Tuesday, August 21, 2012

FAST New Adobe Flash & AIR Updates!

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Excellent. Adobe has heeded the call and tossed us another set of Adobe Flash Player and AIR updates exactly one week after the previous updates. THANK YOU ADOBE! This is the way to do business.

Why am I all happy inside? Because it is the priority of professional software developers to patch security holes ASAP and immediately get them out to their users. This is how we frustrate malware rats and inspire in them a sense of utter futility and worthlessness. I like that!

The other half of the happiness equation of course is having computer users download and install these ASAP updates ASAP! Thankfully, Adobe has trashed their obnoxious old software update system and streamlined it into something much more user-friendly. So hopefully, lots of Adobe Flash and AIR users are receiving notices or automatic installations of this new update. This is how we fight and stamp out the LUSER Syndrome that enables social engineering malware infections.

And remember: ONLY download software from trusted sites (like VersionTracker/CNET and MacUpDate) or directly from the developer. No mystery site downloading of anything, ever!

The Updates:

I) Adobe Flash Player v11.4.402.265

The security bulletin is available HERE. The update patches CVE-2012-4163, 4164, 4165, 4166, 4167 and 4168. These security holes involve memory corruption flaws, an integer overflow and a cross-domain information leak. IOW: Critical for Macs.

II) Adobe AIR v3.4.0.2540

The security bulletin is inexplicably the one listed for Adobe Flash Player, huh? It is available HERE. If you are an Adobe AIR developer, there is also an SDK security update available HERE. Apparently, this new version of AIR patches all the same CVE security holes as the new version of Flash Player listed above. If you use Adobe AIR, this update = Critical for Macs.

As usual, don't count on me to keep track of or post about every critical security update from developers, including Adobe. Instead my point is commentary as well as the occasional nag to keep your software up-to-date in order to optimize your computer security. Oh and, always keep your backups, both local and off-site, up-to-date!

Share and Enjoy,
:-Derek
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