I had a follower on Twitter ask me about an error they were seeing on their system every time they tried to access the Xbox Music website.
Normally when you visit http://music.xbox.com you see this:
When he visited the page this is what he saw:
Of course, his first step was to try and install Flash again but we now what happens when you try that with Windows 8 and IE:
So in a process of elimination he uninstalled an update from Microsoft, Update for Vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash Player in Internet Explorer (KB2982794), which was released on 12 August 2014.
That update addressed a vulnerability in Flash as described below:
In a web-based attack scenario where the user is using Internet Explorer for the desktop, an attacker could host a specially crafted website that is designed to exploit any of these vulnerabilities through Internet Explorer and then convince a user to view the website. An attacker could also embed an ActiveX control marked “safe for initialization” in an application or Microsoft Office document that hosts the IE rendering engine. The attacker could also take advantage of compromised websites and websites that accept or host user-provided content or advertisements. These websites could contain specially crafted content that could exploit any of these vulnerabilities. In all cases, however, an attacker would have no way to force users to view the attacker-controlled content. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to take action, typically by clicking a link in an email message or in an Instant Messenger message that takes users to the attacker’s website, or by opening an attachment sent through email.
After he uninstalled this update his system returned to normal functionality and he was able to access the Xbox Music website.
Of course, that leaves his system vulnerable to the issue described above so I am curious if anyone else is seeing a similar error on their system and does removal of the KB2982794 update bring back Flash functionality.
If this is an issue we can bring it to Microsoft’s attention so it can be addressed for those systems.
Let us know down in the comments.