flash player auto update settings, etc.

[davidh]

Adobe Flash Player Settings Manager

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html

Apparently this web site is intended to be the place to go to change the "hidden" settings on your pc flash player. Seems as if the default update schedule is 30 days.

Flash seems also to keep track of web sites on which you have run flash apps. I don't know if there is any way to erase this info besides this web page or not.

David H

P.S.
Where to check your flash version
http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/about/

Latest is 9.0.115.0 (security update, etc.)

If I ever tell my opinion of Flash, I'll post it in Section 8 :mad:

David H.

[davidh]

I ran a Secunia scan of my PC after installing Flash 9.0.115.0

Seems that the old Flash OCX (Active X) is NOT removed when installing the update(s).

David H

[MollyM/CA]

I ran a Secunia scan of my PC after installing Flash 9.0.115.0

Seems that the old Flash OCX (Active X) is NOT removed when installing the update(s).

David H


The Flash Player site has an applet for uninstalling old Flash players (I couldn't get it to entirely work on my old computer which had several versions scattered around -- I think it got all but one though). The newest versions are supposed to uninstall the preceding version(s?). (This might be mentioned in Secunia's readout)

I can't imagine what the designers think they're doing making old versions so uninstallable. I don't quite see how they can do their usual spying with a version that's just sitting there so what's the point.

[davidh]

The Flash Player site has an applet for uninstalling old Flash players (I couldn't get it to entirely work on my old computer which had several versions scattered around -- I think it got all but one though). The newest versions are supposed to uninstall the preceding version(s?). (This might be mentioned in Secunia's readout)

I can't imagine what the designers think they're doing making old versions so uninstallable. I don't quite see how they can do their usual spying with a version that's just sitting there so what's the point.

The online scan at the Secunia web site actually reported the name and folders of the obsolete OCX file(s) , so I was able to delete them manually using WIndows Explorer (previously known as File Manager in Windows 3.x). My main reason for doing so was merely to avoid being annoyed by the old Flash showing up in future scans at Secunia. I don't think the old files being present really do harm. Unlike old Java installations which could cause harm since some Java applets can request to be run under an old version of Java Runtime Environment (JRE). And if such a Java applet was malicious it could exploit a vulnerability in an old unpatched JRE.

I have used that Flash uninstaller (you mentioned) in the past. I suspect that there may be different versions of the uninstaller for different versions of Flash.

I think this latest Flash patch may be critical because I think I read that Proof of Concept code to exploit the vulnerability is publicly available. Since the default update interval is 30 days, that makes it more or less likely that some users will be hit merely because of the length of the update interval. I think most other browser plug ins check daily unless you change that behavior.

Seems like Flash was intentionally designed to be INTRUSIVE (like MSIE) and HARD TO UPDATE.

David H

[MollyM/CA]

Seems like Flash was intentionally designed to be INTRUSIVE (like MSIE) and HARD TO UPDATE.

Yep. Right-click on one of the CS forum's disgusting dancing banner ads and get a clue to why?