Roger Fingas
Adobe on Wednesday updated Flash Player to fix a number of security vulnerabilities, including one in the hands of Hacking Team, a company that infamously sold snooping tools and services to government agencies around the world — potentially including harsh authoritarian regimes.
The flaw was first uncovered several days ago by security researcher Brian Krebs, who found a related document in data published by a separate group of hackers that recently broke into Hacking Team's systems, TechCrunch noted. On Tuesday, Adobe issued a security bulletin promising to close the hole the next day.
At the time, Adobe claimed that people did not need to worry, as no active use of the exploit had been discovered. Mac, Windows, and Linux systems could be at risk if left unpatched.
Apple and much of the rest of the technology world has slowly distanced itself from Flash, partly because of the rise of mobile devices, but also because of security threats. Flash and Java are two of the most popular vectors for exploits.
Flash hasn't been pre-installed on Macs since late 2010. Many websites, such as YouTube, have dropped Flash from their primary interfaces and video players.
Mac, Windows, and Linux versions of the update can be downloaded from Adobe's website. The Mac release is identified as 18.0.0.203.
Charles Martin
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Andrew Orr
16 Comments
L-O-L
What over zero-days are in flash that are being exploited for profit to excel horrendous international actions?
Hahaha again?! I'm so glad I uninstalled.
Give it up Adobe ! Can it ! It can't be worth the maintenance to patch this pos 2 times a week. Seriously.
Still can't believe so many sites still use this garbage. Especially when they're already serving up the same content to iOS devices without using it.
Still can't believe so many sites still use this garbage. Especially when they're already serving up the same content to iOS devices without using it.
Exactly!