Where did you download the Flash Player update from?

The Firefox web browser does not do Plugin updates. Plugins are on your system and not installed into Firefox like Extensions and Themes (complete) are whether on Windows, Mac OSX or Linux.

type about:plugins in Location (address) bar to see where the Plugins Firefox is making use of are located.

Flash Player 22.0.0.209 is the current version for Windows and Mac OSX.

https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html

Windows users needs to be careful to unselect the extras on https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/ however Mac and Linux users do not get extras on this page.

Where did you get the updates from? Adobe.com  ?

In fact Adobe had a update for their Flash Player back in April to prevent the cerber ransomware exploit.

http://hexus.net/tech/news/software/91949-adobe-flash-update-addresses-cerber-drive-by-ransomware-threat/

The update was not for Flash Player - see the post. It had a Firefox logo, same Firefox orange color, and it said :a flash update is required (available, can't remember) for Firefox". This is not the first time this has occurred in the last two or three months. Do I understand correctly that Firefox does not provide flash updates?

Fred,

Not Flash Player. It read "Firefox flash update available (or required)." This almost appears now to be a scam of some kind.

Thanks for reading the post Fred! Is there anyone such as you or others that have the means to contact Firefox (Mozilla) directly about this issue? As I recently said it has occurred more than once, maybe 3 times in 3 months.

About two weeks before the Ransomeware:Cerber problem happened we also had two Trojans, Trojan:Win32 KovterC!reg and Trojan:Win32 Kovter.gen!A. These were rootkit trojans and were very difficult to detect. Malwarebytes found them. There was also an .exe file hidden in C:\Users\name\Appdata\Local\Temp\1472678565916.exe.

You may have ad / mal-ware. Further information can be found in the Troubleshoot Firefox issues caused by malware article.

Run most or all of the listed malware scanners. Each works differently. If one program misses something, another may pick it up.

. Whenever you get a message / popup that software / files need to be updated;

DO NOT USE ANY OF THE PROVIDED LINKS

While this may be a legitimate message, it could also be Malware or a Virus. Any time you want or need to check for upgrades, go to the website of the True Owner of the program in question. For example, to check out Firefox, go to https://www.mozilla.org {web link}

You can report such a site at; Google Report Phishing Page {web link} which is the same when done while on site by going to Help > Report Web Forgery

Help us safeguard Mozilla’s trademarks by reporting misuse {web link}

Tbolt834 said

The update was not for Flash Player - see the post. It had a Firefox logo, same Firefox orange color, and it said :a flash update is required (available, can't remember) for Firefox". This is not the first time this has occurred in the last two or three months. Do I understand correctly that Firefox does not provide flash updates?

So a page with a orange background and a Firefox icon?

It sounds like you got a random weird name website claiming to have a urgent Firefox update and serving a fake firefox-patch.js file. Nothing to do with a Flash file.

This is not from Mozilla or the Firefox web browser. The fake firefox-patch.exe and firefox-patch.js files can install things like trojans, viruses, or unwanted software on Windows based on past reports if the user runs them. Mozilla has no need to host Firefox downloads or updates elsewhere, especially not at random weird name websites.

The way Firefox updates are done has not changed as updates are done internally in Firefox (with a .mar type of file) whether on Windows, Mac OSX or Linux or by download from mozilla.org like say www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/

You could try using a adblocker extension like uBlock Origin to block theses fake ads if you keep getting them. https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/

Mozilla would love to shut this down but it has not been so simple as it is more elaborate compared to just creating some fake sites and serving a fake Firefox update file.

Unfortunately this has gone on for a few months now with one or two new sites reported almost everyday. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/712056/ and https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/712075

James,

Thanks very much as it now appears that this is a scam. I feel now that it was responsible for both Trojans and the Ransomware:Cerber issues we've had.

Thanks again.