Adobe Flash Player plug ins are blocked

Two bugs, one affecting Apple's Mac platform and another attacking Microsoft's Windows, exploit certain Flash player vulnerabilities to install malware onto users' systems, reports ArsTechnica. While users of other operating systems like Linux have yet to report attacks, Adobe's advisory notes the exploit affects all platforms.

Designated as CVE-2013-0634, the first vulnerability targets the Safari and Firefox Web browsers running on OS X, and is also being used as a trojan to deploy Microsoft Word documents containing malware. For Mac users, the flaw affects Adobe Flash Player version 11.5.502.146 or earlier.

On March 1 Apple again blocked Flash Player for Lion and Mountain Lion:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5660

The Adobe Flash patch can be found on Adobe’s website, and users can visit this page to check if their software is the most curent version.

You should uninstall any previous version first, and repair permissions after installing the new version.

If you're sure you've installed the latest version of Flash, take each of the following steps that you haven't already tried. After each step, relaunch Safari and test. For a "missing plug-in" error, start with Step 4.

1. If you're getting a "blocked plug-in" error, then from the menu bar select

 ▹ System Preferences… ▹ Flash Player ▹ Advanced

and click Check Now. Quit and relaunch your browser.

2. Triple-click the line below to select it:

from the contextual menu. A folder should open. If there is more than one item in the folder with the words "Flash Player" (not "flashplayer") in the name, open the respective Info windows, check the version numbers, and delete all except the latest. You may be prompted for your login password.

3. Re-download and reinstall Flash. Download it from this page:

5. Select

Safari ▹ Preferences... ▹ Extensions

from the Safari menu bar. If any extensions are installed, disable them.

6. In the Safari preference window, select

Privacy ▹ Remove All Website Data

Close the window. Then select

 ▹ System Preferences… ▹ Flash Player ▹ Advanced

and click Delete All. Close the preference pane.

"Triple-click" means "click quickly three times." You're selecting a line of text in your browser or mail client.