flash-player interview questions
Top flash-player frequently asked interview questions
As said,
What makes Adobe Flash so vulnerable and how does Mozilla Shumway fix it?
Flash related malicious activity is due to malicious website right? Not in Adobe's software right? If so, how can Shumway replace the Flash nightmare??
Source: (StackOverflow)
For some time now (dunno exactly) Flash doesn't load here when it's embedded using the <embed> element. It works fine, however, if done via <object> alone. So most embedded videos in web pages don't work while YouTube itself works fine.
Any idea what causes this?
[IE 8, Windows 7]
Source: (StackOverflow)
I noticed that Internet Explorer 10 also has Adobe Flash Player built-in (like Google Chrome). So my question is, whether the standalone Flash Player (downloadable at Adobe’s site) is necessary anymore.
After my upgrade from Windows 7, it is still there (and makes regular updates), but I am unsure if it is used by anything.
Source: (StackOverflow)
I don't have adobe flash player installed, and don't miss the flashing ads a bit.
The only thing that annoys me: IE8 keeps asking me "this web site wants to install Adobe Flash Player", and I want to get rid of this question. I don't want to install it, not now, not ever.
So how do I make IE stop asking me about it?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I like to play some downloaded Shockwave Flash (.SWF) files without opening my internet browser. Sometime ago, I remember I could do it just double clicking on the SWF item. Then it was opening in a plain Shockwave window. Now XP won't play ball. I tried Folder Options > File types but couldn't find the associated player exe. How can I surpass this?
Edit: There has to be some way to do this without a 3rd party software since I can already play SWFs on my browsers.
Source: (StackOverflow)
Windows 8 comes with Flash Player pre-installed. How do I remove it? It does not appear in "Programs and Features".
Source: (StackOverflow)
I can't find Flash Player download link which will give me the full EXE/MSI file, not the tiny downloader which downloads data from the internet.
What's the proper download site for this?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Many people have heard about third-party cookies, and some browsers even block those by default. Some people may even be using Private Browsing modes. However, only few seem to realise that Adobe's Flash player also leaves a cross-browser trail on your local hard drive, and allows for sending cookie-like information back to the server, including third-party sites. And because it is a plugin, Flash does not take any of the browser's privacy settings into account.
Sorry for the long post, but first some details about why using Flash raises a privacy concern, followed by the results of my tests:
- The Flash player keeps a cross-browser history of the domain names of the Flash-sites your computer has visited. Unlike your browser's history, this history is not limited to a certain number of days. History is also recorded while using so-called Private Browsing modes. It is stored on your hard drive (though, as described below, without going to Adobe's site you won't know what is stored).
- I am not sure if any date and time information is kept about each visit, but to see the domain names: right-click on some Flash content, open the settings dialog, and click the Help icon or click the Advanced button within the Privacy tab. This opens a browser to the help pages on Adobe.com, where one can click through to the Website Storage Settings panel.
- One can clear the existing list, but one cannot stop it from being recorded again.
Flash allows for storing data on your local hard drive, using so-called Local Shared Objects (aka "Flash Cookies"). Just like HTTP cookies, this data can be sent back to the server, for tracking purposes. They are cross-browser, have no expiration date, and no user defined maximum lifetime can be set in the Flash preferences either. These not being HTTP cookies, they are (of course) not blocked by a browser's cookies preferences and are not removed when the normal HTTP cookies are deleted. Adobe has announced that version 10.1 will obey Private Browsing in most popular browsers, but unfortunately no word about also removing the data whenever normal cookies are deleted manually. And its implementation might be confusing:
[..] if the browser is in normal browsing mode when the Flash Player instance is created, then that particular instance will forever be in normal browsing mode (private browsing is turned off). Accordingly, toggling private browsing on or off without refreshing the page or closing the private browsing window will not impact Flash Player.
Local Shared Objects are not limited to the site you visit, and third-party storage is enabled by default. At the Global Storage Settings panel one can deselect the default Allow third-party Flash content to store data on your computer. Because of the cross-browser and expiration-less nature (and the fact that few people know about it), I feel that the cross-browser third-party Flash Cookies are more dangerous for visitor tracking than third-party normal HTTP cookies. They are even used to restore plain HTTP cookies that the user tried to delete:
"All advertisers, websites and networks use cookies for targeted advertising, but cookies are under attack. According to current research they are being erased by 40% of users creating serious problems," says Mookie Tenembaum, founder of United Virtualities. "From simple frequency capping to the more sophisticated behavioral targeting, cookies are an essential part of any online ad campaign. PIE ["Persistent Identification Element"] will give publishers and third-party providers a persistent backup to cookies effectively rendering them unassailable", adds Tenembaum.
[..] To justify this tracking mechanism, UV's Tenembaum said, "The user is not proficient enough in technology to know if the cookie is good or bad, or how it works."
