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December 2, 2015
Answered

Why is Flashutil 64 Adobe listed as a process in My Task manager utility with Windows 7 and IE 11

  • December 2, 2015
  • 2 replies
  • 3173 views

Why is Flashutil 64        Adobe     listed as a process in My Task Manager utility with Windows 7  and IE 11?    What is it and what does it do?

Thank you,

     TomS

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer jeromiec83223024

    It's an artifact of sandboxing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbox_(computer_security)‌).   The part of Flash Player that processes untrusted content from the web runs as a Low Integrity process.  Where Flash Player needs more privileges on the system, there's a much smaller medium-integrity process called the broker that makes those requests on behalf of the low-integrity process.  This is a defense-in-depth mechanism to make it more difficult for an attacker to exploit a crash in a way that allows them to control the larger system.

    2 replies

    Known Participant
    December 3, 2015

    Thank you.

    jeromiec83223024
    Community Manager
    jeromiec83223024Community ManagerCorrect answer
    Community Manager
    December 3, 2015

    It's an artifact of sandboxing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbox_(computer_security)‌).   The part of Flash Player that processes untrusted content from the web runs as a Low Integrity process.  Where Flash Player needs more privileges on the system, there's a much smaller medium-integrity process called the broker that makes those requests on behalf of the low-integrity process.  This is a defense-in-depth mechanism to make it more difficult for an attacker to exploit a crash in a way that allows them to control the larger system.