Interesting question…Time to dump Adobe Flash Player?

from JoeUser Forums

 

Turns out Adobe has a known abuot a remote code execution security hole for seven months and not patched it (see ZDNet – not the only site running the story).

They blame MS…see Gregg Kizer’s blog.

I personally don’t give a rat’s toochis who’s guilty…I want it patched (should be out Tuesday, I think)…but that’s not the question.

Should the consumers be exerting pressure on MS and Adobe for this Swiss cheese coding? Should we be dumping Adobe Flash Player?

What do you think?

108,060 views 20 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Well, considering that Adobe Flash Player has been patched for vulnerability twice in the space of a couple of weeks, I wouldn't mind seeing it get annihilated from orbit. It's only stuck around for so long because of Flash games. :P

Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top

Past time.  But it needs to be dumped by web developers; consumers can't do much.

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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Problem is, many games use flash player....and some videos.  There is nothing else to use, correct? 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Dumped that POS about 12 months ago. I think I missed out on a couple of ads on websites, but that's it. Just another leaky backdoor into my system.

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Once all video streaming has shifted over to HTML5, they'll have a hard time justifying Flash's continued existence to anyone but the Facebook games crowd. High past time too. Adobe's grasp of secure development is quite possibly the worst of any company with software so widely used.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Are there still video streaming services using flash?

Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top

Kizer's blog post and the MS patch are from 6 years ago.  Is the link wrong?

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

No, not wrong...still doing the same blaming, though.

Adobe's lack of concern for app security is legendary...and I, like kryo am hoping and praying that HTML5 will take over asafp.

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top

This site, I believe, still requires flash for uploads.

I watch youtube but have the addon that forces a html5 player

I have flash disabled and has been for many years. Whatever I may be missing is okay with me.

Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting teddybearcholla, reply 3

Problem is, many games use flash player....and some videos.  There is nothing else to use, correct? 
End of teddybearcholla's quote
     Perhaps I ask the question the wrong way?  

 

How does one disable flash player?  It seems to be just on my pc.... 

Adobe Flash Player 17 ActiveX  and Adobe Flash Player 18 NPAPI and Adobe Air.  Not plug ins in Chrome.   

:sun:  

Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting gmc2, reply 9

I watch youtube but have the addon that forces a html5 player
End of gmc2's quote
   Greg, where did you get that addon?  Do you use Chrome?  Thank you.

Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting teddybearcholla, reply 11


Quoting gmc2,
reply 9

I watch youtube but have the addon that forces a html5 player

   Greg, where did you get that addon?  Do you use Chrome?  Thank you.

End of teddybearcholla's quote

 

it's 2015. Steve Jobs killed Flash years ago.

you shouldn't need any addons if your browser is not as old as these necronews, as basically all browsers nowadays use HTML5 by default. check this site to see what your browser does use on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/html5 

Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting teddybearcholla, reply 10


Quoting teddybearcholla,
reply 3

Problem is, many games use flash player....and some videos.  There is nothing else to use, correct? 

     Perhaps I ask the question the wrong way?  

 

How does one disable flash player?  It seems to be just on my pc.... 

Adobe Flash Player 17 ActiveX  and Adobe Flash Player 18 NPAPI and Adobe Air.  Not plug ins in Chrome.   

:sun:  

End of teddybearcholla's quote

 

i guess the question is how to disable Flash in Chrome?

enter chrome://plugins in the browser's address bar.

i'd rather recommend to go to Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Privacy -> Content Settings -> Plugins -> Do not run plugins by default

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Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Well here is my experience with flash. I recently did a fresh Windows 7 install. Tried to watch a YouTube video and got the this site requires flash message. I downloaded adobe flash and once it was installed IE continually crashed. I spent a couple hours on Google searching for a fix and everything I tried did not work. After some thinking I recalled the problem occurred after the flash install so I completely deleted flash and voilà! no more crashes. Thanks Doc for the post.

Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting moshi, reply 13

basically all browsers nowadays use HTML5 by default.
End of moshi's quote

Strange. Google states (as does Adobe) that its browser uses Adobe Flash Player plugin, and it updates it by default, as does IE.

Turning off a plugin doesn't solve the problem of not being able to see content streamed only using it.

Quoting JuniorCrooks, reply 16

Thanks Doc for the post.
End of JuniorCrooks's quote

You're welcome, JC. 

Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting DrJBHL, reply 17

Strange. Google states (as does Adobe) that its browser uses Adobe Flash Player plugin, and it updates it by default, as does IE.
End of DrJBHL's quote

of course. there is (less and less) Flash content on the internet. browsers nowadays use HTML5 by default, but if the content is not available as HTML5 then the plugin is needed. on YouTube it is needed for the one less capable browser (MS Internet Explorer) that does not support WEBM.


Quoting DrJBHL, reply 17

Turning off a plugin doesn't solve the problem of not being able to see content streamed only using it.


End of DrJBHL's quote

turning off a plugin to play only on demand has several benefits. most importantly it protects you from potential malicious code that would otherwise be executed as you load a website in your browser. it also saves you from blinking Flash ads in case you do not use an addblocker. and third it saves bandwidth and loads sites faster.

in a modern browser you can also define exceptions from the general rule.

 

btw.: that Aviator browser that you (i hope: no longer) consider to be "very secure" has this setting turned on by default if i remember correctly

Reply #19 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Unfortunately there's still a lot of business/enterprise products that use Flash.  VMWare Web Client and vRealize Operations/vCOPS both require flash.  Solarwinds Orion also uses Flash.  The environments I support (banking industry) have a lot of applications that use Flash as well.

While I completely agree it needs to go away, you guys might be surprised how much stuff still uses Flash.  Ditto for Java which I put in the same bucket.  Unfortunately business products often move at a far slower pace than public access stuff.  I literally can't do my job without Flash and Java.

Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I have Flash installed but disabled.  Frankly, I have no faith whatsoever in Adobe products as they do not seem to grasp the need for security even in this day and age.