- When selecting None (zero KB) for Specify the amount of disk space that website websites that you haven't yet visited can use to store information on your computer, and checking Never ask again then some sites do not work. However, the same site might work when setting it to None but without selecting Never ask again, and then choose Deny whenever prompted. Both options would result in zero KB of data being allowed, but the behaviour differs.
- The plugin also provides a Flash Player cache for Adobe-signed files. I guess these files are not an issue.
So: how to automatically delete that information?
On a Mac, one can find a settings.sol file and a folder for each visited Flash-website in:
$HOME/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer/sys/
Deleting the settings.sol file and all the folders in sys, removes the trail from the settings panels. However, the actual Local Shared Ojects are elsewhere (see Wikipedia for locations on other operating systems), in a randomly named subfolder of:
$HOME/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/#SharedObjects
But then: how to remove this automatically? Simply removing the folders and the settings.sol file every now and then (like by using launchd or Windows' Task Scheduler) may interfere with active browsers. Or is it safe to assume that, given the cross-browser nature, the plugin would not care if things are removed while it is active? Only clearing during log-off may not work for those who hibernate all the time.
Firefox users can install BetterPrivacy or Objection to delete the Local Shared Objects (for all others browsers as well). I don't know if that also deletes the trail of website domain names.
Or: how to stop Flash from storing a history trail?
Change of plans: I'm currently testing prohibiting Flash to write to its own sys and #SharedObjects folders. So far, Flash has not tried to restore permissions (though, when deleting the folders, Flash will of course recreate them). I've not encountered any problems but this may take some while to validate, using multiple browsers and sites. I've not yet found a log that reports errors. On a Mac:
cd "$HOME/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/macromedia.com/support/flashplayer"
rm -r sys/*
chmod u-w sys
cd "$HOME/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player"
# preserve the randomly named subfolders (only preserving the latest would suffice; see below)
rm -r \#SharedObjects/*/*
chmod -R u-w \#SharedObjects
I guess the above chmods cannot be achieved on an old Windows system (I'm not sure about XP and Vista?). Though maybe on Windows one could replace the folders sys and #SharedObjects with dummy files with the same names? Anyone?
Obviously, keeping Flash from storing those Local Shared Objects for all sites may cause problems. Some test results (Flash 10 on Mac OS X):
- When blocking the
sys folder (even when leaving the #SharedObjects folder writable) then YouTube won't remember your volume settings while viewing multiple videos. Temporarily allowing write access to the blocked folders while visiting trusted sites (to only create folders for domains you like, maybe including references in settings.sol) solves that. This way, for YouTube, Flash could be allowed to write to sys/#s.ytimg.com and #SharedObjects/s.ytimg.com, while Flash could not create new folders for other domains. One may also need to make settings.sol read-only afterwards, or delete it again.
- When blocking both the
sys and #SharedObjects folders, YouTube and Vimeo work fine (though they might not remember any settings). However, Bits on the Run refuses to even show the video player. This is solved by temporarily unblocking the #SharedObjects folder, to allow Flash to create a subfolder with some random name. Within this folder, it would create yet another folder for the current Flash website (content.bitsontherun.com). Removing that website-specific folder, and blocking both #SharedObjects and the randomly named subfolder, still seems to allow Bits on the Run to operate, even though it still cannot write anything to disk. So: the existence of the randomly named subfolder (even when write protected) is important for some sites.
- When I first found the
#SharedObjects folder, it held many subfolders with random names, some created on the very same day. I wonder when Flash decides it wants a new folder, and how it determines (and remembers) that random name.
- For a moment I considered not blocking write access for
sys and #SharedObjects, but explicitly creating read-only folders for well-known third-party tracking domains (like based on a list from, for example, AdBlock Plus). That way, any other domain could still create Local Shared Objects. But the list would be long, and the domains from AdBlock Plus are probably all third-party domains anyway, so disabling Allow third-party Flash content to store data on your computer might have the very same result.
Any experience anyone?
(Final notes: if the above links to the settings panels do not work in the future, then use the URL that is known to Flash player as a starting point: www.adobe.com/go/settingsmanager. See also "You Deleted Your Cookies? Think Again" at Wired.com -- which uses Flash cookies itself as well... For the very suspicious using Time Machine: you may want to exclude both folders, for each user, and remove the trace that is already on your backup.)
Source: (StackOverflow)
This is really annoying. Yesterday everything was working fine, now I wake up only to realize that all the videos on YouTube are using the HTML5 player.
Here is what I see when I try to play a video on YouTube:
I tried what was suggested by the accepted answer in this question, but it didn't work, even after restarting Firefox.
Also I would like to note that YouTube works fine in Chrome (HTML5 player) and Internet Explorer (flash player).
