After 24 years of release, Adobe released the latest update to Flash Player and thanked everyone for the fantastic content they released over the years.
The first version of Adobe Flash Player was released in January 1996 and was immediately adopted by developers for creating interactive content on the web. For many, the first experience with an online game was through the Flash games that were scattered throughout the internet.
While Adobe Flash Player was extremely popular with users, it was equally popular with hackers who exploited various software bugs in the platform to infect users with malware.
Due to security flaws and new technology like HTML 5, Adobe, Microsoft, Google, Apple , and Mozilla made a joint announcement in 2017 that they would withdraw support for Adobe Flash Player at the end of 2020.
In the release notes for the latest Flash Player 32 and AIR 32 released this Tuesday, Adobe thanks all developers and customers for the amazing Flash content they have created over the past two decades.
Starting in January 2021, all browser developers will completely remove Adobe Flash from their browsers, if they haven't already. Once removed, there will be no way to reinstall .
This removal includes Google Chrome, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer 11, and other Chromium-based browsers.
For Internet Explorer, Microsoft has already released the optional update KB4577586 that removes the 32-bit Flash Player plugin that is built into the browser and Windows. Once this update is installed, it cannot be uninstalled.
Microsoft plans to release this update via WSUS and Windows Update in early 2021 to perform a large-scale removal of Flash Player.
As a final step, Adobe has introduced a “killswitch” that prevents Adobe Flash content from running in Flash Player as of January 12, 2020.
“Adobe will no longer support Flash Player after December 31, 2020, and Adobe will prevent Flash content from running in Flash Player starting January 12, 2021. Adobe strongly recommends that all users immediately uninstall Flash Player to help protect their systems ,” Adobe warns users.
After January 12, even if a browser supports Flash, Flash Player will no longer load the content.
Information source: bleepingcomputer.com
