Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 31 Jul 2009 7:11 am |
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According to Adobe, their Flash Player is estimated to now be installed on 99% of the computers in the World that connect to the Internet. Criminals know this and are busy going over every line of code in the Flash binaries, looking for any exploitable code weaknesses. It doesn't take them long to find and publish these vulnerabilities. Soon afterward, exploit code is uploaded to thousands of hostile websites and servers under the control of cyber criminals. If you are duped, lured, or redirected silently to one of these malicious pages an attack will be launched against your PC, through your browser (any browser). If you are running a vulnerable version of Flash (or Reader, QuickTime, Java, etc) your PC may become compromised and could be drafted into a spam or attack Botnet.
An exploit has been running since the last update to Flash and has compromised millions of computers. It has taken Adobe over a month to come up with a patch to fix the vulnerability currently being exploited. All versions of Flash, including version 10, were vulnerable on all operating systems.
Adobe has just released the long-awaited security update for its ubiquitous, exploited Flash Player. The new version, as of this moment, is 10.0.32.18 and you need to update NOW. You can determine which version of Flash Player you have on the About Flash Player page. There is a table on that page listing the current version for each supported operating platform.
Adobe recommends that all Flash Player users upgrade to the most recent version of the player through the Player Download Center to take advantage of security updates. I and most security experts second that motion!
Visit the download page with each browser you have installed. Internet Explorer and its friends use an ActiveX Control for displaying Flash, while Firefox/Safari/Opera use a different version of Flash.
If you run the Secunia Online Software Inspector regularly, it will tell you when any of your installed software has been updated and give you links to the official download locations. It also warns you about any missing Windows Updates. The OSI works on Java, which is available from www.java.com . Right now the current version of Java is Version 6 Update 14.
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"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog |
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