At the end of 2015, Adobe revealed that there were 316 bugs that were discovered and fixed for Flash in the same year. In the fourth quarter alone, Adobe fixed 113 bugs, which is alarming for software that has been in use for almost two decades.
It is clear that days of Adobe Flash is already numbered, as more tech names are adopting HTML5 as a replacement to the outdated technology, especially as HTML5 is being further developed to be able to surpass the limitations that it once had. In fact, in July 2015, Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos called for an "end-of-life date for Flash."
To further drive the final nail into its coffin, Adobe announced that it is pushing out an emergency security update for the Flash Player which address a total of 23 critical vulnerabilities in the software. The vulnerabilities, according to the company, could allow hackers to take control over the systems of unsuspecting users.
Adobe added that it has acknowledged reports that one of the vulnerabilities being addressed by the emergency security update is being used by hackers in limited but targeted attacks. The vulnerability was discovered by Kaspersky Lab's Anton Ivanov, with researchers from Google Project Zero, Microsoft's Vulnerability Research and HPE's Zero Day Initiative among those credited for the discovery of the other bugs.
The company is urging users that still have Flash Player active and installed to install the security updates as soon as possible, especially as most of the vulnerabilities are given the critical rating, which is the highest level of severity. Versions of the Flash Player on Windows, Mac, Linux and ChromeOS machines are included in the emergency security update.
In addition to the Flash Player, the vulnerabilities are also found in a variety of versions of Adobe AIR.
Many security firms have previously recommended users to uninstall the Flash Player to prevent themselves from being subjected to the growing number of security issues related to the software. A huge number of online companies have already stopped the usage of the technology, and with this latest news, the rate at which Adobe's Flash will be dropped will likely further increase.
