Apple Updates Anti-Malware Software to Block Older Versions of Adobe Flash Player Plug-in

Friday March 1, 2013 11:58 am PST by Juli Clover

As noted by Jim Dalrymple of The Loop, Apple today updated its malware definition file "Xprotect.plist" to block older versions of Adobe Flash Player in Safari. Versions of Flash that come before the latest 11.6.602.171 update will be automatically blacklisted.

xprotect_flash_11_6

To help protect users from a recent vulnerability, Apple has updated the web plug-in-blocking mechanism to disable older versions of the web plug-in: Adobe Flash Player

The ban comes after a security bulletin issued by Adobe earlier this week, covering three different vulnerabilities and recommending an update to the newest version of Flash.

In recent weeks, Apple has aggressively used its anti-malware tools to enforce minimum plug-in versions in light of security issues affecting the software. Recent blocks have included a previous Flash Player update enforcement in early February, and several blocks of Oracle's Java 7 Web plug-in earlier this year.

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Top Rated Comments

lifeinhd

178 months ago

What application are you running that computationally requires Java in the browser in order to run? :confused:

What are you doing to convey to the software vendor that it is urgent to upgrade their service to eliminate the need for Java in the browser?

I had a client who called me the other week because the site she used to manage her real estate would no longer work on her Mac. Turns out it used Java, and Apple had disabled Java earlier that day.

You can argue all day long that Java/Flash/plugins shouldn't be necessary, but it doesn't change the fact that remotely disabling stuff with no opt-out or even warning is NOT okay.

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

FloatingBones

178 months ago

uNless you actually need java, like some people- myself included.

Agreed. Same here.

What application are you running that computationally requires Java in the browser in order to run? :confused:

What are you doing to convey to the software vendor that it is urgent to upgrade their service to eliminate the need for Java in the browser?

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Jaymes

178 months ago

What application are you running that computationally requires Java in the browser in order to run? :confused:

What are you doing to convey to the software vendor that it is urgent to upgrade their service to eliminate the need for Java in the browser?

Have you ever worked in an enterprise environment? Java is widespread, because it is cross-platform. You only have to right software once, and it will work on Mac, Windows, mobile phone, an ATM, whatever. That's part of the reason people try to compromise it so often.

Unless Oracle somehow self-destructs, Java isn't going away anytime soon. Heck, even CrashPlan Pro (the supposed gold standard in Mac backup that Apple uses on 27,000 of its campus computers) uses a Java client to run. That's right - read it: Apple uses Java on nearly every desktop computer on their campus.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

FloatingBones

178 months ago

What application are you running that computationally requires Java in the browser in order to run? :confused:
Banking.
Finance.

You don't understand the question. I'll rephrase: what is it about banking and finance that requires the computation be performed with Java in the browser?

As far as we can tell, it's simply a matter of complacency and laziness that is leaving your site with the risky implementation. You seem to not realize: apathy by businesses like yours is what is keeping this problem in place.

Are you perhaps hoping that Java will someday be secure?

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Yvan256

178 months ago

The safest way is still to uncheck the "Enable plug-ins" and "Enable Java" options in Safari.

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)