[mint-flashplugin-11] Firefox 20.0 blocks flash 11.0/11.1, update to 11.2

Bug #1165630 reported by Dan Fuhry
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This bug affects 6 people
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Linux Mint
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Bug Description

Mint release: Lisa x86_64

Firefox refuses to instanciate the Flash plugin because it is outdated. The system is fully updated from the repositories, running Flash 11.0.1.152. With this package being broken and vulnerable to a whopping 104 (!) holes/Web based exploits (93 of them code execution) it is critical that the package be updated.

CVE details: http://www.cvedetails.com/version/116551/Adobe-Flash-Player-11.0.1.152.html

The latest version of the plugin available from Adobe is 11.2.202.275.

Revision history for this message
Dave Stroud (bigdavesr) wrote :

The lasted version 11.2.202.275 will not work at all. It shows as installed and fire fox knows its there, but nothing you do will make it work.I am forced to use older version because it works. Its very annoying to have to inable flash every page you go to and each time you want to use it.

Revision history for this message
aladri (aladri-j) wrote :

Same here. I have to activate the plugin manually in every page. I have the last version in the repository.

If I try to install "flashplugin-installer" which is in the right updated version, apt-get wants to uninstall mint-flashplugin-11 and mint-meta-codecs, which I don't want it to!

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Ernst (ernst-blaauw) wrote :

I have the same problem in Linux Mint 13 (Maya).

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Trapper (trapper) wrote :

We have basically the same problem with one of our Maya boxes here. It appears to be more machine/hardware specific though. Our other machines running Maya are a bit newer and have no difficulty with 11.2 series plugins. The machine in question doesn't work with any versions newer than the 11.0 series plugins. I have fiddled with this and researched this for months but have not discovered any exact causes/fixes. The box in question here used to use onboard uni-chrome video but it failed, has been disabled and an nvidia EnForce 6200 AGP video card is now used.

Newer flashplugins are detected by firefox but will not run flash. Older flashplugins are detected but are blocked. They do work when manually activated. This activation is required each and every time the flashplugin is required to play content.

I physically moved the hard drive and it's Maya install from the machine in question to a machine that has onboard NVIDIA GeForce 6150 / nForce 430 and installed a 11.2 + version of flash and it worked properly. When I moved the drive back to the original box the flashplugin would not work and I had to revert back to an older, vulnerable flashplugin that requires manual activation to use it in firefox.

The box with the flash difficulties has a the following hardware specs:

Biostar M7VIG-400-Motherboard

Chipset VIA KM266 Pro / VT8233A
MEMORY Support DDR 200/266/333/400 MHz
2 x DDR DIMM Memory Slot
Max. Supports up to 1GB Memory each slot.
EXPANSION SLOT 3 x PCI Slots
1 x CNR Slots
1 x AGP 4X Slots
LAN VIA VT6103 - 10/100 PHY
INTEGRATED VIDEO VIA S3 UniChrome, On Board Graphic Max. Memory Share Up to 64MB
CODEC C-Media CMI9761A 6-Channel AC97 Audio
REAR I/O 1 x PS/2 Mouse
1 x PS/2 Keyboard
2 x USB Port
1 x COM Port
1 x Printer Port
1 x VGA Port
1 x RJ-45 Port
3 x Audio Connector
INTERNAL I/O 2 x USB Header
4 x IDE Connector
1 x IrDA Header
1 x Front Audio Header
1 x CD-IN Header
1 x CPU FAN Header
1 x System FAN Header

As I said previously, the onboard video failed long ago and a nvida 6200 agp card is now used.
This box has 2 GB of PC2700 333 Bus non-ecc memory that checks out okay.
Sempron 1.6 ghz. processor.

Revision history for this message
Trapper (trapper) wrote :

Just another note. The cpu of my machine with the flash difficulties does not have sse2 support. From what I am hearing, the newer flash player versions require sse2 support and the problem behavior I am experiencing is what transpires if sse2 is not available.

Revision history for this message
Ernst (ernst-blaauw) wrote : Re: [Bug 1165630] Re: [mint-flashplugin-11] Firefox 20.0 blocks flash 11.0/11.1, update to 11.2

Trapper, the problem is i.m.o. that the repositories do not offer a new
version; I don't even know how to install a new Flash plugin by hand. As
this is a huge security hole, Mint should either offer an upgrade or a
deinstall. If the latter is chosen, Mint should recommend to use Chrome
(which has its own flash plugin).

