – NoScript: For Firefox users this thing is a godsend because it blocks ALL the insecure executable crap: Java, Flash, JavaScript…
    Chromium: All the advantages of Chrome and (nearly) none of the disadvantages including NO Flash. To hell with Chrome.

    Mac-Security @Blogspot

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