Why is Safari asking me to allow Adobe Flash Player for unexpected sites (e.g., MacRumors, PayPal)?

[damian]

Lately, I've been receiving the prompt, "Do you want to trust the website '[URL of website]' to use the 'Adobe Flash Player' plug-in" prompt from Safari for sites that don't appear to require it (e.g., MacRumors, PayPal).

Whether I click "trust" or "not now" seems to make no difference in the functionality of the site.

Can anyone explain what's going on, here?

Is this a bug in Safari or Flash?

Or is my computer likely infected with some sort of malware or virus? (I ran Malwarebytes; it didn't find anything. I'm running Norton Antivirus now; unless I post otherwise, you can assume it didn't find anything, either.)

Or do sites like MacRumors and PayPal have legitimate uses for Adobe Flash Player?

Note that I am using the latest versions of Safari (10.0), macOS (10.12), and Adobe Flash Player (23.0.0.185, as verified and updated in the System Preferences Flash Player pane).

See below for screenshots. Unfortunately, I don't recall what other sites have been giving me this prompt, offhand, but they include sites as reputable as MacRumors and PayPal.

I am aware that Adobe Flash Player is buggy and, in many cases, insecure. I am considering uninstalling it. For now, though, I'm mainly trying to figure out why I'm receiving these prompts, and whether I should be concerned.

 

[KALLT]

Flash is still used for ads and some websites use it for particular features. This forum here uses Flash for file uploads, for instance (you can turn that off somewhere in settings). I recommend changing the default setting of Flash to ‘block’ in Safari settings → Security → Internet plugins and whitelist websites there as needed.

By the way, you can move these extension icons to the other side (or even remove them). Doesn’t it bug you to have that many icons on one side?

 

[damian]

Flash is still used for ads and some websites use it for particular features. This forum here uses Flash for file uploads, for instance (you can turn that off somewhere in settings).

Good to know. Thanks!

I recommend changing the default setting of Flash to ‘block’ in Safari settings → Security → Internet plugins and whitelist websites there as needed.

Good advice. Done!

By the way, you can move these extension icons to the other side (or even remove them). Doesn’t it bug you to have that many icons on one side?

I never thought about it, but now that you mention it, yes! I didn't realize I could move them, but I just did, and yes, now it feels more balanced. Thanks!