Adobe updates Flash to address targeted exploits

Adobe has issued an emergency update to its widely used Flash Player in light of reports that the software suffers from two vulnerabilities that are being publicly exploited.

The update for Flash for Windows and Macintosh, Linux, and Android closes CVE-2013-0633, an ActiveX bug which is being used in targeted attacks by which victims are tricked in to opening a bogus Microsoft Word document, delivered via an email attachment, that actually contains a malicious Flash file.

In addition, Adobe is plugging CVE-2013-0634, a hole predominantly being leveraged to infect users' machines when they visit malicious websites in Firefox or Safari from their Mac. In addition, like the other vulnerability, attackers are taking advantage of this flaw by duping Windows users into clicking on fake attachments promising to be Word docs.

Users are encouraged to update to Flash version 11.5.502.149 for Windows or Mac, 11.2.202.262 for Linux, 11.1.115.37 for Android 4.x and 11.1.111.32 for Android 3.x and 2.x.

Details of how to update to the latest iterations can be found by visiting the security bulletin.

This release is out-of-cycle with Adobe's normal schedule. It typically updates Flash to coincide with Microsoft's Patch Tuesday updates, which ship on the second Tuesday of every month.