Items tagged with NASDAQ: ADBE
At its annual WWDC conference being held this week in San Francisco, Apple announced that it would be transitioning its long-running Mac OS X to "macOS". Based on the initial screenshots we've been given, there's not going to be a large departure from what we're used to from OS X, but the move is still notable considering OS X has been the chosen name for 15 years. There's a lot of history there. Well, there's also going to be history made with macOS Sierra, as Safari 10 is going to be shipping with common 'legacy' plugins disabled by default. That of course includes Adobe's much-loathed Flash plugin, one of the largest gaping holes of computer security in recent (and even not-so-recent) years....
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2015 has proven to be a massive year for Adobe's Flash plugin, but for all the wrong reasons. Flash is already infamous for being one of the most vulnerable pieces of software on the planet, but in 2015, 316 bugs were found and squashed. That comes out to about 6 bugs per week for a piece of software that's used by the vast majority of notebook and desktop users. What's most impressive about the sheer number of bugs Flash has is the fact that ultimately, we're dealing with a mere plugin here, not a massive software package. While Flash was once considered "cool", a de facto choice for Web animation, the past decade hasn't been too kind to it. The negative reputation was earned thanks mostly to...
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We reported last week on a new zero-day vulnerability in Adobe Flash that was revealed following the leak of data from the Italian hacking group "Hacking Team". It's hardly a surprise when such a vulnerability is found in either Flash or Java, and as sad as it is, it's not even surprising to learn that two more have been found. Oy! The latest vulnerabilities, named CVE-2015-5122 and CVE-2015-5123, are considered critical, and affect the Flash player on Windows, OS X, and Linux. A verbatim threat to last week's vulnerability, "successful exploitation could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected...
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This week, something nearly as common as breathing happened: a severe Adobe Flash vulnerability was revealed. How this one came to be, however, is far more interesting than most. Earlier this week, a well-known Italian hacking group called 'Hacking Team' was itself hacked. On Monday, the group's Twitter account was hijacked to post a link to a torrent file that includes about 400GB worth of its data. We're now finding out that this data could have huge repercussions for software vendors and regular consumers alike. Because Hacking Team's efforts largely revolve around exploiting bugs in popular software, it's almost of no surprise to see Adobe Flash listed among those affected. It's also of little...
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There are myriad of ways to improve the battery-life of a laptop, but one of the best is to disable CPU-intensive (or perhaps even GPU-intensive) browser plugins. Adobe's Flash is a perfect example of this. While Flash animations can be detrimental with regards to battery-life, it's made worse when an element in the background is running a video. It's just bad news, and Google realizes it all-too-well. That being the case, the company will soon be introducing a new feature to its Chrome Web browser that lets users disable all Flash content by default, or let Chrome decide which content should be displayed. In the latter case, if some Flash is deemed to be unimportant to the website experience...
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According to US-based security research firm FireEye, a Russian group it dubs APT28 is responsible for attacking a number of different government agency computers through exploitation of previously unknown vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash and Microsoft Windows. To exploit a vulnerable system, attackers took advantage of a buffer overflow issue in Flash through the use of malformed FLV files and gain remote code execution. On the Windows side, the core issue is a local escalation of privilege flaw which isn't critical by itself, but is made so when paired with the Flash vulnerability. As of the time of writing, Microsoft still hasn't patched its OS issue (but a fix is in the works), but the Flash...
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Whenever a software flaw is discovered and is then patched, it's not often that we'll ever hear about it again (the exceptions are those that do big damage). It's even more rare when we end up hearing about a "medium" bug again four years later. Such is the case of a vulnerability affecting Adobe Flash (don't act surprised!) To be more specific, CVE-2011-2461 is tied to Adobe's Flex SDK, which developers can use to compile their Flash project for exporting to an .SWF file. In older versions of Flex (3.x and 4.x), compiled SWF files allow the injection of a script or HTML, which it can pull off through the module loading mechanism. If someone visits a website with an affected SWF file, requests...
