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Thunder-faced Mozilla lifts Flash Firefox block after 0-days plugged
Browser maker backs search for 'safer and more stable' alternative – like its own
Patching the web
While they might agree over the security response to active attacks, Adobe and Mozilla are not in tune when it comes to the future of streaming media technologies on the web.
We can see this by looking at Mozilla's work on an experimental Flash replacement technology called Shumway.
In a statement, Mozilla provided a more detailed explanation of its actions in temporarily blocking Flash, as well as reiterating its commitment to developing and supporting alternative technology.
We're glad Adobe has moved quickly to fix critical vulnerabilities in Flash. The latest Flash update is now enabled by default in Firefox. On Monday, 13 July, we disabled Flash by default in Firefox to protect our users from active exploits which were distributing malware.
This followed Adobe’s advisory for two critical vulnerabilities (CVE-2015-5122 and CVE-2015-5123) in Adobe Flash Player 18.0.0.204 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh and Linux.
We will continue to work with developers to encourage adoption of safer and more stable technologies, such as HTML5 and Javascript, and we look forward to helping drive that conversation.
The latest patch batch from Adobe, killing two Hacking Team vulnerabilities, follows another emergency fix for Flash earlier this month, also addressed problems exposed by the breach of the controversial Italian surveillance software firm.
Years ago, hackers used to plant malicious code on compromised websites that exploited browser vulnerabilities. These days, Flash and Java browser plug-ins have become the preferred vectors for banking trojan-slingers and spooks alike.
There have been 11 Flash updates this year alone, and six have come outside Adobe's regular patching cycle as emergency patches for zero-day flaws.
Earlier calls by security experts to ditch the technology are getting traction in the wider IT world. For example, this week Facebook's recently installed security chief, Alex Stamos, called for a timetable to kill off Flash. ®
Biting the hand that feeds IT
