Adobe admits critical Flash flaw

Adobe has come clean about a critical flaw affecting its Flash player, which is capable of crashing a machine or allowing it to be taken over.

The vulnerability has been found in the 10.0.45.2 version, as well as earlier editions across Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris operating systems (OS), but is missing in the latest version, 10.1.

It was also found in the authplay.dll component within Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x for Windows, Mac and UNIX.

"There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild against both Adobe Flash Player, and Adobe Reader and Acrobat," admitted Adobe in its latest security bulletin.

The company has yet to announce when it will be releasing a fix for the flaw but said it will update the security advisory with a timetable once it is established.

The timing of this flaw is sure to please Apple's chief executive, Steve Jobs.

There has been an ongoing war of words between the two companies due to the continued lack of support for Flash on the iPad and iPhone.

Jobs claimed Flash was the number one reason Macs crashed and that the program "fell short" for both power consumption and open web standards.

Adobe's chief executive Shantanu Narayen hit back with claims that Jobs' insults were a "smokescreen" for the company wanting to keep everything to themselves, but this latest security upset won't do anything to help his company's cause.