Re: FLASH: Flash and security

[John Dowdell]

A SWF file would be interpreted by your Flash Player, and so the Flash

Player wouldn't let a SWF file tell it to do things outside its normal

range.


Someone could create an .EXE outside of Flash, and call it a Flash

Projector... that's about as close as it comes.


The Flash Player itself doesn't have and file-writing abilities, so it

wouldn't be able to read data from the hard drive.


When the Flash Player is used in a browser then we're playing within the

browser's security sandbox, and if the browser is connected to an emailer

and office tools then there could be some browser breaches (see the

BubbleBoy story this week).


There's more information on varied topics available in the Flash technotes,

with a text search on term "security".


But generally, a SWF file can only ask the Flash Player to do things, and

the Flash Player is small and of known ability.


jd





John Dowdell, Macromedia Tech Support, San Francisco CA US

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