Out-Of-Band Adobe Flash Critical Update!

[Wiz Feinberg]

On February 4, 2014, Adobe released an unexpected and out-of-band critical update to its Flash Player. This update patches a zero-day vulnerability being exploited by cybercriminals to silently take over computers of all operating systems that run Flash. All browsers that use the Flash plug-in are vulnerable, via Flash itself.

No matter what type of computers you use for online stuff, chances are fairly high that you do have Flash enabled in at least one of the browsers you have installed. The only exception would be Mac users you have allowed Apple to disable Flash and have not manually re-enabled it (to view Flash animations, or videos).

I strongly advise all of you to go to http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ and if the results indicate that you have any version installed and it is a lesser version than the one listed in the table on the page, for your browsers and/or operating system, that you proceed to download the current, patched version.

The new version released on Feb 4 is: Version 12.0.0.44

Note: If you have more than one browser installed and one of them is Internet Explorer, you will need to update them separately. You see, Firefox and Opera use one type of Flash (Plug-in), Internet Explorer uses another (ActiveX), and Google Chrome uses yet another (integrated into the browser code itself).

My sequence for updating Flash in Firefox is as follows.

1. Go to http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ in Firefox
2. Un-check the special offer to install McAfee "Security Scan Plus" (I already have Trend Micro, which is much better)
3. Click the "Install Now" button.
4. The correct version for Firefox will be saved to my chosen, or default download location.
5. When the download completes, a large green arrow flashes on the upper right side of the browser. Click on that arrow and the file name will appear at the top of a list of downloads. Click on that file and it will run the Adobe downloader/installer.
6. The installer box tells you when the upgrade is complete. Click Close, then restart Firefox.

Next, I open Internet Explorer and repeat the process, but this time I install the ActiveX Flash control, which is specific to Microsoft browsers. After the installation is complete, I close IE, which I only use to test the layout and functionality of websites I design.

Finally, I open Google Chrome (again used only for testing websites). I click on the 3 vertical lines on the upper right side and open the Settings menu. Down the list of options is "About Google Chrome." Click to select that option. An info page loads and tells you what version of Chrome you have. It also automatically begins downloading a newer version, if one is available yet. The new version of Chrome includes the new build of Flash.After the update is complete, I close that browser.

[Brad Bechtel]

Thanks for letting us all know!

[Wiz Feinberg]

Thanks for letting us all know!

See your message box for a PM from me.

[Bent Romnes]

I run Google Chrome with version 12.0.0.44
Is that ok or no?

[Wiz Feinberg]

I run Google Chrome with version 12.0.0.44
Is that ok or no?

Yes, that is the current version of Flash.

The current version of Chrome is Version 32.0.1700.107

[Bent Romnes]

Thanks Wiz. Sometimes I can't get all this thru my head ...Thanks for gettin' it when I don't