{"id":1397,"date":"2010-02-08T12:14:33","date_gmt":"2010-02-08T11:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.intego.com\/?p=1397"},"modified":"2010-02-08T12:14:33","modified_gmt":"2010-02-08T11:14:33","slug":"16-month-old-flash-bug-still-unpatched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/16-month-old-flash-bug-still-unpatched\/","title":{"rendered":"16-Month Old Flash Bug Still Unpatched"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe Steve Jobs isn&#8217;t wrong about Flash; maybe it really is not reliably maintained. Matthew Dempsey has <a href=\"http:\/\/flashcrash.dempsky.org\/\">set up a web page<\/a> showing a proof-of-concept example of a Flash vulnerability that hasn&#8217;t been patched, even though he reported it to Adobe in September 2008. As he says on his web page, &#8220;Despite numerous email exchanges with the Flash product manager about the bug, the bug report being hidden from the public for &#8220;security&#8221; reasons, and Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch&#8217;s claims otherwise, it continues to be an issue.&#8221; A more detailed explanation of the issue is found <a href=\"http:\/\/flashcrash.dempsky.org\/explain.html\">here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Adobe gives a <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.adobe.com\/emmy\/archives\/2010\/02\/flash_bug_repor.html\">confusing response<\/a>, suggesting that, since the bug was filed just as Flash 10 was being prepped for release, it wasn&#8217;t fixed right away. But they don&#8217;t say why it still hasn&#8217;t been fixed 16 months later. They claim it will be fixed in Flash 10.1, due to be released soon, though. Rest assured, Adobe will fix that bug someday.<\/p>\n<p>But how about looking more closely at this bug. Why is a bug that causes a crash considered to be a vulnerability? When applications (or, in this case, plug-ins) crash, they open a door, in a way, allowing for the possibility of remote code to be executed, or other objects to be injected into a user&#8217;s software. Using Javascript injections on hacked websites, it is possible to provide booby-trapped Flash files to unsuspecting users. These Flash files can then allow remote users to potentially run code that can compromise a computer that simply went to a web page and may not have even seen the corrupted Flash file.<\/p>\n<p>So what are your choices? Deactivate Flash, by uninstalling it? That&#8217;s always a possibility; you can <a href=\"http:\/\/kb2.adobe.com\/cps\/141\/tn_14157.html\">download an uninstaller here<\/a>. But Flash is widely used, for both on-line videos and other animated content such as games, and, alas, ads. For now, Flash is omni-present, and it looks like the only thing is to hope that this vulnerability is not exploited.<\/p>\n<p>Intego&#8217;s Virus Monitoring Center is looking out for malicious Flash files, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/virusbarrier\/\">VirusBarrier X6<\/a> will block them if any are found.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maybe Steve Jobs isn&#8217;t wrong about Flash; maybe it really is not reliably maintained. Matthew Dempsey has set up a web page showing a proof-of-concept example of a Flash vulnerability that hasn&#8217;t been patched, even though he reported it to Adobe in September 2008. As he says on his web page, &#8220;Despite numerous email exchanges [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,11],"tags":[15,57,144],"class_list":["post-1397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-security-privacy","category-software-apps","tag-adobe","tag-flash","tag-vulnerability"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>16-Month Old Flash Bug Still Unpatched  - The Mac Security Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Maybe Steve Jobs isn&#039;t wrong about Flash; maybe it really is not reliably maintained. Matthew Dempsey has set up a web page showing a proof-of-concept\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/16-month-old-flash-bug-still-unpatched\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"16-Month Old Flash Bug Still Unpatched  - The Mac Security Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Maybe Steve Jobs isn&#039;t wrong about Flash; maybe it really is not reliably maintained. Matthew Dempsey has set up a web page showing a proof-of-concept\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/16-month-old-flash-bug-still-unpatched\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Mac Security Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-02-08T11:14:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/flash.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"128\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"128\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter James\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter James\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/16-month-old-flash-bug-still-unpatched\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/16-month-old-flash-bug-still-unpatched\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Peter James\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d0c16bd0a4dd8f82d91204f400c8d116\"},\"headline\":\"16-Month Old Flash Bug Still Unpatched\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-02-08T11:14:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/16-month-old-flash-bug-still-unpatched\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":359,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/16-month-old-flash-bug-still-unpatched\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/flash.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Adobe\",\"Flash\",\"Vulnerability\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Security &amp; Privacy\",\"Software &amp; Apps\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/16-month-old-flash-bug-still-unpatched\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/16-month-old-flash-bug-still-unpatched\\\/\",\"name\":\"16-Month Old Flash Bug Still Unpatched - The Mac Security Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/16-month-old-flash-bug-still-unpatched\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/16-month-old-flash-bug-still-unpatched\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.intego.com\\\/mac-security-blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2010\\\/03\\\/flash.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-02-08T11:14:33+00:00\",\"description\":\"Maybe Steve Jobs isn't wrong about Flash; maybe it really is not reliably maintained. 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