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View Full Version : Attention all members: critical vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player!



Aragorn
19th June 2016, 01:07
Regardless of what operating system you're running on your computer, 99.99% of you will have Adobe Flash Player installed. For one, it's what most of you will be using for watching videos on YouTube, or maybe other videos in the Flash format which you've downloaded for off-line watching.

Now, Adobe doesn't exactly have a good reputation on account of security, but this time, a zero-day exploit has been discovered in all versions of Adobe Flash Player up to version 21.0.0.242. A zero-day exploit means that it's a vulnerability which nobody officially knew existed, but which has been exploited already in the wild, and thus before a patch was available to seal the security leak. And according to the news on Slashdot — click here (https://it.slashdot.org/story/16/06/18/1753226/delete-or-update-all-adobe-flash-player-instances-experts-warn) for the original article — this particular vulnerability is a pretty nasty one, which can allow attackers to remotely take control of your system and/or cause your system to crash.

The vulnerability in question is already actively being exploited as we speak — hence the "zero-day" designation, of course — but the good news is that Adobe has already released an updated version of the Flash Player as of Thursday, which you can download from Adobe's website by clicking here (https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/). (Adobe's website auto-detects what operating system and browser you're using and will offer you the correct version of the patched Flash Player.)

This new version patches 36 (!) vulnerabilities, and it is highly recommended that you install it.

Cearna
19th June 2016, 12:06
Thanks for this, all installed now, although I seldom get to use it, but don't want a security risk on this old computer

modwiz
19th June 2016, 13:07
These updates always include "extra" programs unless one unchecks the already pre-checked boxes. If you forget, go to control panel (Windows) and uninstall them.