​Apple patches 49 iOS bugs, Adobe fixes 79 flaws in Flash

Adobe’s last scheduled patch for Flash Player this year is huge, bringing fixes for a whopping 79 bugs, which came as Apple released iOS 9.2 with fixes for 49 flaws.

Adobe’s December patch for Flash Player fixes the most security bugs in a single update this year and comes just week after it announced a new HTML5 video player for desktop browsers and Animate CC for HTML5 content development will arrive next year as it ushers out Flash.

Assuming it’s not forced to issue an emergency patches between now and January 1, 2016 this should be Adobe’s last patch for 2015.

Adobe is recommending Windows, Mac, Linux and Chrome users to apply the latest update, rating the fixes a top priority.

“These updates address critical vulnerabilities that could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system,” it noted.

Despite the number of flaws and sizeable list of credits to security researchers who reported them, Adobe said it was not aware of any exploits in the wild for the bugs.

The newly updated version of Flash for Windows, Mac and Google’s Chrome browser is 20.0.0.228. Prior versions for these platforms are vulnerable. Flash for Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer for Windows 10 will be automatically updated. Adobe has published installation instructions for other platforms on its support pages.

A researcher from Google’s Project Zero security team, Natalie Silvanovich, is credited with reporting 20 of the bugs in this month’s patch. Yuki Chen of Qihoo 360’s Vulcan Team reported 29 of the bugs.

Apple also released iOS 9.2 on Tuesday, bringing a numerous feature updates and 49 security fixes. It also released OS X 10.11.2, Safari 9.0.2, watchOS 2.1 and tvOS 9.1, with a host of security fixes in these updates.

iOS 9.2 includes a fix for a Siri bug, which allowed a person with physical access to an iPhone to read content that shouldn’t be displayed on the lock screen.

There are a number of other sensitive bugs addressed in iOS 9.2, which should give users reason to install the update. For example, a bug in the way iOS handled SSL handshakes could allow a remote attacker to crash an app or execute malicious code. Another bug posed a threat to trusted apps stored in Keychain, which could be exploited by a malicious app due to an issue in the validation of Keychain ‘access control lists’.

Yet another bug in the way iOS handles iWork files could let an attacker take over the device by having the target open a maliciously crafted iWork file.

Finally, Apple fixed a three iOS bugs that credited to Chinese jailbreaking team PanguTeam.

Read more: Nearly half of Windows servers could expose entire network if privileged accounts stolen, study warns

What’s not known is whether Apple has found and fixed any of the bugs that exploit broker Zerodium claimed to have paid $1 million to an unnamed hacking team for a remote browser-based exploit. The company said at the time it was effective against iOS 9.1 and the iOS 9.2 beta.

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Tags Linuxflashhtml5WindowsMacchromeflash playerCSO AustraliaiOS bugsiOS 9.2

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