Firefox blocks Flash plugin, everyone wants it to die
Everyone is tired of security problems related to Flash (and browser crashes too), Firefox is not an exception, that’s why they have blocked all vulnerable versions of Flash by default. This means that it will be automatically disabled and no longer usable.
Mark Schmidt, the head of Firefox Support announced this important move on Twitter:
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
However, it’s not definitely deleted. The Firefox will block it until Adobe will release a new, secure version that will not be vulnerable to known issues.
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
Alex Stamos – Chief Security Officer at Facebook has also expressed his discontent on Twitter and asked Adobe to kill Flash:
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
It all started when major vulnerabilities of Flash were found after 400GB of data (internal documents and source code of some products created by the popular security company called Hacking Team) were exposed online. Adobe is aware of these issues and started releasing new versions of Flash that are not vulnerable anymore (hope so). If you’re using Firefox browser, you probably noticed how often it’s asking you to update the plugin.
If you’re one of those users that are tired of this, you can completely uninstall Flash from your browser.
How to completely delete Flash plugin from your browser
First of all, no worries, most popular web browsers and sites that rely on Flash are also compatible with HTML5 and can play multimedia content with no problems. So, if you delete Flash plugin, you will still be able to play videos on Youtube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, etc. or listen to music on Soundcloud or Spotify. No additional actions are required, the browser will automatically switch to HTML5 to play videos, audios, show effects, etc.
How to delete Flash plugin from:
Firefox: Open “Menu” and access “Add-ons” section, go to “Plugins” and disable Shockwave Flash plugin by selecting “Never activate” option. Or, type in the address bar about:config, search for “flash” and find the plugin.state.flash option, change its value to 0.
Chrome: Type chrome://plugins in the address bar, click on “disable” next to Shockwave Flash plugin. Or, go to “Menu” > “Settings” > “Show advanced settings” > “Privacy” > “Content settings” > “Plugins”.
Safari: Go to “Preferences” > “Security” > “Internet plugins” > “Manage website settings” select Adobe Flash player and select “block” option.
Maybe it’s time to stop using Adobe Flash completely and move to HTML5 instead? What do you think? At the end, let’s have some fun:
