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timppu: God damn it. Again some yet-to-be-fixed critical Adobe Flash Player vulnerability, which some web page ads are already exploiting?

No link because I just read some Finnish web article on it, where the Finnish cyber security officials are recommending even uninstalling Flash Player, until a fix is available.

Are Java, Flash etc. designers so incompetent that there are such problems, or is this just the way it is, and always will be? Is it impossible to design those things to be fully secure, they will always be insecure in different places? Or is it user's fault somehow?
It is almost a programmer axiom that any worthwhile code will have bugs somewhere. So it will probably always be insecure in different places.
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Bookwyrm627: It is almost a programmer axiom that any worthwhile code will have bugs somewhere. So it will probably always be insecure in different places.
It is given that there are bugs, but somehow... security bugs that make the usage very risky? Are the features containing all those security risks really that important that we couldn't live without them? What's the main purpose of Flash Player, and is it impossible to reach that kind of functionality (from user's perspective) securely?

I presume the current open vulnerability is this one (just after Adobe fixed an earlier one I think):

https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsa15-02.html

What does it take to have even a moderately secure system that doesn't infect and take control of your system by merely visiting a damn web site with infected ads? That sounds as silly to me as getting a brain tumor from watching some movie from the TV. Is the only way to go some strictly walled-garden system, just so that watching a damn video wouldn't be so risky?

It isn't restricted to hazy sites only, sometimes quite known and respectable sites have had infected content/ads too.

I'm kinda getting fed up with java and Flash Player due to these kind of problems, I'll have to check whether I could do completely without them. Gladly the online bank I use apparently stopped using Java at some point.


EDIT: The Adobe page says this:

February 2, 2015 - removed Flash Player version 11.x from the list of affected versions. Version 11.x and earlier do not support the functionality affected by CVE-2015-0313.
i wonder what functionality that is, something veeery important and useful I presume? At least for the exploiters.
Post edited February 03, 2015 by timppu
Good Morning All,

WARNING DO NOT READ IF LOSING A PET UPSETS YOU...

Please forgive me if this upsets anyone,because I know that if I read this,I would be upset too...

Extremely sad day yesterday,my beautiful little Jessie (Jack Russell)had to be put down...
She was 13 years old and her liver was shot to pieces,been going to the vet for the last month
to figure out her problems.
It is extremely hard on myself and the family,but it's a decision we had too make (crying)sorry..
Why do we get attached to our pets so much,she was the spark in our lives wish I could of joined her...
Went out of hours to Vet and send to Vet that I wan't to hold her while he does it,he said it would take about
20 seconds and she may struggle for air...I held her little head and it fell slowly down,actually took
only 3 seconds...

I am sorry for lumbering our sadness on the people here,but I feel it's a small tribute to our much loved Jessie...
RIP Jessie 2002-2115 We miss you so much....
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gunsynd: ...
Sorry to hear that, gunsynd. *big hug*

I had to put my last dog to sleep, he was a border collie. Sadly he got cancer and the treatment didn't really help. So in the end we had to put him to sleep, to stop him suffering. He was 7 years old. It's always hard losing a pet, because often they are so much more then pets, they are part of the family, and it hurts us just as much as losing a family member. You made the right decision, you did what was best so that she wouldn't suffer. I'm sure she knew how much you all loved her, so you shouldn't be too hard on yourself (easier said than done, I know). If you need someone to talk to, feel free to PM me.
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gunsynd: ...
Sorry to hear it. I've lost a few cats in my life and every time it was like a family member (not just "relative") was gone. Anything we can do to help? dd already offered it, but you can PM me too if you like.
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gunsynd: ...
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toxicTom: Sorry to hear it. I've lost a few cats in my life and every time it was like a family member (not just "relative") was gone. Anything we can do to help? dd already offered it, but you can PM me too if you like.
Thankyou....
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Bookwyrm627: It is almost a programmer axiom that any worthwhile code will have bugs somewhere. So it will probably always be insecure in different places.
avatar
timppu: It is given that there are bugs, but somehow... security bugs that make the usage very risky? Are the features containing all those security risks really that important that we couldn't live without them? What's the main purpose of Flash Player, and is it impossible to reach that kind of functionality (from user's perspective) securely?

I presume the current open vulnerability is this one (just after Adobe fixed an earlier one I think):

https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsa15-02.html

What does it take to have even a moderately secure system that doesn't infect and take control of your system by merely visiting a damn web site with infected ads? That sounds as silly to me as getting a brain tumor from watching some movie from the TV. Is the only way to go some strictly walled-garden system, just so that watching a damn video wouldn't be so risky?

It isn't restricted to hazy sites only, sometimes quite known and respectable sites have had infected content/ads too.

I'm kinda getting fed up with java and Flash Player due to these kind of problems, I'll have to check whether I could do completely without them. Gladly the online bank I use apparently stopped using Java at some point.

EDIT: The Adobe page says this:

February 2, 2015 - removed Flash Player version 11.x from the list of affected versions. Version 11.x and earlier do not support the functionality affected by CVE-2015-0313.
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timppu: i wonder what functionality that is, something veeery important and useful I presume? At least for the exploiters.
Note: I haven't tried to do any research; this is just my current understanding of things. Also, some of this will be basic information to help illustrate my points; I don't mean to insult you (or anyone else reading this) by assuming you don't know something.

