Posted Yesterday, 08:15 AM Adobe revealed a critical zero day flaw in Adobe Flash--the second in less than a week. The vulnerability extends even to Adobe Flash on the Android mobile OS, supporting at least one of the reasons laid out by Steve Jobs for not allowing Flash on the iPhone and iPad.
An Adobe spokesperson contacted me and shared that, "A critical vulnerability exists in Adobe Flash Player 10.1.82.76 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Solaris and Android operating systems. This vulnerability also affects Adobe Reader 9.3.4 for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX, and Adobe Acrobat 9.3.4 and earlier versions for Windows and Macintosh."
In a nutshell, the critical flaw could be exploited to crash the affected system, or may even allow an attacker to gain access and control it to execute additional malicious software. There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild against Adobe Flash Player, but Adobe is not aware of any attacks exploiting it against Adobe Reader or Acrobat thus far.
The Adobe spokesperson explained, "Adobe is actively sharing information about this vulnerability (and vulnerabilities in general) with partners in the security community to enable them to quickly develop detection and quarantine methods to protect users until a patch is available. As always, Adobe recommends that users follow security best practices by keeping their anti-malware software and definitions up to date."
Those best practices are long established among the traditional desktop computing platforms, but users running Adobe Flash on Android smartphones may be left wondering exactly which "best practices" will protect them. Smartphones have grown into palm-based portable computers--with processing power and storage space significant enough to be a worthy target--but smartphone security is not as evolved as its desktop and notebook counterparts.
original article reference: PCWorld
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/205411/adobe_flash_zero_day_puts_android_smartphones_at_risk.htmlmy oldest Daughter just found out her phone ( same as pictured on the above listed article URL ) has been attacked, according to the verizon repair center...... is why I am posting this here.... guess we got to start looking out for more than just our computers these days.....
if you own one of these smart phones, don't be checking/doing your banking thru them, I'd advise...
