Disable Abobe Flash ( zero day virus exploits rage around the world now )

Well you probably not all into computers, and therefor I’d warn you.
Since you probably belong to the group who uses flash a lot (ea youtube videos etc etc).
But also many adds are based upon flash, and games …

A few days ago some company that created spying software for governments, got hacked themselves.
As this company made a lot of money with some illegal activity with all kinds of governments (probably yours too).
The people who hacked this company decided to show the world what they did.
And thus putted about 400GB of data full of email conversations (as proof), but also with it lots of exploits hacks.
Those hacks where only known to them, but after the information sharing suddenly a lot more people learned about those hacks, so if you hear in the news that some major computer system got troubles… its probably caused by new people learning about those hacks.

Some of those exploits where based upon flaws in adoby flash, player so be warned i know your all graphical artist who might use flash a lot.

You might use addon to block flash like Flashblock on Firefox. or FlashControl for Chrome or ClicktoFlash for Safari.
If your on Internet Explorer, google how to disable it, as i never use it.
This might take a few days / weeks till they have fixed their flaws, so be warned and stay safe friends.

NOTE that if you use the download link of those blockers, you still need to activate them
Dont panic just look it up how to enable a plugin.

I thought Flash was already blocked by default on Google Chrome (as part of their move away from external plugins in favor of native solutions like WebGL and HTML5), or is that actually not the case?

Well google / youtube are changing to HTML5 which can do about the same, but lots of other sites still use flash.
Html5 is kinda opensource version of flash, a more modern language for design in web pages (in lay men terms).

I dont know if chrome went away from flash (might not be to support those ‘other’ sites) perhaps it favors one if both option are possible but i am not sure about. I think that if your brouwser cannt handle HTML5 youtube will use flash instead, and probaply your own old kitten video itself there is harmless. But its have been often the case, that some harmless site, had some money raising add banner campain.
One of those adds who rotate over the site got hacked… well thats how it frequently goes. I doubt but wont out rule they take time to infect kitten videos on the internet (there are simply to much of them all, but well… some might get infected).

Articles on the matter:


… continuation…

Got nothing to hide & nothing to fear.
Make it all open for all i care, watch me take a dump if it makes you happy and fulfilled.

Patched update available now.


http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

@burnin

No its not that i fear, those who expose evil use of computing and make it public, that’s a good thing just like wikileaks.
Its just that a minority of the people who act on revealed programing code, will also use it in their tools now.

And believe me its not about you got nothing to hide, thats pure governmental propaganda.
Let me remind that there are people who make a living out of blackmailing people.
Who are after your login details, credit card numbers, social ID’s, or about to hack your paypall or whatever.
Or could simply encrypt your PC, and asking for money to decrypt it (goodby family photo’s etc…).
You see hacking can serve a greater purpose to reveal truth, but can also be used negatively, its therefor i warn.

:yes:
Yes, i know. We are on the same side, using different approaches. Respectfully.
… in some moment i’ll die. For sure. We are choices & acts that define our path. So from another mind… it is the system, the power, authority… that fears of loosing (ie. banks) made by those who have lost sense of life. Also those who make a living out of ‘protecting’ our freedom by enslaving, making us rich & developed by stealing from poor & ignorant.
Yes, we all should be weary and take care of each other. Thank you.

The media these days have a tendency to overhype security holes. They get patched a few days later, and then it becomes a non-issue until the sensationalism comes back talking about another hole.

The thread gives a pretty strong suggestion to be afraid and to panic, it will blow over just like the many stories before.

I agree. It’s naive to think that “Adobe Flash” is somehow the bogeyman here. Your web browser can be exploited, too.

A key thing to remember is that these software hacks can only access information that “you” have the ability to access. They can only use system privileges that “you” can get. Therefore, a great deal depends on “your” willingness to incur a slight loss of convenience in favor of self-security. For instance:

Backups: You do have something like Apple’s “Time Machine,” running constantly in the background, don’t you?

Saved Passwords: Of course you don’t have them, do you? You’d never allow a browser to store a password. You don’t have one password that you use for everything. Right?

Secure “keychains”: Every operating system these days has this feature in one form or another, where notes and other things that need protection can be cryptographically secured. You don’t have a document on your desktop with passwords in it, do you?

(There’s a really fine, free, app called “PasswordSafe” which is available for various types of computers and mobile phones, with a common password-file format so that keychains can be moved around. The program was designed by a bona-fide crypto expert, and is peer-reviewed open source. Highly recommended.)

The Principle of Least Privilege: You have more than one login-account for your computer, and the one that you use every day is just a “limited user,” right? On Linux (or OS/X), you can’t use the sudo su command and, with your own(!) password, thereby gain access to root privileges, right? Anytime you want to be Superman, you have to explicitly put on your Superman-suit, right? You have multiple accounts so that you “don’t put all your eggs in one basket,” right?

(A digital computer is really bad at saying “yes,” but really good at saying “no.” Therefore, the bright-line blanket default rule should be “no,” with very carefully crafted exceptions. Realistically, you can’t keep someone from running software on your computer without your knowledge. But you can ensure that the software can’t do any harm nor steal any of your valuables.)

These exploits are “crimes of opportunity,” much like the pizza-delivery cat burglar who walked through tony neighborhoods and found that front doors were unlocked. Even the slightest attention to “best practices” will provide a great deal of boots-on-the-ground protection. The tools that these criminals are using are not omnipotent. Very often, the thing that they’re exploting to their own advantage is … well … your simple carelessness or laziness. If the pizza-guy rattles your doorknob and the knob doesn’t turn, he’ll move on to the next house.