All versions of Firefox are blocking Flash by default. No-one cries

With no patches yet for the latest Adobe Flash zero-day vulnerabilities that are being exploited in the wild, Mozilla has (for now at least) blocked Flash in Firefox.

Mark Schmidt, head of Firefox support at Mozilla, announced the news on Twitter:

BIG NEWS!! All versions of Flash are blocked by default in Firefox as of now. https://t.co/4SjVoqKPrR #tech #infosec pic.twitter.com/VRws3L0CBW

— Mark Schmidt 🌐 (@MarkSchmidty) July 14, 2015

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In a subsequent tweet, Schmidt made clear that the block was only temporary – and would be removed when Adobe releases a version of Flash which is no longer being actively exploited.

Sorry about that.

When a fellow Twitter user asked Schmidt if the Flash block would be in place forever more, the Mozilla staffer replied “I wish!” – so at least we know his heart is in the right place.

Firefox users can still enable Flash via the settings menu if they wish.

Further reading:

• Well, what do you know… Adobe patches Flash against zero-day vulnerabilities

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.