Attackers exploit critical Flash bug

Hackers are using a critical security vulnerability in Flash to attack users despite a recent update from Adobe designed to fix the bug.

Last week, Adobe released a series of security patches for their products, fixing a number of issues that included this vulnerability.

Adobe said that the vulnerability, which it referred to by the identifier CVE-2011-2110 in its update, "could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this vulnerability is being exploited in the wild in targeted attacks via malicious web pages."

More recently, security company Websense has discovered that this vulnerability is being used in two separate forms of attack.

This includes so-called drive-by attacks, where users need only to visit a site in order to be served malware. The other form is spear-phishing, a targeted phishing attack that attempts to lure an internet user into clicking a malicious link by claiming to come from a legitimate business.

The vulnerability only exists in versions of Flash which have yet to be patched with the latest security update. Websense recommends that all users patch the latest version as soon as possible.

"As always, it's crucial that you install the latest version of Adobe Flash Player as soon as possible if you haven't done so already. The vulnerable versions are any version older than 10.3.181.26," said the company.