‘Warning: Your Flash Player Is Outdated’ Pop-up

Like many 'Flash update' pop-ups prior to it, the 'Warning Your Flash Player Is Outdated' pop-up is another example of threat authors using fraudulent updates for installing threatening software. Since this attack is newly identified, its payload has yet to be examined, and the consequences of a successful attack are, for now, unknown. However, the same forms of protection against other fake Flash updates also are relevant to thwarting the 'Warning Your Flash Player Is Outdated' pop-up, which always is nothing other than a direct attack against the computer in question.

A Helping Hand that Updates Your Computer Towards an Infection

Among the various strategies used to distribute threats and unwanted applications, fake Flash updates are one of the most blatantly recurrent themes seen by malware analysts. The 'Warning Your Flash Player Is Outdated' pop-up has joined the likes of such attacks as the 'Problems have been detected with your Flash Player version' Alert and the Flash Player Upgrade Required fake message in using fraudulent upgrades as Trojan droppers. Naturally, installing the 'Warning Your Flash Player Is Outdated' pop-up's 'update' is discouraged, but this pop-up also may include exploits that may install its payload without needing any interaction on the part of its victims.

Current reports isolate the 'Warning Your Flash Player Is Outdated' pop-up to PremiumPlayerUpdate.com, a suspicious domain. Like other faux Flash pop-ups, you can identify a 'Warning Your Flash Player Is Outdated' pop-up as suspicious through its use of websites not authorized by Adobe, as well as by its claim to have identified an outdated version of Flash even for users of the current version. Redirects to the 'Warning Your Flash Player Is Outdated' pop-up's website especially may trigger during interactions with fake movie sites and other, equally media-heavy threat domains.

Taking a Pop-Up Warning Seriously – without Taking Its Advice

While there's no doubt that the 'Warning Your Flash Player Is Outdated' pop-up is a fake update that tries to install hostile software pretending to be patches, the nature of the software installed by the 'Warning Your Flash Player Is Outdated' pop-up still is being determined. Until malware experts can provide further details on this attack, it should be assumed that exposure to a 'Warning Your Flash Player Is Outdated' pop-up may risk compromising your PC with common threats.

Defending your PC from these forms of attacks requires disabling browser scripts, patching your anti-malware solutions and avoiding sites with poor reputations for security. Because of its isolation to a single domain, the 'Warning Your Flash Player Is Outdated' pop-up is likely to be seen only in limited numbers, but minor variants on the same themes are some of the most prominent PC threats noted by malware researchers to date.