I customarily run all the updates for the Windows 7 (64 bit) box at home on Sunday, but was traveling then, and so just ran some. Adobe's Flash Player (each no doubt asserted as trademarks) had a update notice in the bunch. I refer to those Marks in this paragraph for identification and not for other purposes. Disparagement comes later
So I attained Administrator (the Windows role enabled for installing software in the customary security model), and went through the process of starting their updater. This is a small intermediate program which retrieves the larger update, and then hands off execution to that later payload. AT NO TIME, have I or any other person with the knowledge needed to reach Admin rights, ever consented to the (seemingly always 'defaulted on') "Also install some third party 'enhancement'". It seems MacAfee and its Security Suite are the current firm, co-marketing of their products with Adobe. Again, I refer to those Marks in this paragraph for identification and not for other purposes. Disparagement comes later
Notwithstanding no consent, the McAfee kit was part of the payload that the Adobe retrieved ... and installed ... with no consent to such by me
Let's be frank. Adobe's Flash Player is a gaping security hole, with a well documented track record of poor coding. There are 356 using the search link. I am all for cleaning up issues and not hiding them, but this is just a whorehouse of fail, Adobe
The McAfee record for 'Security Suite' is less clear, as it seems to me that the nameing of their products is designed to confuse, and segment purchases, rather than to provide long term clarity of what the names, used as Marks, mean. The CVE count at MITRE is 137 by that search. But I see from a more general search engine query that McAfee seems to have licensed for distribution and re-naming, its product: 'AT&T Internet Security Suite - powered by McAfee' for instance, so one cannot rely on the Marks to reliability identify offenders. AOL seems to have licensed it as well
McAfee seems to have other lapses as well
I am just not sure what the remedy is:
- Stop using Windows? This is pretty much done with the maturity of the Open Source ecosphere -- we have NONE at the office facing the internet, and only ONE left at home or in the family members I support. For commercial software use, Apple's OS/X and hardware have been remarkably complete and their use uneventful without need to load them down with defensive 'crapware'
- Stop using Flash? Is the pain worth the short remaining life Adobe's Flash seems destined to have. I recall there was an effort to re-implement to the published Flash specification, and Adobe (to their credit is better than most commercial vendors on publishing file format documentation -- think: PSF and friends). time to investigate what the FOSS replacement is
- And of course: 'Shame' bundlers, and providers of 'ride-along' 'crapware'. So: Adobe, McAfee, and your products: Flash Player, and Security Suite -- consider yourself identified as bad actors, worthy of avoidance
Well, a start then
