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bobb92788693
Participating Frequently
March 16, 2015
Question

Bogus request to update Flash Player

  • March 16, 2015
  • 5 replies
  • 4612 views

I attempt to visit numerous sites, Home Depot or just blog articles,  and each time I immediately receive a message " Adobe Flash Player is out of date", click to download .....  In addition the site is completely frozen.  My IE is up-to-date and it appears Adobe is as well (tree and cloud animation, fine).  I have run Malwarebytes, SuperAntispyware, and windows defender, to no avail.   I beleive the message to update is bogus.  ANy help?

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    5 replies

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    ccentral2
    Participating Frequently
    March 21, 2015

    OK, I just came across this blog post describing our little popup friend, but the solution he provides does not apply in *any* of my cases. Specifically, the system that came in yesterday is CLEAN clean, other than this popup. It's a fresh install with no additional software added.

    My latest theory is that this is not some kind of malware, but rather a simple advertising campaign. I noticed that all of the affected pages are heavily loaded with third-party ads from various ad networks, and I'm thinking one of them is unknowingly (I hope) distributing this ad.

    So, can anyone reproduce this issue on a web page that does NOT include third-party advertisements? Because if not, we may be able to narrow it down to a specific ad network if we compare notes on affected web pages.

    Unless, of course, someone has more information / better ideas that make me look silly... 

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    bobb92788693Author
    Participating Frequently
    March 22, 2015

    There appear to be more and more posts on the internet regarding this fake update request.  Several now claim the that Spyhunter will fix it.  Anyone tried it?  Is Spyhunter safe?  If so where can I Safely get it?  I am so paranoid now and don't what to download anything!!!

    C
    ccentral2
    Participating Frequently
    March 17, 2015

    Just to confirm: Is this the message you are seeing? And, if so, does it appear centered over whatever web page you happen to be trying to access, blocking you from actually doing anything else?

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    bobb92788693Author
    Participating Frequently
    March 17, 2015

    You are nuts on!  Awesome.  Any additional thoughts?

    As I have said clearing history and shuting down and restart has not worked.  Running MalwareBytes, SuerAntispyware and windows defenders has not worked.  MalwareBytes repeatedly finds nothing where as Super Anti does find "Adware stuff" (4 or so pieces) even if I have done nothing more than open a home page and then rescanned.

    As you said I am pretty sure this is not an Adobe issue, but can to this board as a semi-logical place to ask a related issue.

    Thank you so much for keeping me posted.

    C
    ccentral2
    Participating Frequently
    March 17, 2015

    Well, I'm 3 for 3 so far on clearing the history, but I don't know if it's a permanent fix since I don't know (yet) what causes the problem in the first place. Here are the options I select when I do it:

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    ccentral2
    Participating Frequently
    March 16, 2015

    Clear your browser history, restart IE, and try again. That sorted it on the Windows 8.1 system. Haven't tried 7 yet - I'm still hoping to find the root cause.

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    bobb92788693Author
    Participating Frequently
    March 17, 2015

    I have deleted my history several times.  As for "restart IE", what do you mean?  Just shut the computer down?  Done that many times.  Or do you me uninstall IE and reinstall it?

    Thanks

    C
    ccentral2
    Participating Frequently
    March 17, 2015

    No need to uninstall IE - that's going a tad too far. 

    All I had to do was flush the history, close IE and then restart it. I'm still not sure where this thing is coming from though, as I've gotten pulled off onto more pressing issues (failed HDD on an industrial machine with no backups, of course).

    As a temporary workaround, you might try installing an alternate browser, e.g. Google Chrome. Whatever this thing is, it appears to be IE specific, which makes me think it's some kind of zero-day IE exploit. But again, I'm not sure yet.

    C
    ccentral2
    Participating Frequently
    March 16, 2015

    I run a small computer shop, and we've had 2 of these come in today: One is running Windows 8.1, and the other is running Windows 7. I've ensured both are up to date with the latest Adobe Flash, yet the message appears on multiple web sites when viewed with Internet Explorer 11.

    However, I don't think Adobe is to blame: I uninstalled Flash from the Windows 7 machine completely, and yet the message *still* appeared. I've checked for known malware, both systems are clean. Still trying to work out the origins of this... whatever it is.

    chris.campbell
    chris.campbell
    Legend
    March 16, 2015

    Internet Explorer 11 introduces a number of changes both to how the browser identifies itself to remote web servers, and to how it processes JavaScript intended to target behaviors specific to Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, this means that content on some sites will be broken until the content provider changes their site to conform to the new development approach required by modern versions of IE.

    You can try to work around these issues by using Compatibility View:

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/use-compatibility-view#ie=ie-11

    If that is too inconvenient, using Google Chrome may be a preferable alternative.

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    bobb92788693Author
    Participating Frequently
    March 16, 2015

    Compatibility View did not help.

    As an example;  When I go to the home depot site, if I work very fast and click the scoll down bar, I can jump down the page quickly before this endlessly maddening box comes up telling me to update Abode.  When I am able to scoll down quickly I can see that the Home Depot page is very complete with dozens of pictures.  It does not look like it is having any problem loading the page!  It just throws up this DEMAND to update the "OUT OF DATE" Adobe.

    Does this not sound like an adware scam?   Then again, I have run MalwareBytes, SuperAntiSpyware and Windows Defender.

    What the ...

    Thanks

    chris.campbell
    chris.campbell
    Legend
    March 16, 2015

    That does sound like something in interfering.  I personally use MalwareBytes and have found it to be very reliable.  You might want to try doing a clean boot and seeing if it still occurs.

    How to perform a clean boot in Windows

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