PC Daily Tips

Protecting Yourself From Flash Exploits

By Jason Faulkner - 7/23/2008 8:59 AM

Flash (in my opinion the worst thing that has happened to the Internet, but that is a subject for another day) is now another vehicle for malicious software attacks. According to this article (which is highly technical) by merely visiting an site which has an infected Flash banner ad you are subject to an exploit. For an example, check out this particular case of one on USA Today’s site.

It seems to be debatable as to whether or not the latest Flash client addresses the problem (the exploit is embedded to the file on the server), but regardless the safest measure is to simply disable Flash on your browser. Using IE7Pro for Internet Explorer or Flashblock for Firefox, you can selectively enable when you want Flash content to be displayed.

Not only do we have to deal with the utterly worthless “Flash intro’s” (who watches these anyway?), but now malicious exploits. Surely something else can come along and replace Flash for the only use it has which is a web video player.

Yearly Archive: 2008