Once again, Adobe Flash Player is making the headlines. Another zero-day exploit has been discovered and Adobe is scrambling to get it patched. The affected versions of Adobe Flash Player include 20.0.0.306 and earlier on Windows operating systems prior to Windows 10, Mac OS, Linux, and Chrome. It appears that few are safe from being potential victims with this one.
(Update: This is no longer a zero-day vulnerability. A patch was released by Adobe Systems on April 7 and should be applied immediately if it has not already been. The latest versions of Adobe Flash Player are 21.0.0.213 for Windows and Mac systems and 11.2.202.616 for Linux).
A zero-day exploit means that the vulnerability is actively being exploited in the wild. Since there is no fix, there are only a few steps you can take to avoid this. One is to only browse to trusted sites. It’s best to avoid doing random searches to websites until Adobe releases the patch. Merely bringing a website up on your device can execute malicious activity, even if you are on the site for only a second. This is why having trusted sites bookmarked is a good idea. Then you can avoid mistyping them in instances like this.
The other is to completely uninstall Adobe Flash Player. This is not always an easy task if you don’t already know how to do it and particularly difficult if you can’t browse the web to get instruction. However, it is the best way to avoid Adobe Flash issues such as this.
It’s also a good reminder that if you are using an unsupported version of Windows to upgrade to one that is. Windows XP has not been supported for several years, so a patch will not be released for it and those systems running it will remain vulnerable forever.
Administrators are advised to notify all users of this issue and provide instruction to them to avoid browsing to untrusted sites until the patch is released by Adobe. That is expected to be this week. It should be a task at the top of the priority list for anyone in charge of keeping network systems secure. The Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team blog has the latest updates.
When the patch is released, every browser you use will need to be updated individually on each system you use.
According to a notice on Adobe’s website regarding this issue, successful exploitation of it can install malware, cause systems to crash and/or allow an attacker to take control of the system.
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