Flash Player (and other content players) take code and, based on what the code says, tell the computer what to do. With that in mind, the computer has no clue what the difference is between a legit video and what we would call a virus; both are just a series of instructions the computer is carrying out. So it falls to the programmer to implement safe guards to keep system-killing code (virus) from being run. The more powerful you make the code-running program (Flash Player), the more risk you take if it starts running malicious code. Often, it takes more work to make the player more powerful, as well. More work = more code = more points where things can go wrong and the harder it can be to find them. And coding standards have generally been improving over the years; if you keep building on an older code base then the code might be incredibly difficult to debug. If you don't use the old code base, then you are starting from scratch.

When trying to prevent problems from cropping up, the advantage lies with those trying to doing the infecting. The preventers have to effectively see into the future to block everything; the infectors can just poke and prod at the current build until they find a weakness. Something as simple as checking slot 11 in a size 10 array can provide an opening. Have a look at this comic for another idea: http://xkcd.com/1354/

This analogy will probably have massive holes and is almost certainly terrible, but I like it regardless:
You want some brownie batter (a video to watch). So you tell your computer to go to a particular store (website) and then make the brownie batter. Your computer's browser goes out shopping for the ingredients (the code that defines the video electronically) and the browser grabs the package with all the ingredients. Flash player takes the ingredients and runs them through the recipe it has, and BOOM! brownie batter. Unfortunately, sometimes the eggs have salmonella. And sometimes some jerk has managed to slip a razor blade into the food.

EDIT: On reflection, you are probably mostly venting. I'll be quiet now.
Post edited February 03, 2015 by Bookwyrm627
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gunsynd: Good Morning All,

WARNING DO NOT READ IF LOSING A PET UPSETS YOU...

Please forgive me if this upsets anyone,because I know that if I read this,I would be upset too...

Extremely sad day yesterday,my beautiful little Jessie (Jack Russell)had to be put down...
She was 13 years old and her liver was shot to pieces,been going to the vet for the last month
to figure out her problems.
It is extremely hard on myself and the family,but it's a decision we had too make (crying)sorry..
Why do we get attached to our pets so much,she was the spark in our lives wish I could of joined her...
Went out of hours to Vet and send to Vet that I wan't to hold her while he does it,he said it would take about
20 seconds and she may struggle for air...I held her little head and it fell slowly down,actually took
only 3 seconds...

I am sorry for lumbering our sadness on the people here,but I feel it's a small tribute to our much loved Jessie...
RIP Jessie 2002-2115 We miss you so much....
I'm sorry for your loss as I totally understand this. As ddickinson says they are part of the family so its like losing a family member. I've been through this many times. I had an akita I had to put down due to age or health issues couldn't move around or eat. Then I had mixed collie that died of a heart attack after the 4th july damn illegal firecrackers. My last dog that died was a mixed austrialian shepard she had a tumor that grew to the size of a basketball. I tried to put her down earlier when diagnosed as she was barely getting around however my dad wanted her around more so I ended up having to see the poor dog suffer to the end not being able to move to when I could finally take her in to be put down. I was there when the vet gave her the shot and could tell she was grateful to not have to suffer anymore. I can still clearly remember the day because I cried throughout the evening to the morning and cried again when I woke up.

So yeah its tough. I go through my mourning period then after about a month or so I try to look to adopt another doggy as there are so many in need of good homes. As always anytime you want to talk more about it you can send a PM out to me anytime.

Oh yeah it's a little pricey, however you can save the ashes to a nice box of your beloved pets. Luckily due to having a job I was able to save the ashes of my mixed collie dog and mixed australian shepard in nicely made boxes. They do a good job in packaging them with a card and a mesh type bag. I know its not the same, though having some form of remembrance is nice besides just the pictures.
Post edited February 03, 2015 by Briareos262
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gunsynd: Good Morning All,

WARNING DO NOT READ IF LOSING A PET UPSETS YOU...

Please forgive me if this upsets anyone,because I know that if I read this,I would be upset too...

Extremely sad day yesterday,my beautiful little Jessie (Jack Russell)had to be put down...
She was 13 years old and her liver was shot to pieces,been going to the vet for the last month
to figure out her problems.
It is extremely hard on myself and the family,but it's a decision we had too make (crying)sorry..
Why do we get attached to our pets so much,she was the spark in our lives wish I could of joined her...
Went out of hours to Vet and send to Vet that I wan't to hold her while he does it,he said it would take about
20 seconds and she may struggle for air...I held her little head and it fell slowly down,actually took
only 3 seconds...