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At this point, I think it's safe to call the security level of Adobe's Flash player "asinine". Sometimes, it feels like full-blown OSes, such as Windows, have far fewer bugs. When is the last time you remember having to update your OS with an emergency patch? Now how about Adobe Flash? Exactly. Well, since Adobe didn't put it in its New Years' resolutions to release more secure software, this is a reality that's not going to change too soon. Yesterday, the company issued a patch for bug CVE-2015-0311, one that exposes a user's browser to become vulnerable to code injection, and the now infamous Angler EK (Exploit Kit). To fall victim to this kind of attack, all someone needs to do is visit a...
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Adobe has today released an updated version of its Flash plugin to address "critical" issues, and believe us when we say that no time should be wasted in making sure you get that up-to-date version. At the core, this bug could result in remote code execution being possible, which is to say that somebody could potentially run malicious code on your PC, or ultimately take control of it. This vulnerability was discovered by Google security researcher Michele Spagnuolo and a tool called Rosetta Flash. This tool has the ability to translate a standard SWF Flash file into standard alphanumeric characters, text that the Flash plugin would still be able to interpret. The important bits, as told by Michele:...
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Adobe had much to boast about during its third-quarter earnings call this week, and not surprisingly, much of that revolved around its Creative Cloud service. On that front, the company has said that it's just reached the 1 million subscriber milestone; most notable for the fact that these are not cheap subscriptions, starting out at $20 for a single app license, and $50 for the kit and caboodle. Despite the initial success, many have wondered if the company's major focus on the cloud would come and bite it down the road, a question that only heightened earlier this month when the company announced its plans to entice more to move over to Photoshop CC. As part of this promotion, any owner of...
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The digital world is here, and there's really no getting around it. In the gaming sector, physical media still rules, and in the movie realm, Blu-ray Discs are still selling. But the digital creep is happening. Netflix and streaming outfits are dominating, and even software outfits such as Steam are doing quite well in moving software over mere tubes. Adobe is a major software player that has promised to fully commit to the cloud by the end of next year, giving us one less boxed package to consider in the future. In the meanwhile, it has just launched a low-priced entry into its renowned services. The Photography Program will cost users $9.99/month (if you get in by December), offering users...
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If you’ve been enjoying the free beta of Photoshop Lightroom 5, the time has come to pony up. Adobe ended the beta and put Lightroom 5 on sale officially today. Lightroom is one of those programs that appeals to amateur and pro photographers alike: it’s a powerful photo-editing and workflow tool. And the new version has tons of features that make Lightroom 4 look like old news. A feature that’s sure to get a lot of attention is the Advanced Healing Brush, which lets you remove distracting objects from your photos. You can using it to brush away little objects, like dust, or you can make an entire person seem to disappear. Check out the video below to see what we’re talking...
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There's no reason for Windows 8 and Windows RT to be treated like second class citizens, so why isn't Adobe's free Photoshop Express program available for either platform when you can grab it on iOS or Android? That would have been a good question a week ago, but is no longer valid, as you can now find the freebie photo editing app in Microsoft's Windows Store. "On-the-go photo editing was never so fun, fast, and cool. Touch your way to better-looking pictures with automatic fixes and filters," Adobe explains on the app's product page. "Get your pictures to pop! And after sharing, you'll be the talk of your friends. This isn't like the full version of Photoshop that's available for desktop systems,...
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When it comes to distributing software, Microsoft and Adobe are certainly on the same page insofar as they both believe that software-as-a-service is the future; it’s only a matter of time before boxed software is a thing of the past. However, the two companies apparently differ sharply on the timing of the move. Earlier this week, Adobe announced that it would discontinue its Creative Suite and other CS products, so going forward any new customers will have to rely on the Creative Cloud, which requires a subscription-style membership as opposed to the purchase of a physical software box. Microsoft believes that Adobe pulled the trigger way too early. “Unlike Adobe, we think people's...
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