[thelist] Flash virus

[John Dowdell]

Summary: This report is completely unrelated to SWF files in browsers. We
still want to hear about such concerns though!


At 8:33 AM 1/8/2, Peter-Paul Koch wrote:
> For the first time, a Flash virus has been detected. See
> http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/swflfm926.html
> for more details.

Howdy, it would have been nice if the site had checked with us first, we
could have saved them some work.... ;-)

Here's an interim background statement from Macromedia. We hope to have
their site amended soon, and will have it in a security section on our site
too.

> Macromedia was recently informed of a potential issue with the
> standalone Macromedia Flash Player running on Microsoft Windows.
> This issue does not affect web content viewed in a browser.
> After testing by both Macromedia and Sophos Anti-virus, the
> company who initially reported this potential issue, Macromedia
> has found that this issue can only affect content that is sent
> via email or downloaded from a site and then run outside a
> browser. E-mail users should never open or download attachments
> or data unless they can be sure it is from a trusted source.
> Macromedia appreciates the work of Sophos in reporting this
> potential issue, and will be issuing a patch later this week;
> a fix will also be included in future versions of the product.
> For more information on the patch please visit:
> http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/
> Macromedia will continue to take potential security issues
> very seriously."


Please give a holler if you ever see *any* client or audience concerns
about security with these technologies... we want to make sure that
everybody is confident of their safety out there. Thanks!

jd





John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US
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