On my system (Linux Mint 13, 64-bit), Mint does not offer an upgrade.

On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 3:33 PM, Trapper <email address hidden> wrote:

> Just another note. The cpu of my machine with the flash difficulties
> does not have sse2 support. From what I am hearing, the newer flash
> player versions require sse2 support and the problem behavior I am
> experiencing is what transpires if sse2 is not available.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1165630
>
> Title:
> [mint-flashplugin-11] Firefox 20.0 blocks flash 11.0/11.1, update to
> 11.2
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/1165630/+subscriptions
>

Revision history for this message
Trapper (trapper) wrote :

A deinstall is simple. Just go into synaptic and type in flashplugin. Completely uninstall any flashplugins that show as installed.

If you are only interested in using the older plugin on a per user basis rather than system wide the easy way to do it is to extract libflashplayer.so from the flashplugin package you want to use . Then go to the /home/'username'/.mozilla/firefox/'profile-name' folder. There should be a plugins folder under it. Insert libflashplayer.so in the plugins folder.

If the plugins folder does not exist, create one.

 /home/'username'/.mozilla/firefox/'profile-name'/plugins

When you restart firefox it should recognize your flashplugin.

As for Chrome. I am not getting it's newer flashplugin to work either.

Revision history for this message
Ernst (ernst-blaauw) wrote :

Of course that's an option. However, you cannot expect an average user to
do this and in my opinion this bug is about the outdated plugin from the
repositories. Mint should update this one as Mint 13 is still supported.
They choose to make their own flash dependencies instead of relying on
Ubuntu's flash plugin package....

On Fri, May 31, 2013 at 4:40 PM, Trapper <email address hidden> wrote:

> A deinstall is simple. Just go into synaptic and type in flashplugin.
> Completely uninstall any flashplugins that show as installed.
>
> If you are only interested in using the older plugin on a per user basis
> rather than system wide the easy way to do it is to extract
> libflashplayer.so from the flashplugin package you want to use . Then go
> to the /home/'username'/.mozilla/firefox/'profile-name' folder. There
> should be a plugins folder under it. Insert libflashplayer.so in the
> plugins folder.
>
> If the plugins folder does not exist, create one.
>
> /home/'username'/.mozilla/firefox/'profile-name'/plugins
>
> When you restart firefox it should recognize your flashplugin.
>
> As for Chrome. I am not getting it's newer flashplugin to work either.
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to the bug
> report.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1165630
>
> Title:
> [mint-flashplugin-11] Firefox 20.0 blocks flash 11.0/11.1, update to
> 11.2
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint/+bug/1165630/+subscriptions
>

Revision history for this message
Trapper (trapper) wrote :

Ernst, okay, I think we are conversing different wave lengths. Sorry.

You do have an option in your case. If you uninstall mint-flashplugin-11 and install the adobe-flashplugin you will be updated to the current available release for linux. I am not totally positive but if you run synaptic from the administrators menu and search for adobe-flashplugin, check the box to install it and run the install it will automatically remove the outdated mint-flash-plugin for you.

Revision history for this message
Trapper (trapper) wrote :

For those of you that are unable to run the current adobe flashplugin because you have an older cpu does not support sse2 try using adobe flash version 11-1-102-63. It's the most current 'I' have found so far that works with cpu's without sse2 and DOES NOT give the antagonizing vulnerability message box when trying to run flash files.

I found this version at: https://github.com/webgapps/flashaid/downloads

I extracted libflashplayer.so and inserted it into my home .mozilla plugins folder.

information type: Public → Public Security
Revision history for this message
Orzech (piotr.orzechowski) wrote :

Mint should use the newest Flash plugin available by default (due to vulnerabilities in older versions) and offer fallback to older versions for computers without SSE2 etc. Not the other way round. This way everybody should have safer defaults, but people with specific needs will be able to use older Flash versions, being aware of possible security issues that it may imply.

Revision history for this message
Orzech (piotr.orzechowski) wrote :

Currently, Mint Nadia and Olivia have outdated Flash plug-ins by default too.

Revision history for this message
deutrino (deutrino) wrote :

Should this bug remain open? At this point, I am receiving near-daily updates for Adobe Flash in Mint 17.2.

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