Adobe recently released an emergency update for Flash Player on all platforms after two zero-day bugs were discovered in the wild targeting Windows and Mac OS X computers. The vulnerabilities allowed hackers to hijack both Windows PCs and Macs. Adobe recommends all users to update their systems as soon as possible.
The first vulnerability, CVE-2013-0633, tricks users into downloading a Microsoft Word document sent via e-mail. As you might expect, the document contains malicious SWF (flash’s file extension) content that can then infect a user’s system. This exploit targets the ActiveX version of Flash Player for Windows, Adobe said.
The second exploit, CVE-2013-0634, targets Firefox and Safari users on Mac OS X by directing users to Websites containing malicious Flash content. This vulnerability is also being used against Windows users in a similar manner to the first exploit. Namely, malicious documents delivered via e-mail.
So there’s nothing new here in terms of malware delivery, but you should update your Flash Player software as soon as possible if it isn’t set to update automatically. Even though the newly patched weaknesses target Mac and Windows users, Adobe has also released updates for Flash Player on Linux and all versions of Android from 2.X to 4.X (basically, everyone running Flash on Android).
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