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Adobe Has Finally and Formally Killed Flash

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday January 12 2021, @06:07PM   
from the not-sorry-to-see-you-go dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

That's it. It's over. It's really over. From today, Adobe Flash Player no longer works. We're free. We can just leave:

The Photoshop giant promised Flash would die on January 12, 2021. Thanks to the International Date Line, The Register's Asia-Pacific bureau, like other parts of the world, are already living in a sweet, sweet post-Flash future, and can report that if you try to access content in Adobe's Flash Player in this cyber-utopia, you'll see the following:

[...] Adobe's page also explains why you'll see the Flash Death Notice depicted above, rather than Flash content:

Since Adobe is no longer supporting Flash Player after the EOL Date, Adobe will block Flash content from running in Flash Player beginning January 12, 2021 to help secure users' systems. Flash Player may remain on the user's system unless the user uninstalls it.

More specifically, what's happened is that Adobe snuck a logic bomb into its Flash software some releases ago that activates on January 12, and causes the code to refuse to render any more content from that date. Adobe has also removed previous versions from its site, and "strongly recommends all users immediately uninstall Flash Player to help protect their systems."

[...] Thus ends Flash, which started life in 1993 as a vector drawing product named SmartSketch, from long-dead company FutureWave Software. FutureWave turned SmartSketch into an animation tool called FutureSplash Animator. FutureWave was acquired by Macromedia in 1996, occasioning a name change to Macromedia Flash 1.0.

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Original Submission

• Re:Bragging about datecoded logic bombs?Re:Bragging about datecoded logic bombs? (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday January 12 2021, @09:42PM (3 children)

  by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday January 12 2021, @09:42PM (#1099097)

  Thank you so much, I hadn't heard of Ruffle.

  A few years ago a client of mine bought a security camera system (that I installed and set up remote monitoring) that uses Adobe Flash (bizarre) for the remote / web view. Of course it's now broken.

  I tried the Ruffle plugin but it does nothing, and the whole web page gets really messed up.

  The camera company just released a firmware update a few weeks ago, but frustratingly uses Flash to do the update. IE, if Flash won't load, you can't update the firmware.

  It turns out you can turn your computer's date back and Flash will run, so we can remote view the building, and I did the firmware update, but it's still Flash-based.

  Not sure what's going to happen. This reminds me of the FCC invalidating RF frequencies for very expensive pro audio mics and systems. The camera system is now trash, and for no good reason. Hopefully someone will reverse-engineer the Flash player and clip out the date-checking algorithm. I might look at it if I have the stomach for it...

  Parent

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• Re:Bragging about datecoded logic bombs?(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @11:09PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 12 2021, @11:09PM (#1099145)

  Report the bug. If you can get them a copy of the files they need, they seem more than happy to fix bugs.

  Parent

• Re:Bragging about datecoded logic bombs?Re:Bragging about datecoded logic bombs? (Score: 2) by NateMich on Wednesday January 13 2021, @03:02AM (1 child)

  by NateMich (6662) on Wednesday January 13 2021, @03:02AM (#1099277)

  Not sure what's going to happen.

  Money will be spent.

  Parent

  • Re:Bragging about datecoded logic bombs?(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday January 13 2021, @03:30AM

    by RS3 (6367) on Wednesday January 13 2021, @03:30AM (#1099286)

    So that's how we feed the economy!

    Or wait, maybe it's how we fill the landfills and keep the trashtrucks and workers in business?...

    Money will be spent wasted.

    FTFY.

    Parent