WARNING! Do NOT update Adobe . . . it contains malware that will give you unwanted and potentially dangerous pop-ups!!!

There's no reason not to keep Adobe products up to date. BUT, you need to make sure that is what you're doing. There has been malware out there for some time that masquerades as an Adobe update. ONLY update it from either already trusted software (I use Secunia PSI) or just go directly to the Adobe website.

I just google 'Adobe Flash Player (or Air, or whichever one) current version' and choose one from the Adobe website and go ahead and install it.

If you get a pop up that says Adobe needs to be updated, just don't click on that unless you are positive it actually came from Adobe. I don't mean to talk down to anybody. I'm sure we all know this, but it's pretty important so nobody should forget.

I just got a popup on my Mac saying that Adobe needs to be updated. I declined, for the time being, based on Ford's other thread.

I just updated Flash yesterday with no problems. I did make certain to decline the optional software offered though.

ETA my security software notified me of the update and labeled it as critical.

On 12/14/2014 chickenbutt said:

There's no reason not to keep Adobe products up to date. BUT, you need to make sure that is what you're doing. There has been malware out there for some time that masquerades as an Adobe update. ONLY update it from either already trusted software (I use Secunia PSI) or just go directly to the Adobe website.

I just google 'Adobe Flash Player (or Air, or whichever one) current version' and choose one from the Adobe website and go ahead and install it.

If you get a pop up that says Adobe needs to be updated, just don't click on that unless you are positive it actually came from Adobe. I don't mean to talk down to anybody. I'm sure we all know this, but it's pretty important so nobody should forget.

Chickenbutt, for me at least this was a first. Adobe has been a reliable program for decades. I didn't trust the first pop-up I received several weeks ago to update it because it didn't look quite right, but I continued getting it. Then this morning I received what looked like all the former updates that were not infected, and I did the update.

I immediately started getting the pop-up I have described in another post. Since I deleted the Adobe update, I have not been getting the pop-up. This was suggested to me by
"only shops online," a poster who had the same thing happen.

Since I deleted the update, so far so good.

Unless someone can point me to reliable info about this, I think this is wrong.

Adobe Flash is safe. As long as you install it directly from their website.

If a person installs it from a pop-up they're in danger of installing malware because there are pop-ups designed by malicious people who try to trick unsuspecting users.

Ford, Please direct me to your source about Adobe Flash being dangerous?

On 12/14/2014 Marp2 said:

I just updated Flash yesterday with no problems. I did make certain to decline the optional software offered though.

ETA my security software notified me of the update and labeled it as critical.

The pop-up I was getting was not able to be deleted, I described it in another post. It only had one option and that was "OK" which I was certainly not going to click on. As I said, so far, so good when I deleted the Adobe upgrade I installed this morning.

We'll see.

On 12/14/2014 dooBdoo said:

Unless someone can point me to reliable info about this, I think this is wrong.

Adobe Flash is safe. As long as you install it directly from their website.

If a person installs it from a pop-up they're in danger of installing malware because there are pop-ups designed by malicious people who try to trick unsuspecting users.

Ford, Please direct me to your source about Adobe Flash being dangerous?

See my post to chickenbutt.

I'm still looking but I see nothing about a problem with Adobe Flash.

In fact, last month there were important security updates that were extremely important for people to install. Here's one article from a very reliable source:

"...For the second time this month, Adobe has issued a security update for its Flash Player software. New versions are available for Windows, Mac and Linux versions of Flash. The patch provides additional protection on a vulnerability that Adobe fixed earlier this year for which attackers appear to have devised unique and active exploits..."

link: http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/11/adobe-pushes-critical-flash-patch/

On 12/14/2014 dooBdoo said:

Unless someone can point me to reliable info about this, I think this is wrong.

Adobe Flash is safe. As long as you install it directly from their website.

If a person installs it from a pop-up they're in danger of installing malware because there are pop-ups designed by malicious people who try to trick unsuspecting users.

Ford, Please direct me to your source about Adobe Flash being dangerous?

Exactly. That's what I was trying to say. There ARE legit pop up windows to advise of Adobe updates, but there are also these malicious ones (that are NOT actually from Adobe) and you cannot tell the difference.

So, whenever I've gotten something like this I just 'x' it out and go to the Adobe website to see if there is an updated version to install. That way I know I'm safe. I've had some lately and there was nothing bad in there, as long as I installed them from Adobe or another trusted source.

I wish the bad guys weren't always two steps ahead of the good guys - always trying to do damage. *sigh*