Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Skuzzy on February 22, 2014, 06:29:24 AM
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If you allow Adobe to update your flash player in your browser, they WILL install McAfee! Adobe has removed the option to opt out of the installation.
The only way around it is to use the full Flash installer.
For Internet Exploder, use this (http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/current/support/install_flash_player_ax.exe)
For all other browsers, use this (http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/current/support/install_flash_player.exe)
The reason I am bringing this up is there is a virus, active on the Internet, exploiting a security hole in the current Flash player.
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Thanks Skuzzy!
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Just a minute ago I installed Flash Player for both IE7 and Firefox 27 on a freshly factory reset computer (that's why it was still IE7). IE was the first to go and I went directly to the Finnish locale site. It offered the option to install Chrome, which I unticked. In the meantime I downloaded Firefox without transferring settings from IE. This time I thought I'd check if the localization would make any difference, went to adobe.com instead of .fi and chose to stay on the US site despite the question of my locale. This time the installation offered McAfee, but again the option was able to uncheck. For security reasons I checked the Programs and Features, no McAfee there.
Hopefully your find was only a temporary glitch on the Adobe site, Skuzzy. :salute
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Would be kind of odd if they would push McAfee installs on computers that potentially already have antiviruses. That could lead into serious conflicts.
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An update: One of our computers just did the automatic Flash update at startup. No extras as far as I could find.
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Does this apply in the UK I do my system maintance every weekend with filehippo and saw no sign of this?
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If you allow Adobe to update your flash player in your browser, they WILL install McAfee! Adobe has removed the option to opt out of the installation.
The only way around it is to use the full Flash installer.
For Internet Exploder, use this (http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/current/support/install_flash_player_ax.exe)
For all other browsers, use this (http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/current/support/install_flash_player.exe)
The reason I am bringing this up is there is a virus, active on the Internet, exploiting a security hole in the current Flash player.
Thanks for the heads up man, appreciated.
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Skuzzy will this work for all future Adobe installations as well? Lord knows they update at least once a month.
if so, how about a sticky?
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http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html
Links for all supported OS, also links to the ESR Flash version without feature experiments.
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Maybe they are only pushing this in U.S. installations, but the Internet is alive and screaming about this problem. I know I almost got burned by it. I saw the McAfee installation progress indicator and terminated it as fast as I could.
No warning, no check boxes to avoid it.
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So the best option would be to got to the flash player control panel and set update method to "notify only", if notified you now know where to get the clean update from.
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That's weird skuzzy. I've updated 4 computers with the latest adobe flash in the last 2 weeks and not one of them forced the mcafee antivirus installation. I wonder what's going on. Maybe if it detects no active antivirus it forces it? I have Microsoft security essentials on all of the computers, so if you're not using that then maybe that's the difference?
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That's weird skuzzy. I've updated 4 computers with the latest adobe flash in the last 2 weeks and not one of them forced the mcafee antivirus installation. I wonder what's going on. Maybe if it detects no active antivirus it forces it? I have Microsoft security essentials on all of the computers, so if you're not using that then maybe that's the difference?
That could be possible. Maybe Adobe pulled that update after the backlash. The net was buzzing with complaints about it.
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If you allow Adobe to update your flash player in your browser, they WILL install McAfee! Adobe has removed the option to opt out of the installation.
The only way around it is to use the full Flash installer.
For Internet Exploder, use this (http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/current/support/install_flash_player_ax.exe)
For all other browsers, use this (http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/current/support/install_flash_player.exe)
The reason I am bringing this up is there is a virus, active on the Internet, exploiting a security hole in the current Flash player.
Use Modzilla on my game rig .... AND NO FLASH at all ! :aok
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Tanks, Skuzzy :aok
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That could be possible. Maybe Adobe pulled that update after the backlash. The net was buzzing with complaints about it.
Downloaded Adobe Reader yesterday. Also came along with McAffee.
No opt to refuse it. Just plugs it in. :furious :furious :furious
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If all you wanted was a PDF viewer, you should use Foxit PDF Reader (http://www.foxitsoftware.com/Secure_PDF_Reader/). It is more secure, uses less resources, faster, and so on.
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If all you wanted was a PDF viewer, you should use Foxit PDF Reader (http://www.foxitsoftware.com/Secure_PDF_Reader/). It is more secure, uses less resources, faster, and so on.
Will try it, thx Skuzzy!
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By the way, if you allowed McAfee to get installed on your computer. The only way to undo the damage the installation of McAfee does to your computer is to wipe out the operating system and install a fresh copy.
At least Norton has a tool, on their WEB site, for undoing the damage it does when it is installed.
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By the way, if you allowed McAfee to get installed on your computer. The only way to undo the damage the installation of McAfee does to your computer is to wipe out the operating system and install a fresh copy.
At least Norton has a tool, on their WEB site, for undoing the damage it does when it is installed.
All that was visible was an exe file to start installation. That one I have erased and manually looked for anything that looks like McAffee.
Not enough?
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As long as you aborted the installation before it finished, you are fine. Once installed, McAfee replaces system files with its own stuff.
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Downloaded Adobe Reader yesterday. Also came along with McAffee.
No opt to refuse it. Just plugs it in. :furious :furious :furious
The 'opt' to refuse it is during the intial selection before you start even downloading the package. Once you've downloaded the version with mcafee it won't ask you anything.
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Flash is the most problematic piece of code Ive ever put on a computer.
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Thank goodness I never set automatically install updates. Thanks for the heads up Skuzzy, I'm not taking any chances.
The 'opt' to refuse it is during the intial selection before you start even downloading the package. Once you've downloaded the version with mcafee it won't ask you anything.
This. Unselect Mcfee at the website and you won't get it.
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Post are somewhat confusing here. I never had some Mcafee stuff pop up when I had a Flash or Reader autoupdate but I know you have to deselect this BS upon manual download from their website at the usual Flash/Reader download option (not the distribution link).
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As long as you aborted the installation before it finished, you are fine. Once installed, McAfee replaces system files with its own stuff.
I just coincidentally looked for hidden devices in the Device Manager. To my surprise there were a couple of McAfee thingies! After removing them they didn't reappear after the next boot but I don't remember seeing anything by McAfee installed since the last time I took a look into the Device Manager which wasn't too many months ago. Could it be that even though I was able to untick McAfee, the Flash Player update still installed something of it? If so, some rules have been violated!