SUMO community discussions
Flash 11.4 Testday are happening on #testday channel - more details: https://etherpad.mozilla.org/testday-20120817
interested contributor can join us :)
Swarnava, It may be rather late to publicise this now but It is probably worth you starting a new Flash 11.4 tests/issues thread on the subject. It may be more likely to be seen than if it is buried in this long thread.
Also I imagine anyone reading the etherpad at a later date may find the information useful, or even discover new issues themselves after the test day. Possibly contributors will see issues that they can verify themselves from comments other make in support questions.
It makes a lot of sense to me to look for problems in Firefox & Flash betas before we get into the current mess as they become releases, and it shouldn't take much effort if someone normally uses Flash heavily to try instead with the betas.
Copied from the "Note for Localizers" thread posted today in the Adobe Flash plugin has crashed - Prevent it from happening again Article Discussion forum:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/flash-113-crashes/discuss/2555
Verdi said
This revision removes info about flash 11.2 which is insecure. flash 11.4 comes out Tuesday, Aug. 21 and may resolve the crash issues. We will watch crash volume and forum feedback and then possibly update this article by the end of this week.
The Aug 20, 2012 revision makes downgrading to Flash 10.3 the current recommendation and is pending review was approved by Matt_G.
Modified by AliceWyman on
For everyone, we are tracking Flash 11.4 at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/708573.
For the 11.3/10.3, we are still waiting to hear on if 10.3 is affected by this security hole, however we do positively know that 11.2 on Windows IS affected, so we have removed that from our documentation to keep users safe. Other than that the story hasn't changed.
Tylerdowner said
For the 11.3/10.3, we are still waiting to hear on if 10.3 is affected by this security hole, however we do positively know that 11.2 on Windows IS affected, so we have removed that from our documentation to keep users safe. Other than that the story hasn't changed.
For the record, the story HAS changed. You said earlier that Users should upgrade to Flash 11.3. If they have problems such as crashing or videos not playing, they should disable protected mode. The current Adobe Flash plugin has crashed - Prevent it from happening again article was updated today by Michael Verdi and approved by Matt_G and the current recommendation is to downgrade to Flash 10.3. There is no mention of disabling protected mode.
Alice, I was part of the discussion, I know what we decided :) We are putting the "Update to 11.3 and disable protected mode" into the forums for last week, early this week to help users immediately. The KB gets many more visitors, and we don't want to change it too much so as to avoid confusion and too many l10n changes. As I said, once we receive positive confirmation that A. 10.3 is not insecure (right now we don't know, but we don't want to change the KB multiple times) AND is an ESR, we will recommend that in the forums. OR B. 11.4 fixes all issues in 11.3, and we can urge users to upgrade to that. OR C. 11.4 doesn't fix the issues, and 10.3 isn't secure (or an ESR), in which case we will change the KB again to recommend 11.3 and Protected mode. Disabling protected mode is something that we don't want to put into the KB yet, as it is very involved and the KB is seen by hundreds of thousands of users, unless we see there is no other way around it.
Well documented Tyler ;)
As he mentioned, there is a lot of stuff still yet to be confirmed. We are hesitant to make any significant changes until we have solid information around 10.3 and 11.4. We are certain that 11.2 is no longer secure (except on Linux) which is why we updated the article.
I know it's uncomfortable, but we just need time to fully assess the situation. I really appreciate all the feedback and the exceptional patience from everyone since this issue has been such a thorn in all our sides. We are all hoping that 11.4 will deliver in a big way as Adobe claims!
Tylerdowner said
Alice, I was part of the discussion, I know what we decided :) We are putting the "Update to 11.3 and disable protected mode" into the forums for last week, early this week to help users immediately. The KB gets many more visitors, and we don't want to change it too much so as to avoid confusion and too many l10n changes.
Actually, it would be better if the recommendations you suggest on the support forum agree with what the Adobe Flash plugin has crashed - Prevent it from happening again KB article is recommending, to avoid confusion. That KB article was just updated today, so if the recommendation the SUMO team has decided on is to disable protected mode, it should have been added to the KB article.
I'm referring to the following content, which I'm copying from your post in https://support.mozilla.org/questions/929643#answer-360622 but which you've been posting to numerous forum threads involving Flash 11.3:
As an update to this ongoing issue:
Adobe Released an extremely critical security Fix for Flash 11.3. http://forums.adobe.com/message/4621126#4621126. The security exploit that this fixes is being actively exploited in the wild. This fix was not released for older versions of Flash (such as 10.3 or 11.2) but those versions may be vulnerable to this security issue.
So, our current recommendation is as follows: Update to Flash 11.3.300.271 (latest version ATM for Windows). If you have Realplayer, also update that. Test and see if you are still getting crashes or freezes. If you are not, it is likely that your issue was already fixed by Adobe.
If you continue to experience crashes, follow the directions at http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1018071?tstart=0 to disable protected mode. This will still leave you at greater security than using an older version of Flash.
