Virus scanners and cleanup tools are trailing-edge solutions. Once an attacker has established a foothold on the system, they're going to ensure that the infection is resilient (the bad guys test against all the popular anti-virus and clean products, too), and they also have automatic updates. We're way past the days of bored kids in basements.

I'll give you some guidance on how to avoid all of those and get back to a truly pristine state.Īlso, it's worth pointing out that the malware guys are smart. Since you're getting malware repeatedly, either you're getting tricked repeatedly by fake update dialogs, you're not really getting rid of the infection in the first place, or you're restoring a backup that's already infected. It's definitely possible for an attacker to take a legitimate copy of Flash Player, bundle it with malware and release it, but it won't be signed as coming from Adobe Systems Incorporated, and it won't be served from one of our servers. I'm confident that any installers that you're getting that contain malware aren't from us. You can actually check binaries to ensure that they're legitimate and from us, should you choose. There are technical and procedural checks from multiple disparate teams, and we use cryptographic digital signatures (the keys to which are also tightly controlled) to certify that those builds are authentic. The entire release and build process is tightly controlled and monitored end-to-end. It's way easier to get you to enter your password for a fake update than it is to install something silently without your knowledge.įurthermore, Adobe has invested massive amounts of engineering resources to ensure that downloads that you get from us are authentic and unmodified.

Since Flash Player is ubiquitous, it's the go-to for impersonation.

Human factors are now the path of least resistance. Software and operating system-based controls have improved significantly over the last few years, making it extremely difficult to install software without a users' permission.

Update flash mac