New Adobe Flash Player Security Exploit Reported Today (tuesday may 27)

[mouser]

This is a good reason to install a firefox extension that blocks Flash movies unless you specifically whitelist the website.  For example: NoScript or FlashBlock.

Exploits target new Adobe Flash bug

Symantec on Tuesday revealed that the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player contains an unpatched vulnerability that is being actively exploited.

http://www.scmagazineus.com/Exploits-target-new-Adobe-Flash-bug/article/110585/

[housetier]

I have been reluctant in the past to install yet another extension into my browser, but I am now adding flashblock to my list of extensions.

I wonder if I should get rid of the flash plugin altogether...

[Grorgy]

Trouble is, if we start disabling or removing all the plugins and so on, we will end up browsing plain text, which may be nostalgic for some and safe, but ohh so dull.

[Ehtyar]

My experience with FlashBlock (up until about 6 months ago) was that flash movies would occasionally be loaded prior to FlashBlock disabling them. I believe it is not as deeply integrated into the browser as NoScript is, which is why i switched (plus j/s and xss protection etc), and have not had the same problem since. I would recommend NoScript over FlashBlock both for the additional functionality, and the seemingly tighter protection.

Ehtyar.

[f0dder]

Ehtyar: thanks for that word of warning, if it's not been fixed, that basically means FlashBlock is useless.

I never installed NoScript because I don't find flash to be that intrusive, as long as I'm running AdBlockPlus. I did consider it a few times, because I had the nagging feeling that sooner or later, somebody would find a 0day exploit for flash, and we'd be in royal trouble. But out of lazyness (whitlisting, *sigh*) I never did it.

Is the exploit that's now in the wild based on the NULL pointer exploit? Pretty nasty stuff.

[Gothi[c]]

I have used noscript for a long time, to block flash and java. It's handy because you can whitelist sites or allow stuff on the fly. I only use it on my own computer now anymore though, because too many times my wife would not understand why sites did not function correctly. Even though she knew to click allow on the noscript button, sometimes you have to allow multiple sources etc... I imagine it can be a bit confusing for people that aren't much into computers.

[Ehtyar]

Ehtyar: thanks for that word of warning, if it's not been fixed, that basically means FlashBlock is useless.
...
Is the exploit that's now in the wild based on the NULL pointer exploit? Pretty nasty stuff.

And thank you for the technical info f0dder. Very interesting, not to mention fear-instilling.

Ehtyar.

[f0dder]

I'm not sure if that's the exploit that's been used, but if so - then it's relatively old. No telling how long it's been silently exploited by 0-day blackhats before it reached the wild, though... banner ads are scary. One compromised banner ad server, and even the cleanest sites on the net can get you infected.

[Lashiec]

*sigh*, the never ending story with Flash. And they want people to disable ad blocking...

I wonder if Opera's FlashBlock also suffers from the same problem as its Firefox counterpart. Perhaps it's time to disable plugins EVERYWHERE... except in YouTube, of course

[PhilB66]

Adobe confirms the exploit @ Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT).

[Lashiec]

Well, it seems they already fixed it in the latest version, those are good news!

[f0dder]

Well, it seems they already fixed it in the latest version, those are good news!

I'm keeping ScriptBlock, though