Adobe Flash has a huge security hole that’s being exploited right now

“Adobe issued an emergency patch for Flash overnight to fix a security hole that’s already being actively used in the wild,” Owen Williams reports for TNW. “CVE-2016-1010, which an attacker could use to execute code on your machine, is being used in ‘targeted attacks,’ according to Adobe.”

“The good news is there’s an update that you can get already – or you might already have it, if you turned on automatic updates,” Williams reports.

“The bad news?”Williams reports. “Well, it actually affects more than just Flash, extending to Adobe AIR, AIR for Android, Flash Player for Linux and a number of other clients.”

More info and links in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Adobe Flash, just die already!

SEE ALSO:
Google will stop running Flash display ads on January 2, 2017 – February 10, 2016
Adobe’s bloated, insecure Flash must die – July 15, 2015
Apple CEO Steve Jobs was right about Adobe’s Flash – May 2, 2011
Steve Jobs posts rare open letter: Thoughts on Flash – April 29, 2010

18 Comments

      1. @adefowler: Exactly!

        afarstar1, as adefowler points out, there’s no need for Flash. Just reload the page having your browser masquerading as Safari for iPad. (Enable Safari’s Develop menu (Preferences) then go to the User Agent item.)

    1. I have written to the BBC twice and got responses both times that they are working on changing over to modern standards. On the other hand though, I have given up watching their video and just read the stories.

      No FLASH on my machines!

    2. True.

      There still is an estimated 700-800 million web sites that use Adobe Flash.

      So if you don’t mind not be able to view these sites than simply uninstall it!

    3. Note that the BBC was one of the LAST websites to dump using RealPlayer.

      And note that the BBC essentially FORCED UK citizens to use Windows machines decades back. If you wanted to learn computing via the BBC, that was your ONLY choice. 😛 🐂💩

    4. Really? I have not used Flash, Reader or Java on my computer for years. The only time I have noticed an issue is when a website places Flash based, rather than HTML 5 based, video on a page. To my knowledge, I have not missed any other content. I think it is likely a smaller issue then you think it is.

      Why would I want to expose my computer to all of those vulnerabilities just to play a video? Too much of a risk to me…

  1. After all of these years, Adobe developers still have terrible standards…

    In System Preferences > Flash Player > Check for Update.

    Alert appears reading:
    ————-
    Update Available

    An update to Adobe Flash Player is available.
    Download and install it?

    No / Yes
    ————

    Maybe it’s just me, but Apple clearly states that action buttons should have verb-based labels…. “Ignore” and “Install” would be much better labels for those buttons.

    I don’t know how this stuff gets past quality control checks.

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