Source: (StackOverflow)
I would like to download a Flash game and play it without using Firefox under Ubuntu Lucid - any ideas how?
I can download the game fine, I'm just wondering how to play it without Firefox. Is there a standalone Flash Player I can use?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Adobe Flash Player is set to automatically check for updates on Windows startup. I've always wondered where exactly it is set to do this. Checking the running services, as well as msconfig does not yield its location. The message in question looks like this: http://www.technipages.com/disable-an-update-to-your-adobe-flash-player-is-available-message-forever.html
I know how to disable it via Adobe's web site (instructions are included in link above), but I'm interested in knowing where exactly in Windows is this set to perform this action? I have done some research on this, and people keep saying to check the following registry locations:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce or the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
However, I have checked those locations, and I still cannot locate where this updater is stored.
I'm pretty sure that malware also uses this technique to automatically load upon startup, and since it's not in the typical location(s) that a user would look, it's well hidden.
Source: (StackOverflow)
Summary:
Flash Player Update Service doesn't run on a reliable schedule, and doesn't automatically download and apply updates when it does run.
Given the importance of having an up-to-date version of Flash Player installed (for those of us who don't use Chrome with its built-in player), I would like to find a way to ensure that new updates are promptly detected and installed.
What follows are the details of my efforts to solve this problem on my own...
Appendix A: Flash Player Update Service
OK, way back in Flash Player 11.2 (or so?) Adobe added the Flash Player Update Service (FlashPlayerUpdateService.exe), it was supposed to keep the Flash Player updated...
Upon installation, FPUS is configured to run as a Windows Service, with Start Type set to Manual.
A Scheduled Task (Adobe Flash Player Updater.job) is added to start this service every hour.
So far, so good - this set-up avoids having a constantly-running service, but makes sure that the checks are run often enough to catch any updates quickly. Google's software updater is configured in a similar fashion, and that works just fine...
...And yet, when I checked the version of my installed Flash Player, I found it was 11.6.602.180, which, based on looking at the timestamps of the files in C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash was last updated (or installed) on Tue, Mar 12, 2013 --- 3/12/13, 5:00:08pm.
I made this observation on Thu, Apr 25, 2013 --- 4/25/13, 7:00:00pm, and upon checking Adobe's website found that the current version of Flash Player was 11.7.700.169.
That's over a month since the last update, with a new one clearly available on the website but with no indication that the hourly check running on my machine has noticed it or has any intention of downloading it.
Appendix B: running the Flash Player updater manually
Once upon a time, running FlashUtil32_<version>_Plugin.exe -update plugin would give you a window with an Install button; pressing it would download the installer for the current version (automatically, without opening a browser) and run it, then you'd click thru that installer & be done. It was manual, but it worked! Finding my current installation out of date (see Appendix A), I first tried this manual update process. However...
Running FlashUtil32_<version>_ActiveX.exe -update activex (in my case, that's FlashUtil32_11_6_602_180_ActiveX.exe -update activex) ...only presents a window with a Download button, clicking that Download button opens my browser to the URL https://get3.adobe.com/flashplayer/update/activex.
Running FlashUtil32_<version>_Plugin.exe -update plugin (in my case, that's FlashUtil32_11_6_602_180_Plugin.exe -update plugin) ...only presents a window with a Download button, clicking that Download button opens my browser to the URL https://get3.adobe.com/flashplayer/update/plugin.
I could continue with the Download page it sent me to, uncheck the foistware box ("Free! McAfee Security Scan Plus"), download that installer (ActiveX, no foistware: install_flashplayer11x32axau_mssd_aih.exe, Plugin, no foistware: install_flashplayer11x32au_mssd_aih.exe) & probably have an updated Flash...but then, what is the point of the Flash Player Update Service if I have to manually download & run another exe?
Epilogue
I've since come to suspect that the update service is intentionally hobbled to drive early adopters to the manual download page. If this is true, there's probably no solution to this short of writing my own updater; hopefully I am wrong.
Source: (StackOverflow)
I have recently assembled a dual monitor setup.
I often watch live.twit.tv in my browser and I would like to run it maximized while I do other stuff on second screen, but when I click on a desktop the full screen mode rolls back to normal view. The same case is for different Flash players and I believe Silverlight players suffer from the same problem.
Is there any way to bypass this behavior?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I went Microsoft's website and in order to see some videos is requests me to install Silverlight? Is there any benefit?
I don't really feel like installing a plugin from Microsoft, but I wonder is there anything special I might be missing, or is it just the Microsoft substitute for flash?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I don't have Flash installed, so on many web pages I get a dialogue which says something like "this website wants to install the following add-on: Adobe Flash Player".
Can I set this dialogue to never appear? I don't want Flash but I don't want to have to tell that to IE every single time. Can I make it remember that I don't want it?
Source: (StackOverflow)