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Warning about Flash Update

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
August 16, 2020
3 replies
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Received notice of Update to Adobe Flash. Downloaded in Edge and then had warning that this may harm PC. No issue when downloaded in Firefox and Norton then flags as safe. Microsoft help says Edge flags some third party apps with this warning if they meet certian (unspecified) criteria. MS says I can still decide to accept it, but how is a casual user (like myself) supposed to decide if safe or not safe when this alert appears? Also, can anyone say if downloading with one browser is "for the use and benefit of" the entire PC or is it browser specific? I couldn't get an answer from MS support as to this question.

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Correct answer seymourh84108098

Thank you for the info. Although I appreciate your comments and suspect that you know much more about these things than I, I have pretty good reason to believe that this was a legitimate update. My reasons are as follows: (1) I recall this problem happening several weeks ago and I now see there was an update in June (that's probably about the time I first saw this. (2) The update notice resembled the ones I've typically received in the past with which I had no difficulty on my old PC with Windows 7. (3) At the previous time, and again the other day (not knowing if this might be a new update), I used Firefox and my Norton program flagged it as safe each time. (4) Several full system scams including one just now have been negative except for low risk tracking cookies. (5) Microsoft agent - although I'm not always convinced that IT staff whose primary language is not English always understand the issue or explain things clearly - informs me that MS Edge is designed to flag third party downloads as possibly harmful (although the first time around the agent took "control" of my PC and allegedly "fixed" the problem. Another reason why I'm never sure that they fully understand the problem.) (6) I seem to recall that MS Edge flagged another valid download as possibly problematic although I don't recall what that was , I do seem to recall that I purposely sought out something to test what would happen and it was because it was happening with what I knew to be a safe item, I felt the "problem" was with Edge and that's why I called MS. (7) Although I don't know for certain, I suspect that even though I installed the June update using Firefox, it seems to be browser specific and because Edge is my default browser (for reasons I won't detail) I get the notice of new update - FYI, per another comment on the fake updates site, I got mine when I started the PC although sometimes my Edge opens automatically and not sure if it did each time I saw notice. Will look for that in future. (8) I just searched to see if browser specific and it seems to be https://www.bing.com/search?q=is+Adobe+Flash+browser+specific&form=ANSNB1&refig=b1369dd46d90457d88303fdfff20e7e0&pc=U531&sp=-1&pq=is+adobe+flash+browser+specific&sc=0-31&qs=n&sk=&cvid=b1369dd46d90457d88303fdfff20e7e0 Site says "browser plug-in" and so, I suspect given negative scans and other factors, that I keep getting the notice because Adobe's auto update software is not "seeing" the update on my Edge browser (especially if it's appearing only when bowser open - I will try to confirm.

J

Janet15D5

Participant

I just got a popup to update Flash after rebooting. It looked completely normal and I was about to do it. My mind was on something else and I accidentally clicked the Remind Me Later instead. It disappeared and did not return. So I have come to Adobe to get it, and I find several posts like these about it.
I went to the download page and clicked to download the latest version of Flash. I did so, and the file name was exactly the same as one on my computer from July. It asked if I wanted to replace that file with the new one and I did. Sure enough, it was exactly the same.

So I would advise that the update popup from Sept 13 is apparently not legit. And it was not on a webpage. I had just rebooted and had not even opened Chrome. It came from my computer.

_maria_

Community Manager

Flash Player installer files usually have same file name from one release to another. One difference would be the major version number included in the file name, however, Adobe hasn't incremented Flash Player's major version number in quite a while, so it's normally the same file name.

J

Janet15D5

Participant

I kind of have to question that. I have never had it pop up and ask if I wanted to replace the old file before. Either way, I won't ever do an update except off the webpage from now on...short time or not.

S

seymourh84108098AuthorCorrect answer

Participant

Thank you for the info. Although I appreciate your comments and suspect that you know much more about these things than I, I have pretty good reason to believe that this was a legitimate update. My reasons are as follows: (1) I recall this problem happening several weeks ago and I now see there was an update in June (that's probably about the time I first saw this. (2) The update notice resembled the ones I've typically received in the past with which I had no difficulty on my old PC with Windows 7. (3) At the previous time, and again the other day (not knowing if this might be a new update), I used Firefox and my Norton program flagged it as safe each time. (4) Several full system scams including one just now have been negative except for low risk tracking cookies. (5) Microsoft agent - although I'm not always convinced that IT staff whose primary language is not English always understand the issue or explain things clearly - informs me that MS Edge is designed to flag third party downloads as possibly harmful (although the first time around the agent took "control" of my PC and allegedly "fixed" the problem. Another reason why I'm never sure that they fully understand the problem.) (6) I seem to recall that MS Edge flagged another valid download as possibly problematic although I don't recall what that was , I do seem to recall that I purposely sought out something to test what would happen and it was because it was happening with what I knew to be a safe item, I felt the "problem" was with Edge and that's why I called MS. (7) Although I don't know for certain, I suspect that even though I installed the June update using Firefox, it seems to be browser specific and because Edge is my default browser (for reasons I won't detail) I get the notice of new update - FYI, per another comment on the fake updates site, I got mine when I started the PC although sometimes my Edge opens automatically and not sure if it did each time I saw notice. Will look for that in future. (8) I just searched to see if browser specific and it seems to be https://www.bing.com/search?q=is+Adobe+Flash+browser+specific&form=ANSNB1&refig=b1369dd46d90457d88303fdfff20e7e0&pc=U531&sp=-1&pq=is+adobe+flash+browser+specific&sc=0-31&qs=n&sk=&cvid=b1369dd46d90457d88303fdfff20e7e0 Site says "browser plug-in" and so, I suspect given negative scans and other factors, that I keep getting the notice because Adobe's auto update software is not "seeing" the update on my Edge browser (especially if it's appearing only when bowser open - I will try to confirm.

