Adobe Issues Flash Player Security Update to Block Attacks

Adobe Systems plugged multiple security holes in Flash Player that today have come under attack in the wild, marking the third security update issued for the product this month.

The security update - which touches Windows, Mac OS X and Linux computers – comes after reports that CVE-2013-0643 (a permissions issue in the Flash Player Firefox sandbox) and CVE-2013-0648 (a vulnerability in the ExternalInterface ActionScript feature) were found being targeted in attacks targeting Firefox users. According to Adobe, the attackers look to trick users into clicking a link that directs them to a website serving malicious Flash content.

If exploited successfully, an attacker could use the vulnerabilities to either crash or take control of a vulnerable system, the company said.

In addition to those two bugs, Adobe also fixed a buffer overflow issue in a Flash Player broker service that can be used to execute malicious code (CVE-2013-0504).

Today's update is part of what has been a busy month for Flash Player security. On Feb. 7, the company released a fix for two other vulnerabilities being exploited in attacks. Less than a week later, Adobe released another update for Flash Player to address several vulnerabilities in the product that could cause a crash or enable an attacker to hijack a system.

For Windows and Mac users, today's update was assigned a priority rating of '1' – the highest rating available.