Adobe on patch parade to march out 83 bugs Adobe has patched 83 vulnerabilities in its Reader, Acrobat, and Flash offerings including remote code execution holes. The former apps soaked up 71 patches centred on use-after-free, memory corruption, and buffer overflow vulnerabilities that lead to code execution. A dozen remote code execution flaws are plugged in Flash …
Flash, like Java, was designed to be universally portable - "write once, run anywhere". Back in the 1990s when those products were invented, portability was a most desirable feature and one that was hard to come by. Things looked very different in 2002 when Flash was first announced. "Most people are surprised, said Allaire, to learn that Flash Player is the most widely distributed piece of software in history, used by 414 million people. Over 98 percent of clients connected to the Internet have it installed, and it is downloaded 2.3 million times on an average day. Although Flash produces impressive graphics, it is only 350 kilobytes in size – lightweight enough to be downloaded in 30 seconds on a slow dial-up link". (from a Computerwire newsletter).
It was only gradually understood that universal portability plays the devil with security, which is even more important. But people could not appreciate the true extent of the potential security risks until they had the universal portability! This kind of thing is why engineering is so much fun.
But on Flash, Jobs made the correct call, at a time no else would.
So 'll say it again ofcom/BT (if you're reading), why the fcuk are we forced to install this shit to use BTWholesale Speedtester in the UK?
Ofcom. Pull your finger out (finger or whatever) and force BT to ditch this Flash based BTWholesale Speedtester. Old installations of Flash are a root cause of compromised PCs. End users shouldn't be forced to install Flash just so they can test their Broadband connection.
The be prepared to uncheck the two tick boxes for these unwanted things which are selected by default:
"Yes, install the free McAfee Security Scan Plus utility to check the status of my PC security. It will not modify existing antivirus program or PC settings.
Yes, install True Key™ by Intel Security to say goodbye to the hassle of passwords."
Most people won't realise that they are bundled and will inadvertently install both applications.
Adobe are worthless immoral bastards.
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