Adobe expects Flash flaw fix today

Adobe expects to fix a critical Flash Player vulnerability today, a week before it had planned to issue a patch.

Alarm bells were ringing last week when reports emerged the flaw was being actively exploited in the wild against Adobe Flash on Windows.

An update for Flash on the Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Solaris and Android operating systems is now due to be issued today.

Google Chrome users can already protect themselves by updating to version 6.0.472.62 of the browser.

The same vulnerability exists in Adobe Reader 9.3.4 for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX, as well as Adobe Acrobat 9.3.4 and earlier versions for Windows and Macintosh.

Adobe said it expects to fix the problem in those software models during the week starting 4 October, although it has not been made aware of any attacks exploiting the vulnerability in Reader or Acrobat.

Chester Wisniewski, senior security advisor at Sophos Canada, said Adobe had most likely moved the update forward because the vulnerability had been exploited in the wild.

"Stay tuned for information on the upcoming Adobe fixes. They will be very high priority and I recommend planning your deployment of these fixes as soon as possible," Wisniewski added in a blog post.

Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.

He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.