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Kirk Boragine

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 12, 2016
85
16
Arizona, America
So here we are in 2017 with our most excellent PowerPCs. Flash Player has been banished from the grounds. What about Shockwave Player? I typically don't play games that require it. Do I need it for anything else? Is it doing any good in my system these days? Is it doing harm, lurking and rearing it's head up behind the scenes? Is it (let's hope not) hurting my Macs performance just by being there? If I do remove it, then how? Using the Shockwave Player installer from Adobe I suspect... what is the general consensus here?
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,793
26,882
Shockwave is a pretty neutral thing.

You can remove it. Not much uses it and it won't hurt anything.

What browser are you using that is showing it as installed? I ask because manual directions to remove it depend on the browser.
 

Kirk Boragine

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 12, 2016
85
16
Arizona, America
Shockwave is a pretty neutral thing.

You can remove it. Not much uses it and it won't hurt anything.

What browser are you using that is showing it as installed? I ask because manual directions to remove it depend on the browser.
I've been using TenFourFox 45.7.0 Nothing has told me it's there. I just see it in Macintosh HD ->Library ->Application Support->Macromedia->Shockwave 10
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,520
7,043
So here we are in 2017 with our most excellent PowerPCs. Flash Player has been banished from the grounds. What about Shockwave Player? I typically don't play games that require it. Do I need it for anything else? Is it doing any good in my system these days? Is it doing harm, lurking and rearing it's head up behind the scenes? Is it (let's hope not) hurting my Macs performance just by being there? If I do remove it, then how? Using the Shockwave Player installer from Adobe I suspect... what is the general consensus here?
Shockwave Player has a long list of vulnerabilities. It's been a long time since I've seen content that uses it, but if you do need it you should be sure to use the newest possible version.
http://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerabi...3/product_id-6670/Adobe-Shockwave-Player.html
 
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eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,793
26,882
Shockwave... the thing that powered the online games of my childhood LOL
Yeahhhhhhh…in 1999 for a multimedia course………

mac6.jpg
 

MagicBoy

macrumors 68040
May 28, 2006
3,947
1,025
Manchester, UK
Work have a fair few CBT (Computer based training) applications that use Shockwave Flash., which means trying to coax it into working on the training room machines. The content creators have been dragging their feet for well over 5 years on moving to newer technologies like HTML5.
 

MysticCow

macrumors 68000
May 27, 2013
1,561
1,739
At this point, and it's for some very good reasons, PowerPC users should NOT be using Flash.

NOT

AT

ALL

Same with our quite deprecated Java packages. They are just too vulnerable to exploits in the decade that followed the last of the PPC's.
 

0248294

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2016
713
868
Yup, I've seen what old Java versions can do in person. My parents' main desktop (long gone now) got a ransomware fake antivirus, the "Pay $60 to get rid of an imaginary virus so you can access your system again" kind of deal. It was quite easy to remove (blasting it with a real antivirus in safe mode), but it could have been a lot worse if it was a silent keylogger/spyware virus. So old versions of anything exploitable should be avoided. PowerPCs are a tad risky in and of themselves due to the lack of security updates, so it's best to not add additional risks.
 
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Kirk Boragine

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 12, 2016
85
16
Arizona, America
At this point, and it's for some very good reasons, PowerPC users should NOT be using Flash.

NOT

AT

ALL

Same with our quite deprecated Java packages. They are just too vulnerable to exploits in the decade that followed the last of the PPC's.

As for Java, do you suggest disabling Java plug-ins/Java/JavaScript in web browsers? What about removing it completely from the system? What functionality if any would be lost due to those actions?
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,793
26,882
As for Java, do you suggest disabling Java plug-ins/Java/JavaScript in web browsers? What about removing it completely from the system? What functionality if any would be lost due to those actions?
Javascript can have it's own vulnerabilities, but unless you plan to disconnect the laptop from the internet it's still necessary to enable it in browsers.

They are referring mainly to Java, which can be executed through a browser. If you turn it off on the Mac, don't use Java on the net then you should be fairly safe.
 

Kirk Boragine

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 12, 2016
85
16
Arizona, America
Javascript can have it's own vulnerabilities, but unless you plan to disconnect the laptop from the internet it's still necessary to enable it in browsers.

They are referring mainly to Java, which can be executed through a browser. If you turn it off on the Mac, don't use Java on the net then you should be fairly safe.
Thanks. I kinda figured JavaScript was unavoidable. What about plug-ins?
 
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