30-04-2021



Ugh, another Flash exploit?! BGR reported Thursday that Adobe has confirmed “a major security vulnerability that affects all versions of Flash for Windows, Mac, and Linux.” Adobe says this vulnerability is being used by hackers, although for very targeted attacks—phishing, in other words.

To get Flash off of your Mac for good, you’ll need an uninstaller from Adobe. There are distinct versions for OS X 10.6 and later, for 10.4 and 10.5, and even one for 10.1 to 10.3.

“Successful exploitation could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system,” Adobe says in its security bulletin.

Well, that’s just great.

FlashFlashAdobe flash player mac os x

Trend Micro, which discovered the flaw, says that targets are receiving phishing emails with URLs that look like news articles, sent to “several foreign affairs ministries from around the globe.” I don’t work for a foreign affairs ministry and you might not either, but nothing is stopping other hackers from taking advantage of the same flaw.

We all like to think we’re smart enough to avoid phishing scams—and I’m sure you are! And we’d like to think Adobe will get this patched soon—the company says it hopes to do that next week. But if you really want to be safe from this flaw, and the next, and the next, and the next, there’s one foolproof step you can take: Uninstall Flash.

Can I Remove Flash Player From My Mac

How to uninstall Flash

Adobe Flash Player Uninstaller

To get Flash off of your Mac for good, you’ll need an uninstaller from Adobe. There are distinct versions for OS X 10.6 and later, for 10.4 and 10.5, and even one for 10.1 to 10.3.

Mac Remove Flash Player

Find the uninstaller for the version of OS X that you have. (If you aren’t sure, just click the Apple logo in your menu bar and select About This Mac. The popup window will say.) Click its link to download it to your Downloads folder.

  1. Because Adobe will no longer be addressing security vulnerabilities in Flash with updates, Flash Player now prompts users to uninstall. We strongly recommend doing so—just click the Uninstall button if you get this alert. If you don’t, a Flash Player Install Manager app in your Utility folder should be able to remove Flash Player as well.
  2. Scroll down to the Devices section and click Uninstall Flash Player. To run the uninstaller, double-click the Uninstaller icon in the window. If you see a message asking if you want to open the uninstaller file, click Open. When the uninstaller starts, click Uninstall.
  3. Whatever your reason may be, there are various ways to uninstall the Adobe Flash Player on your Mac device. One is the manual way-which can also be very painful and confusing, another is the easy way, with a tool called iMyMac-PowerMyMac’s Uninstaller. Let’s start to uninstall Flash Player on Mac with a Mac Uninstaller.

Remove Flash Player 10

When you launch the uninstaller from your Downloads folder, it runs, and you have to click Uninstall. Just in case you launched the uninstaller but didn’t want to uninstall anything, I guess.

Remove flash player mac 2020

Mac Remove Flash Player

After you enter your account password, you’re prompted to close all your browsers. The uninstaller can do that, or you can quit them yourself.

The uninstaller will do its thing and let you know when it’s done.

Remove Adobe Flash Player Mac

Once it’s finished, Adobe recommends you delete a couple of folders from your Library too. To open your home directory’s Library folder, go to the Finder, click Go in the menu bar, and then hold down the Option key to make the Library folder appear in the drop-down menu. Open it, and then find and destroy these two folders:

(Note that Adobe’s instructions don’t include deleting those folders if you are running Mac OS 10.1 to 10.3. Most of you are probably on 10.4 Tiger at least by now.)

Remove Adobe Flash Player From Mac

If you want to make sure it’s really gone, go to Adobe’s Flash Player Help page and click the Check Now button to check if it’s on your computer.

If you ever want to get Flash again, just re-download the latest version directly from Adobe. It’s a terrible idea to get it anywhere else.

Mac 10.15.7 Remove Flash Player

Do you use Flash, or have you kicked it to the curb once and for all? Sound off in the comments!