Google had also joined the path of Apple, Facebook, and Youtube to kill the “Adobe Flash Player” by announcing that the company is banning Flash banner support from its Adwords Advertising platform.
“To enhance the browsing experience for more people on more devices, the Google Display Network and DoubleClick Digital Marketing are now going 100% HTML5” Google says.
It’s been two decades
Earlier this week, we told our readers about the three Flash Player zero-day vulnerabilities that were found in stolen files that were leaked from the Hacking Team. We advised Avast users to disable Flash until the bugs are fixed.
It doesn’t look good for Flash. Because of the continuing security problems facing the 20-year old platform, Google and Mozilla each announced this week that their Web browsers will eventually be dropping default support for Adobe Flash, and Facebook’s new security chief wants to kill Flash. For now you can still use it, but the reports of it’s death are not greatly exaggerated…
Adobe has released security patches for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Adobe Flash Player installed with Google Chrome will be automatically updated to the latest Google Chrome version. Users of Internet Explorer 10 and 11 for Windows 8.x will be automatically updated to the latest version.
Another Hacking Team zero-day vulnerability was discovered in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Microsoft released a total of 14 security bulletins, 4 ‘critical’ and the remainder ‘important’ in their July Security Bulletin.
And finally, Oracle released a security update to fix the Java zero-day exploit reportedly used to attack military and defense contractors from the U.S. and spy on NATO members. The Critical Patch Update Advisory also includes 193 new security updates; 99 of which could be exploited by remote attackers.
Avast Software Updater can help you with most software updates. To find it, open your Avast user interface. Click Scan on the left side, then choose Scan for outdated software. You an then decide how to proceed.
Avast Software Updater shows you an overview of all your outdated software applications
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Last Friday, Adobe confirmed two new “critical” zero-day flaws in the Adobe Flash Player browser plugin 18.0.0.204 – and earlier versions – for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Today, a third flaw was found. Adobe Flash Player is a widely distributed multimedia and application player used to enhance the user experience when visiting web pages or reading email messages.
We recommend disabling Flash until the bugs are fixed.
Three “critical” Flash zero-day flaws in Adobe Flash Player discovered
Security experts say the two flaws were found in stolen files that were dumped earlier this month from Hacking Team, an Italian security firm that sells communication interception and surveillance software to governments around the world. The third one came from the same documents.
“Successful exploitation could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system,” Adobe said in their blog. “Depending on the privileges associated with the user account targeted, an attacker could install programs on the system, alter or delete data, create new accounts with similar user rights, or cause a denial-of-service.”
“Adobe is aware of reports that exploits targeting these vulnerabilities have been published publicly. Adobe expects to make updates available during the week of July 12, 2015,” the blog said.
We recommend you do the following:
To verify the version of Adobe Flash Player installed on your system, access the About Flash Player page, or right-click on content running in Flash Player and select “About Adobe (or Macromedia) Flash Player” from the menu. If you use multiple browsers, perform the check for each browser you have installed on your system.
Affected systems:
Adobe patched Flash Player , addressing nine vulnerabilities in the software including critical bugs that could allow an attacker to take control of an affected system.
Adobe pushed out security updates for Flash Player this afternoon, addressing 18 different vulnerabilities, all critical, that could allow an attacker to take control of an affected system.
