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Shockwave Player in 2017

Kirk Boragine

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?
 
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.
 
eyoungren said:
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.
Click to expand...
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
 
Kirk Boragine said:
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?
Click to expand...
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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Gamer9430 said:
Shockwave... the thing that powered the online games of my childhood LOL
Click to expand...
Yeahhhhhhh…in 1999 for a multimedia course………

mac6.jpg
 
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.
 
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.
 
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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MysticCow said:
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.
Click to expand...

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?
 
Kirk Boragine said:
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?
Click to expand...
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.
 
eyoungren said:
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.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I kinda figured JavaScript was unavoidable. What about plug-ins?
 
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