Mozilla Says Adobe Flash Isn't Secure, Blocks It From Firefox Browser

Many Mozilla Firefox users woke up Tuesday to find that Adobe Systems Incorporated ADBE’s Flash had been blocked by default in their browsers as of late-Monday – no matter what version they were using.

The block was no whim, however. In fact, Mozilla was reacting to the news about Hacking Team (a Milan-based surveillance software maker that was breached last week) having three working exploits for Adobe Flash. So, until the latter eliminates these vulnerabilities, Mozilla said Flash would remain blocked on Firefox by default (and explained how to adjust the settings for it to run only on trusted sites).

In response, Adobe assured it would fix the bugs as soon as possible. The company declared it is already close to eliminating one of the vulnerabilities discovered, and working on patches for two other bugs unveiled by Hacking Team. Management expects the patches to become available for users later this week.

But this is not the first piece of bad news for Adobe in recent days. Just a few days ago, Facebook Inc FB’s security chief Alex Stamos stated –in a Tweet- his belief that Adobe should “announce the end-of-life date for Flash and to ask the browsers to set killbits on the same day.”

Interestingly, Adobe’s stock is trading up on Tuesday, despite the bad news.