jeromiec83223024

Inspiring

Flash Player is a built-in component of IE and Edge on Windows 8 and higher. Installation and updates are handled by Microsoft via Windows Update. Similarly, Flash Player on Google Chrome is built into the browser and delivered via their auto-updater.

If you also have Flash Player installed for Firefox (or other NPAPI browsers), then you would have needed to use our installers and auto-update mechanism, but you can always just open the Flash Player icon in the control planel and look at the Updates tab to check to see if you need an update, and install it.

The reality is that the technical hurdles that need to be overcome in order for attackers to install malware on modern browsers and operating systems is very high. It's much easier to attack the human in the system and coax them into installing something malicious on their behalf.

Please, always download Flash Player from https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer and ignore prompts on webpages to download updates, particularly on Edge, where there isn't a legitimate installer available. If you don't have Windows Update set to automatically apply updates, then you might need to check for and apply updates manually.

It's just way more likely that either you need to activate Flash in the browser (see: https://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player.html) because it's being blocked by default, or you're running into something sketchy.

S

seymourh84108098Author

Participant

ATT: jeromiec83223024

Thank you. This is very helpful. One question though. I checked the updates tab and it is set to “Allow Adobe to Install Updates and is NPAPI version 32.0.0.414 and PPAPI version 32.0.0.387. I clicked on “Check now” and the chart says Windows Edge 32.0.0.387 Firefox 32.0.0.5414 chrome 32.0.0.414. Seems to indicate that I’m up to date. NEW QUESTION: Based on my settings should updates be installed without asking me to take action? Also, the download link I received took me to (based on saved screen shots) https://get3.adobe.com/flashplayer/update/ppapi/ After clicking to download, while showing initializing bar, it went to https://get3.adobe.com/flashplayer/download/?installer=FP_32_for_Opera_and_Chromium_-_PPAPI &os=Windows%2010&browser_type=KHTML&browser_dist=Chrome&d=McAfee_Security_Scan_... (apparently cut off) and then I got the alert in Edge. I copied the first URL into Firefox and downloaded it there with Norton saying it was safe.

As a double check, I pasted the URL you provided into Firefox and downloaded – it was at https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/download/?installer=FP_32_for_Firefox_-_NPAPI&os=Windows%2010&browser_type=Gecko&browser_dist=Firefox&dualoffer=false&mdualoffer=true&stype=7663&d=McAfee_Security_Scan_Plus&d=McAfee_Safe_Connect I note that this URL differs from the one I got in Edge. (I don’t recall if I remembered to cancel the McAfee.) I then tried the previously copied and pasted URL https://get3.adobe.com/flashplayer/update/ppapi/ and got to https://get3.adobe.com/flashplayer/download/?installer=FP_32_for_Opera_and_Chromium_-_PPAPI&os=Windows%2010&browser_type=Gecko&browser_dist=Firefox&a=McAfee_Security_Scan_Plus_FireFox_Browser&dualoffer=false&mdualoffer=false&type=au&browser_vers=79&stype=7663 This seems to be identical to what I got in Edge (allowing for the cut off in the screen print) and differs a bit from the one I got using your URL, but not sure if that’s because it was taken from Edge which uses a different version than Firefox. Norton flags it as safe. Can you clarify?

I then tried your URL in Edge (and this time know I declined McAfee) and got to https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/download/?installer=FP_32_for_Opera_and_Chromium_-_PPAPI&os=Windows%2010&browser_type=KHTML&browser_dist=Chrome&dualoffer=false&mdualoffer=true&stype=7663&d=McAfee_Security_Scan_Plus&d=McAfee_Safe_Connect

It's a bit confusing for me, but I sense that there are some differences between Edger and Firefox URLs possibly because of the different versions. The one thing I do note, however, is that when I use your URL, I don’t get the number “3” after “get”, but I don’t know it’s significance. However, I once again checked the download as I did it and Norton declares it safe.

T

Test Screen Name

Legend

1. Flash is nearly dead, it is going away at the end of this year. If you can, uninstall it now from the browsers where it can be removed (not IE or Edge).

2. There may be different Flash Players for different browsers.

3. CRUCIAL most update notices are fake, they are attacks trying to get you to download malware. Sounds like Edge caught it (indeed, Edge is locked by Microsoft and download a REAL update is impossible!)

If you must update go to http://get.adobe.com/flash

If you fell for a fake, suggest you wipe your machine and restore from a full system backup taken before then.

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