Adobe Flash Plugin is vulnerable/outdated in 14.04 but there is no update in Firefox

Question

I am using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. When I open a site which requires flash plugin (e.g. Youtube), Firefox says This plugin is vulnerable and should be updated.

However if I click Check for updates... there is no update at all. This is what the update site listed:

1. Shockwave Flash 11.2 r202 (status up to date 11.2.202.424)
2. Java(TM) Plug-in 11.25.2 (status up to date 11.25.2)

So what should I do?

Solution 1

I've done some research at mozilla and adobe and tests with both recent LTS-versions (14.04 and 12.04) and I'm pretty sure it is just a numbering problem of the flash-plugin!

To make a long story short:
If you open in firefox "tools" - "add-ons" - "plugins" respectively look at the mozilla check and you've got version 11,2,202,425 (notice the commas!), you will get this error message.
and if your version is 11.2.202.425 (same version, just with dots at the numbering) everything is fine.

So don't panic, your system is safe! ;-)

---

But I can understand that this message is annoying and so this would be the easiest way to get rid of it:
open a terminal and insert sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y flashplugin-installer, type your root-password (no characters will be displayed) and just wait till executed!

---

I would recommend this solution just in the case you have already installed the latest version but still get the error message because of the differences between the flash-packages!

Solution 2

The best solution to the problem of a vulnerable, out-of-date Flash installation--or even an up-to-date one that works poorly--may be to uninstall Flash entirely. Often it is not needed, as HTML5 has largely taken over. Thus removing Flash is a real solution for many people, and should probably be considered first before moving on to other solutions that attempt to keep Flash installed while maintaining it in a current (or semi-current) state.

As occupyflash.org says:

Flash Player is dead. Its time has passed. It's buggy. It crashes a lot. It requires constant security updates. It doesn't work on most mobile devices. It's a fossil, left over from the era of closed standards and unilateral corporate control of web technology. Websites that rely on Flash present a completely inconsistent (and often unusable) experience for fast-growing percentage of the users who don't use a desktop browser. It introduces some scary security and privacy issues by way of Flash cookies.

Flash makes the web less accessible. At this point, it's holding back the web.

Solution 3

Following solution worked for me:

sudo apt-get purge flashplugin-installer
sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin

Solution 4

As announced by Adobe Adobe Flash Player 11.2 will be the last version to target Linux as a supported platform.

Solution 5

The main problem in this situation is outdated version of Flash Player in Firefox, which is 11.2
In the same time, Google Chrome users enjoying latest version supported by Google.

The trick is to switch Firefox from using it's Flash Player to Pepper Flash Player from Google Chrome.

1. First of all lets remove that we have:

   sudo apt-get remove flashplugin-installer
   sudo apt-get remove adobe-flashplugin

2. Install Fresh Player Plugin by Rinat Ibragimov.
   It is wrapper which allows Linux users to use Pepper Flash (which is bundled with Google Chrome) in Firefox and other NPAPI-compatible web browsers.
   Latest version at this moment is 0.3.1, and everything seems working.

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install freshplayerplugin

3. Install Pepper Flash Player itself from Google Chrome Stable:

   sudo apt-get install pepperflashplugin-nonfree
   sudo update-pepperflashplugin-nonfree --install

   If you want, you can install flash player from different versions:

   Google Chrome Beta:

   sudo update-pepperflashplugin-nonfree --install --beta --unverified

   Google Chrome Unstable:

   sudo update-pepperflashplugin-nonfree --install --unstable --unverified

Now it's time to check version:

1. Adobe About shows that I have 18,0,0,209
2. about:addons shows that I have version 13.1 r2
3. Mozilla's Check Your Plugins page shows that I have version 13.1.2.3, it's outdated and offers update now, but update doesn't work (and we don't need it, actually)

View more solutions

Comments

[Muzaffar]

Maybe something changed in Firefox settings (about:config). Consider trying flash in another browser to find out who is guilty.

[D.W.]

Type about:plugins in your Firefox address bar, and search for flash player. What version does it list? Does it list 11.2.202.424 or 11.2.202.424? Go to Adobe's flash version tester (clicking "Activate Adobe Flash"), and look at what version it says you have. Does it say "You have version 11,2,202,424 installed" or "11,2,202,425"? 11.2.202.425 is the proper latest version. For some reason Firefox seems to mis-detect what version is installed. Finally, exactly what version of the flash package do you have installed on your machine?

[fikr4n]

@D.W. If I install adobe-flashplugin: about:plugins says 11.2.202.359; adobe's site says 11,2,202,359 If I install fashplugin-installer: about:plugins says 11.2.202.425; adobe's site says 11,2,202,425

[D.W.]

@BornToCode, Excellent -- that's a great clue. 11.2.202.425 is the latest version -- that's the one you want. Sounds like the answer is to use flashplugin-installer (not adobe-flashplugin). That, combined with the details from DJCrashDummy, sounds like the answer. Want to post an answer that explains all of this? This should be very useful to others.

[JohnnyBizzle]

I've installed 11.2.202.481 and this still seems to be vulnerable? Should I always allow? No problems with Chrome.

[DJCrashdummy]

the latest flash version should be 11.2.202.425!

[DJCrashdummy]

if you have problems, have a look at this!

[DJCrashdummy]

ok... now i've got the same error! but i think it's a wrong check because you are still using flash 11.2 (on behalf of adobe no longer releases new versions for linux)! - i've done the mozilla check and also looked at adobe and both tell me i'm using the most recent version 11.2.202.425! so everything should be fine...!

[Fabby]

There is however an 11.2.202.425 update available at the time of this writing

[fikr4n]

Why adobe-flashplugin instead of flashplugin-installer?

[fikr4n]

I've installed flashplugin-installer and it works now. It was so strange that Firefox site said everything was up to date but actually it was not up to date.

[DJCrashdummy]

very well explained differences of the flash-packages!

[fikr4n]

This is the accepted answer if it is flashplugin-installer, because installing adobe-flashplugin does not solve my problem.

[fikr4n]

For adobe-flashplugin, both of the checks show 11.2.202.359, but for flashplugin-installer it is 11.2.202.425.

[Wilf]

It is helpful to include the commands here in case the link breaks. Also, the 11. releases still receives updates for Linux distros, just not the new features (which is annoying)

[harayz]

after few days and plenty of different attemps from reading various forum posts - this works for me. [Linux xxxx 3.16.0-30-generic #40-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jan 12 22:06:37 UTC 2015 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux]

[Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy]

@Fabby update doesn't equal to a newer version, Firefox will keep complaining, unless you switch to pepper flash or html5, which is what i did

[Fabby]

@Serg: спасибо: I've never had any problems, about any web sites complaining, but then, I'm not the average user... ;-)

[Kalle Richter]

Please merge you answer with you other answer above to increase readability of your and the other answers to this question.

[Tarrasch]

Can you give an actual path to uninstalling the software? Preferably a shell command.

[JohnLRBrock]

after trying to update it says "already the newest version" but the anoying message still appears

[Sina]

Shell command to uninstall flash: "sudo apt-get remove adobe-flashplugin" it worked for me and I can watch videos now

[bluepearlsky]

I typed in the terminal the above string, 'sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y flashplugin-installer'. It worked perfectly on my 14.04 LTS. I got 'flashplugin-installer_11.2.202.491ubuntu0.14.04.1_amd64.deb‌​' installed.

[Rafael_Espericueta]

Sadly, one still needs it to watch Amazon streaming videos. Usually I use Chrome, but need Firefox for this too. I would rather be using HTML5!

[DazBaldwin]

I didn't even think of doing this. Great suggestion.

[Linga]

This worked for me