In addition, an emergency “switch” was introduced into the Flash Player code in advance, which prevents the launch of any Flash content, starting from January 12, 2021.

Last year, in preparation for the final end of support for Flash Player, Microsoft created update KB4577586 to remove Adobe Flash from all versions of Windows 8, 10 and Windows Server and prevent it from being reinstalled.

At that time, the update was only available through the official catalog and could not be removed after installation. However, the update was optional, although it was forcibly rolled out in February to some Windows 10 machines.

In general, the company promised that in early 2021 this update will be distributed via WSUS and Windows Update and will be made mandatory. On Microsoft’s blog can be found a post that reveals further plans regarding KB4577586.

Starting June 2021, Microsoft plans to include KB4577586 as part of optional Windows 10 cumulative preview updates for Windows 10 1809 and later.

It also became known that in Windows 21H1, the preview version of which will become public this month, the KB4577586 update will be installed automatically, that is, the Adobe Flash Player plugin will be automatically removed.

It is unlikely that the final removal of Flash Player will be noticed by users, because now it is actually useless and cannot be used to display content.

However, let me remind you that with the shutdown of Flash, strange things began to happen in some parts of the world: for example: End of support for Adobe Flash caused interruptions in the Chinese railway system, as well as Authorities of South Africa create their own browser to continue to use Flash. It is also interesting that a special version of Flash for China turned into adware.

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As you know, at the beginning of 2021, support for Adobe Flash Player was finally discontinued. A special self-destructing code was pre-built into the software code, and starting from January 12, 2021, Adobe blocks the launch of any Flash content.

However, in China, Adobe has allowed local Zhong Cheng Network to continue Flash support, as it is still an important part of the local IT ecosystem and is widely used in both the public and private sectors. For example, at the beginning of the year, due to the termination of support for Flash, Chinese railway workers faced serious problems.

A special Chinese version of Flash is distributed through the flash[.]сn website and Minerva Labs recently discovered that it is insecure.

According to the researchers, in addition to Flash itself, other payloads also penetrate users’ machines. In particular, the application downloaded and launched the nt.dll file inside the FlashHelperService.exe process, which opens a new browser window at regular intervals and shows various sites with a lot of ads and pop-ups.

The suspicious behavior of this process was also noticed by Cisco Talos analysts, who noted that FlashHelperService.exe became one of the leading threats in January, and then in February.

Users noticed this problem too. Numerous complaints can already be found on the Adobe Support Forum, local blogs, and more.

Let me remind you that the Authorities of South Africa create their own browser to continue to use Flash.

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Let me remind you that earlier the developers have already warned that they will ask users to remove Adobe Flash from their machines by the end of the year.

In the latest update, the actual date of “death” of Flash is decided: January 12, 2021, after which any type of Flash content will not be launched inside the application.

The fact is that even if the user does not bother to uninstall Flash on his own, a few months ago the company added a kind of “time bomb” to the code, which will prevent the application from being used in the future.

It is also worth recalling that in October this year, Microsoft already released an update that removes Adobe Flash from all versions of Windows 10 and Windows Server, and also prevents it from being reinstalled on the device.

The “death” of Flash is expected to have minimal impact on the web ecosystem, as, according to a study by W3Techs, only 2.3% of sites still use Flash, which means that this figure has significantly decreased in recent years (for example, in 2011, the market share Flash was 28.5%).

Along with the release of the latest update, Adobe took the time to thank all Flash users and web developers who have been using it in their everyday lives and work for so many years:

Let me remind you that OS Windows 7 was also hard and reluctant to leave us: Microsoft released farewell updates for Windows 7 in january 2020, but My Digital Life forum community has found an illegal way to extend support for Windows 7.

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Apple introduced the “notarization process” security mechanism in February of this year: any Mac software distributed outside the App Store must undergo a notarization procedure so that it can run on macOS Catalina and above.

Unfortunately, just like Bouncer (an automated security system that scans Android apps before uploading them to the Google Play Store), Apple’s app notarization process isn’t perfect either. Thus, in total, more than 40 notarized applications infected with the Shlayer Trojan and BundleCore adware have been detected.

Now, researcher Joshua Long of Intego says that he has identified six more malicious applications that have successfully passed the notarization process.

All six found “products” pretended to be Flash installers, but in fact downloaded OSX/MacOffers adware onto victims’ machines, which, in particular, interferes with the operation of the search engine in the user’s browser.

The expert writes that Apple revoked the developer’s certificate for these malwares before Intego specialists had time to finish their investigation. It is unclear how Apple discovered these applications: perhaps the company received a warning from another cybersecurity researcher, or someone from their affected Mac users notified the company of what was happening.

As Adobe, along with other companies, plans to permanently phase out Flash support in late 2020, Long has once again urged users to stop downloading Flash installers, which are usually malicious.

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