We apologize for the inconvenience of this issue, and promise to update you all as information becomes available.
By the way, http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1018071?tstart=0 ... the page you are linking to for instructions ... has outdated and incorrect information, including outdated information about RealPlayer, wrong instructions for Firefox Safe Mode and, under "Last resort", suggests a downgrade to Flash 11.2 as an alternative to disabling Flash protected mode. Linking there just adds more confusion, since people will put more weight on Adobe's recommendations for its own software.
As for me, I've been referring users to http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Flash_Player_11.3_Protected_Mode_-_Windows which also gives users a choice as to which workarounds to use .... but at least it's more up-to-date then the adobe forum link you've been posting.
Modified by AliceWyman on
Alice, like we said, we are waiting on updating the Articles until we have 100% positive confirmation on the current situation. In the update today, we just removed the information about downgrading to 11.2, we didn't add anything else, yet. Once we Know for certain what is going on in this situation (should we suggest 10.3, should we not, is 11.4 safe, etc.) Sooooo, to save l10n heartache and confusion for other users and contributors we don't want to make a change today, then revert tomorrow, then do something different the next day. That doesn't serve anybody any good, and causes more of a mess than it helps. So, we will finalize what we should recommend at the end of the week :)
So, for now, it's as we said, it's best for users to update to 11.3 and disable protected mode. The Security status 10.3 is currently unknown. 11.4 comes out tomorrow, but we aren't recommending it yet. If you have a specific reason why we shouldn't tell users to update to 11.3 and disable protected mode, I'd love to discuss it, but for now this is the best solution that the SUMO team could come to for right now. Like Matt said, this is a very long and drawn out issue and it is very complicated, but hopefully we will have some better answers in a few days.
Tylerdowner said
If you have a specific reason why we shouldn't tell users to update to 11.3 and disable protected mode, I'd love to discuss it, but for now this is the best solution that the SUMO team could come to for right now.
I didn't say you shouldn't tell users to update Flash and disable protected mode. In fact, I said it should have been added to the KB article. I've been telling users to update Flash and disable protected mode myself .... see:
This is what I said in my previous post, which you must have missed or misread (I'll highlight the main points)
AliceWyman said
Actually, it would be better if the recommendations you suggest on the support forum agree with what the Adobe Flash plugin has crashed - Prevent it from happening again KB article is recommending, to avoid confusion. That KB article was just updated today, so if the recommendation the SUMO team has decided on is to disable protected mode, it should have been added to the KB article.
<snip>
By the way, http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1018071?tstart=0 ... the page you are linking to for instructions ... has outdated and incorrect information, including outdated information about RealPlayer, wrong instructions for Firefox Safe Mode and, under "Last resort", suggests a downgrade to Flash 11.2 as an alternative to disabling Flash protected mode. Linking there just adds more confusion, since people will put more weight on Adobe's recommendations for its own software.
As for me, I've been referring users to http://kb.mozillazine.org/Flash#Flash_Player_11.3_Protected_Mode_-_Windows which also gives users a choice as to which workarounds to use .... but at least it's more up-to-date then the adobe forum link you've been posting.
Tyler, you also said, Alice, I was part of the discussion, I know what we decided :) . It's a shame that this was wasn't discussed openly, either in the KB Article discussion forum or here on the contributors forum but, in any case, if telling users to disable protected mode in Flash 11.3 was the decision, it should be added to the KB, irrespective of the fact that it creates more work for localizers.
Modified by AliceWyman on
Adding protected mode instructions to Firefox 11.3 crashes may be a moot issue since, in addition to the Flash 11.4 update, Flash 10.3 was also updated to version 10.3.183.23 (the release notes aren't available yet). I just posted that information here in the Flash 11.4 thread.
hi skydark6, it is already known from 9 june 2012 in the same conversasion we are now: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/708430?last=48352&page=1#post-47128 from underpass
Modified by ideato on
Agreed :) Working on the article right now. Verdi found an interesting fact. All of our existing flash articles have been getting horrible feedback in the last few days and it has impacted our overall article affectiveness score. Hopefully this will help!
Post copied from MattG and used to fool us into thinking the reply is legitimate.
Copied from: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/708430?page=1#post-47177
Modified by NoahSUMO on
Sumo staff seem to have strong reasons for leaving the articles as they are so as not to upset Abobe ! Otherwise maybe more attempts could be made to sort them out.
Maybe your links were unintentional but are commercial adverts with no connection with this thread's subject and so I have edited them not to display.
Adobe recently released an Update for Flash Player.. Details are below:
-> 11/6/2012 - Flash Player 11.5 Release Announcement
-> Release Notes | Flash Player® 11.5 AIR® 3.5
-> Adobe Security Bulletin - Security Update available for Flash Player
Modified by Hasan on
It's still there. The volume bug.
I give up!
