In a dramatic move, Mozilla has blocked all versions of the Adobe Flash Player from its Firefox browser.
Now, if you attempt to update the Flash Player through the add-on menu, you will be diverted to a notice page that reveals the application has been "blocked for your protection."
On Tuesday, July 14, Mozilla undertook this move to block Flash Player Plugin version 18.0.0.194 up to 18.0.0.202. The block includes the latest release 18.0.0.203, which is the most vulnerable version apparently.
Mark Schmidt, head at Firefox support, also confirmed the blocking of Flash Player from the browser via a Twitter post.
"BIG NEWS!! All versions of Flash are blocked by default in Firefox as of now," tweeted Schmidt who also gave the link to the add-ons page for Firefox for the current version.
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
Mozilla is taking this route because old versions of the Flash Player have several vulnerabilities.
It is time for Adobe to announce the end-of-life date for Flash and to ask the browsers to set killbits on the same day. — Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) July 12, 2015
However, the current blocking of Flash Player for Firefox is a stop-gap measure and Schmidt confirmed that until Adobe releases a new version/patch sans exploits of "publicly known vulnerabilities," Flash will continue to be blocked.
To be clear, Flash is only blocked until Adobe releases a version which isn't being actively exploited by publicly known vulnerabilities. — Mark Schmidt (@MarkSchmidty) July 14, 2015
