Last week, we introduced a new Flash Player feature that includes a new Microsoft Office click-to-play capability that determines whether Flash Player is being launched within Microsoft Office and automatically checks the version of Office. Launching Flash Player 11.6 from within a version of Office older than Office 2010 will prompt the end-user before executing the Flash content, ensuring potentially malicious content does not immediately execute and impact the end-user. This feature adds another layer of defense against spearphishing attacks by allowing the end-user an opportunity to realize that they have opened a potentially malicious document and close it before the exploit executes.
Click-to-Play for Office should make this attack vector less attractive for attackers. Please update your environments to Flash Player 11.6 as soon as possible.
Peleus Uhley, Platform Security Strategist, ASSET