I am sorry for lumbering our sadness on the people here,but I feel it's a small tribute to our much loved Jessie...
RIP Jessie 2002-2115 We miss you so much....
avatar
Briareos262: I'm sorry for your loss as I totally understand this. As ddickinson says they are part of the family so its like losing a family member. I've been through this many times. I had an akita I had to put down due to age or health issues couldn't move around or eat. Then I had mixed collie that died of a heart attack after the 4th july damn illegal firecrackers. My last dog that died was a mixed austrialian shepard she had a tumor that grew to the size of a basketball. I tried to put her down earlier when diagnosed as she was barely getting around however my dad wanted her around more so I ended up having to see the poor dog suffer to the end not being able to move to when I could finally take her in to be put down. I was there when the vet gave her the shot and could tell she was grateful to not have to suffer anymore. I can still clearly remember the day because I cried throughout the evening to the morning and cried again when I woke up.

So yeah its tough. I go through my mourning period then after about a month or so I try to look to adopt another doggy as there are so many in need of good homes. As always anytime you want to talk more about it you can send a PM out to me anytime.

Oh yeah it's a little pricey, however you can save the ashes to a nice box of your beloved pets. Luckily due to having a job I was able to save the ashes of my mixed collie dog and mixed australian shepard in nicely made boxes. They do a good job in packaging them with a card and a mesh type bag. I know its not the same, though having some form of remembrance is nice besides just the pictures.
Thankyou.....
avatar
gunsynd: Good Morning All,

WARNING DO NOT READ IF LOSING A PET UPSETS YOU...

Please forgive me if this upsets anyone,because I know that if I read this,I would be upset too...

Extremely sad day yesterday,my beautiful little Jessie (Jack Russell)had to be put down...
She was 13 years old and her liver was shot to pieces,been going to the vet for the last month
to figure out her problems.
It is extremely hard on myself and the family,but it's a decision we had too make (crying)sorry..
Why do we get attached to our pets so much,she was the spark in our lives wish I could of joined her...
Went out of hours to Vet and send to Vet that I wan't to hold her while he does it,he said it would take about
20 seconds and she may struggle for air...I held her little head and it fell slowly down,actually took
only 3 seconds...

I am sorry for lumbering our sadness on the people here,but I feel it's a small tribute to our much loved Jessie...
RIP Jessie 2002-2115 We miss you so much....
My heartfelt sympathy, it's always hard to lose a family member.
avatar
gunsynd: Good Morning All,

WARNING DO NOT READ IF LOSING A PET UPSETS YOU...

Please forgive me if this upsets anyone,because I know that if I read this,I would be upset too...

Extremely sad day yesterday,my beautiful little Jessie (Jack Russell)had to be put down...
She was 13 years old and her liver was shot to pieces,been going to the vet for the last month
to figure out her problems.
It is extremely hard on myself and the family,but it's a decision we had too make (crying)sorry..
Why do we get attached to our pets so much,she was the spark in our lives wish I could of joined her...
Went out of hours to Vet and send to Vet that I wan't to hold her while he does it,he said it would take about
20 seconds and she may struggle for air...I held her little head and it fell slowly down,actually took
only 3 seconds...

I am sorry for lumbering our sadness on the people here,but I feel it's a small tribute to our much loved Jessie...
RIP Jessie 2002-2115 We miss you so much....
avatar
HypersomniacLive: My heartfelt sympathy, it's always hard to lose a family member.
Thankyou...
avatar
timppu: God damn it. Again some yet-to-be-fixed critical Adobe Flash Player vulnerability, which some web page ads are already exploiting?

No link because I just read some Finnish web article on it, where the Finnish cyber security officials are recommending even uninstalling Flash Player, until a fix is available.

Are Java, Flash etc. designers so incompetent that there are such problems, or is this just the way it is, and always will be? Is it impossible to design those things to be fully secure, they will always be insecure in different places? Or is it user's fault somehow?
As a developer, I can tell you that there will ALWAYS be vulnerabilities. It's just the nature the beast. There's no way a dev can account for every conceivable input that his program will receive, and the ones exploiting these weaknesses are purposely entering weird & crazy shit.
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gunsynd:
I know what you feel, your lose was mine some month ago too. The only difference is that it was a cat, but the pain is the same.
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gunsynd:
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MaxFulvus: I know what you feel, your lose was mine some month ago too. The only difference is that it was a cat, but the pain is the same.
Thankyou....
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gunsynd:
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MaxFulvus: I know what you feel, your lose was mine some month ago too. The only difference is that it was a cat, but the pain is the same.
Thankyou...
Post edited February 04, 2015 by gunsynd
I really hate wallowing in self pity. But i really need to vent.

Lets start with my CV. its crap. Its a chaotic accumulation of non related jobs, voluntary stuff and huge gaps.

Age: yep, it is a thing. Im old. I have given up applying for universities and now im looking for job training possibilities, so i can have some qualifications before i turn 30. most students will have their Masters degree with 23. im not going to attend uni just to be around 18 year old kids.

i have been trying to apply for a degree, that i might not even like.

Surgery: is going to be painful, physically and financially. its going to eat up all my savings.

Also, im extremely depressive lately, and stressed 24/7. I sleep much longer than im actually awake. My voice has become monotone and my vision is greyed out. I used to play games, when i felt like this in the past but i cannot do that now. i do have euphoric moments but those are rare.

I should have started studying something right away. I have wasted 3 years.

Im about to snap. Sometimes I just start laughing out of the blue. I must have gotten crazy already.