adobe shockwave player critical security update

#Adobe shockwave player critical security update update
#Adobe shockwave player critical security update software
#Adobe shockwave player critical security update download
#Adobe shockwave player critical security update mac

Quite why Flash has been targeted so often is open to some debate, but the mere fact that it has suggests that it will continue to be for some time to come.

#Adobe shockwave player critical security update software

Flash is closed, proprietary software controlled by Adobe and it has been plagued with software vulnerabilities and serious flaws over many years.

Thirdly, there has been a long history of malicious hackers finding critical security holes in Adobe Flash Player, and building their attacks into exploit kits for anyone to deploy. It doesn’t matter if a hacker doesn’t have a zero-day exploit to throw at your Adobe Flash Player if you haven’t been bothering to keep it protected against known vulnerabilities. There’s only one thing more attractive to a malicious hacker than widely-used ubiquitous software, and that’s widely-used ubiquitous software that hasn’t been kept updated with the latest patches.

#Adobe shockwave player critical security update update

Users may have failed to configure updates properly, or chosen to ignore reminders to update the software promptly when a new security update is released. Secondly, the version of Adobe Flash Player installed on your computer may be out-of-date. Malicious hackers can rely upon a large number of people having Flash installed, making it a target for attack. Many users may have installed it long ago in order to access Flash-based media content online, such as videos. One of the favourite pieces of software for malicious hackers to target on users’ computers is Adobe Flash Player.įirstly, Adobe Flash Player is on an awful lot of computers. Mozilla Firefox users shouldn't confuse 'Shockwave Flash' with 'Shockwave Player.' Adobe provides an uninstall tool here.Critical security holes keep being found in Adobe Flash Player.

#Adobe shockwave player critical security update download

This link shows that Shockwave is installed by prompting (or in the case of Google Chrome, initiating) a download on machines that don't have it. Readers should put Shockwave at the top of this list. In the interest of reducing the 'attack surface'-that is, the number of potentially exploitable components available for malicious hackers to target-Ars has long advised readers to strongly consider uninstalling Flash, Java, and other browser plugins that may provide more hazard than benefit.

“We are reviewing our security update process in order to mitigate risks in Shockwave Player,” Edell said. Because of this, it may be easier to exploit a vulnerability when Flash is hosted by Shockwave, for example.”Īdobe spokeswoman Heather Edell confirmed that CERT’s information is correct, and that the next release of Shockwave Player will include the updated version of Flash Player. In the case of Shockwave, there are some mitigations missing in a number of modules, such as SafeSEH. “One of the things that helps make a vulnerability more difficult is how many of the exploit mitigations a vendor opts in to. “So not only are the vulnerabilities there, but they’re easier to exploit as well,” Dormann said. That’s because Shockwave has several modules that don’t opt in to trivial exploit mitigation techniques built into Microsoft Windows, such as SafeSEH. According to Krebs:Īs if that weren’t bad enough, Dormann said it may actually be easier for attackers to exploit Flash vulnerabilities via Shockwave than it is to exploit them directly against the standalone Flash plugin itself. That includes almost 20 different patches for security holes, some that fixed critical holes that real-world hackers exploited in the wild to commandeer end users' computers.

#Adobe shockwave player critical security update mac

According to reporter Brian Krebs, the current version of Shockwave for both Windows and Mac systems lacks any of the Flash security fixes released since January 2013. In the 15 months since the initial post, Adobe has made little progress. The advisory about the risk from Shockwave, which was published in late 2012 by security researcher Will Dormann for Carnegie Mellon University's CERT, escaped public notice until Wednesday, when it was reported by KrebsOnSecurity.

Adobe's Shockwave Player bundles a version of the company's Flash Player that is 15 months behind on security updates, a feature hackers can use to hijack both Windows PCs and Macs running it, a security expert has warned.