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Shockwave Vulnerabilities Affect More Than 450 Million Systems
Trinity writes "Researchers from VUPEN have discovered critical vulnerabilities in Adobe Shockwave, a technology installed on over 450 million Internet-enabled desktops. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution by tricking a user into visiting a web page using Internet Explorer or even Mozilla Firefox. Version 11.5.1.601 as well as earlier ones are affected. The vendor recommends upgrading to version 11.5.1.602." Especially sobering when you consider Adobe's current push to be essentially required as an intermediary player for anyone who wants to see certain government data.
It is not Flash Player - it is Shockwave Player, and frankly I am really surprised devs still use Shockwave and people still install Shockwave Player.
The only reason to use Shockwave in the past was that it was scriptable. Flash has been scriptable since version 5.
Did you ever wake up in the morning, with a Zombie Woof behind your eyes? -- FZ
First dupe articles, now dupe posts!
Sometimes, life itself is sarcasm...
I find it harder and harder to really give a shit anymore. All of our systems (linux, Windows ,OSX) all have various automatic patching schemes. Once the vendor gets around to fixing their crap (Adobe in this case) we'll ingest the patch and move on.
Once upon a time I monitored the various security announcement lists but ultimately it didn't matter. Most of this crap has become mission critical so turning it off isn't an option, fixing it yourself is rarely and option so you're left with wait and patch solution.
I guess it's kind of free'ing. I no longer stress about it and focus on more relevant issues.
What's the difference between Shockwave and Flash?
Or are they the same thing? If so, why two names for it?
You're welcome.
Ummm, why not use the simple right-click "my computer" and turn DEP off (or just add a DEP exception) instead of editing a text file?
If you're having problems installing the updated Shockwave player, it may be because you have Data Execution Prevention enabled.
To disable:
Look in the root of your C: drive for boot.ini.
Start a command line. Attrib c:\boot.ini -r -a -s -h
Edit boot.ini (In notepad)
Look for "noexecute=optin" and change it to "noexecute=AlwaysOff" (don't add or remove any spaces, line breaks, etc)
Save boot.ini.
In the command window type attrib c:\boot.ini +r +a +s +h
Reboot. DEP is now disabled.
Install the Shockwave Player update.
Re-edit boot.ini to re-enable Data Execution Prevention, and reboot once again.
And I want to run an application that executes in its data area why?
It would be different if the installer intentionally used some sort of self modifying code system.
But the only possible explanation for why a Shockwave updater fails to run with DEP enabled, is that at least one of its threads is doing some sort of buffer overrun and running off into the woods. It just usually doesn't break things bad enough to make the installation fail, unless DEP actually stops the thread.
Not exactly the type of program I want to be running on my computer.
> Is he worried the gov will abuse this hole?
No. He's worried that that the government is going to make their data inaccessible to anyone who doesn't install a useless piece if junk that would make their computer insecure.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
I'm surprised that anybody's surprised that a new Adobe exploit has surfaced, They seem to have surpassed Microsoft in their zeal to get your PC infected; Microsoft seems to hava actually been getting better in the last couple of years. Or Microsoft seems to at least be trying. Adobe doesn't seem to care.
Free Martian Whores!
Even Adobe can't explain Shockwave properly.
Shockwave is a real 3D system usable as a decent game engine. At one time, it even had the Havok physics engine, but Adobe didn't keep up the payments and had to take that out. Try BMX Street Rider, which is a reasonably decent free-play game in a modest sized city. It's way ahead of the proposed hacks for doing 3D with Javascript.
What killed Shockwave for trivial applications is "LOADING..." problems. Flash can start before all the content has been loaded, because Flash has two interleaved streams, a timeline and assets. As soon as you have enough assets for the stuff needed by the timeline so far, Flash can go. So you can write Flash that starts fast and loads assets in the background.
No, it's two different plugins.
1. Shockwave Flash 10.0 r32
2. Shockwave for Director 11.5
You can have 1 without 2, latest versions.
Looks some crazed half-forgotten branding initiative.
Interestingly, the player test page http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome/ tries to install an old version if you have only Flash:
Macromedia Shockwave Player 10.1
That's the old branding and an old version. But anyway it fails to install. Maybe Adobe is confused by my nightly version of Firefox.
They seem to have surpassed Microsoft in their zeal to get your PC infected...
And considering that they have more marketshare than Microsoft, they can actually pull it off.
I did too – then I realized that I didn't have Shockwave in the first place. I had Flash, which is different. Now I'm considering uninstalling Shockwave again, because I didn't need it before and I don't expect to need it in the future.
Are you sure you had it to begin with?
"Shockwave Flash" is Flash (plays .swf files). "Shockwave for Director" is Shockwave (uses .dcr files).
Yes, it's confusing. You can thank Adobe for that.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
So? This isn't Flash. You don't need it to visit 95% of the web. You hardly ever need it – I didn't even have it installed.
Check the add-ons; if you don't have "Shockwave for Director", it isn't even installed. "Shockwave Flash" is the flash player (not Shockwave).
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
Being a Director developer, there are some things Director can do that Flash can't:
Control embedded PDF files
Manipulate bitmaps
Create 3D scenes with physics
Make network calls through proxy servers
Access/Modify system resources
Wider range of media support
Director is actually capable of more than Flash, it just never caught on as well with developers. The mob rules, though.
Being a Director developer, there are some things Director can do that Flash can't:
Make network calls through proxy servers
Access/Modify system resources
Director is actually capable of more than Flash, it just never caught on as well with developers. The mob rules, though.
This may be nice for a developer, but for a user, this is really scary.
(1)DOCOMEFROM!2~.2'~#1WHILE:1<-"'?.1$.2'~'"':1/.1$.2'~#0"$#65535'"$"'"'&.1$.2'~'#0$#65535'"$#0'~#32767$#1"
Ok, I just compiled some stats on Shockwave version plugin distribution using roughly 30 million unique data points from July 1 of this year until about a week ago - here is roughly the distribution (includes IE/FF/etc. - all major browsers):
Not installed => 67.54%
11,0,0,0 => 2.86%
10,2,0,0 => 2.84%
10,1,0,0 => 2.59%
11,0,0,465 => 2.41%
11,5,0,0 => 2.05%
11,5,1,601 => 1.90%
8,5,1,0 => 1.75%
10,1,4,0 => 1.73%
11,0,0,429 => 1.58%
11,0,3,472 => 1.56%
10,1,1,0 => 1.53%
11,5,0,596 => 1.46%
11,5,0,600 => 1.38%
11,0,3,471 => 1.35%
11,5,0,595 => 1.21%
11,0,0,458 => 0.93%
10,3,0,0 => 0.78%
11,0,3,470 => 0.66%
8,0,0,0 => 0.43%
10,1,3,0 => 0.37%
8,5,0,0 => 0.32%
11,0,3,0 => 0.23%
10,0,0,0 => 0.16%
10,0,1,0 => 0.11%
7,0,0,0 => 0.10%
11,5,1,0 => 0.08%
10,4,0,0 => 0.04%
6,0,0,0 => 0.03%
What is potentially troubling is that there does not appear to be much in the way of upgrade movement in Shockwave installs. So if "Adobe Shockwave Player versions prior to 11.5.2.602" are truly at risk, we are talking about 30% of web users roughly.
I will publish a more in-depth report later today here: http://www.statowl.com/ in the plugin section. I have been neglecting that site anyways - time to update the stats - the past three month are absent - sigh....