Adobe updates Flash software to fix yet another security hole

“Adobe has updated its Flash software to fix a security hole, which was made public only after data was stolen from an online surveillance company,” Chris Foxx reports for BBC News.

“Italian firm Hacking Team sells spying software to intelligence agencies around the world. On Sunday, private data stolen from the company was posted online, indicating it knew about a serious flaw in Flash, but had not told Adobe,” Foxx reports. “Details of the software flaw were among 400GB of stolen data that was posted online. In the data, Hacking Team described the flaw as ‘the most beautiful Flash bug for the last four years.'”

“Adobe acknowledged the bug could ’cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system,'” Foxx reports. “It said the flaw affected Flash 18.0.0.194 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh and Linux. The company released an update to Flash on Wednesday…”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Adobe Flash is a cesspool. If you’re using it, update ASAP. More info and download link here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “buddabob” for the heads up.]

20 Comments

        1. Sorry for your lost holiday weekend.

          Good confirmation to know banks and government have rocks for brains, but then that’s what happens when they are share the same bed.

        2. I’m stuck with it too. The really frustrating part is that while it seems like I’m in a never-ending loop of upgrading Flash, there’s no noticeable new features, speed, functionality, efficiency, etc…

  1. “MacDailyNews Take: Adobe Flash is a cesspool. If you’re using it, update ASAP.”

    I totally agree. It slows down every web site that uses it and is a CPU, GPU and memory hog. Numerous times I’ve been unable to close a browser window, even quit the browser itself and i’ve had to do a hard resetting of the whole Mac. It doesn’t belong in 2015, much less on a Mac.

    The Adobe and MS cults live on within the IT and web design departments.

    1. Ditto. Making a new distribution is also a pain in the ass, as it needs to be tested thoroughly. Unfortunately, I work in a school system, and there’s a warehouse full of legacy sites and other crap that still use Flash that teachers, for some reason, “really need”.

      1. Educational software from Scholastic, you know, that cost a quarter million, requires flash. But that also eliminates a lot of hardware that no longer supports flash. So the best solution is either Mac OS or Windows. Since the Chrome Books came out, Windows laptops have dropped down to $350. Education is excited about that.

  2. AHEM!

    Adobe wasn’t just patching security holes (36 in total!!!). It brought out this patch NOW (instead of an the second Tuesday in July) because there’s a zero-day exploit in-the-wild AGAIN! This is the second zero-day Flash exploit within a MONTH of time.

    IOW: Adobe Flash is just plain old crap code. DELETE it’s Internet Plug-In and enjoy the ensuing security.

    http://mac-security.blogspot.com/2015/07/lousy-adobe-flash-updated-to-v1800203.html

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