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[BUG] Flashplayer will not be updated automatically even if updates are enabled and scheduled task is triggered

Community Beginner ,
Jun 15, 2017 Jun 15, 2017

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I have noticed this on a more than 50 clients with Windows 10 that are all non enterprise and custom (no image / cloning involved) installed.

There is a bug report  FP-4198485 that I have created for this behaviour today because I am tired of babysitting the process on nearly every machine I take care of.

Problem:

Flash Player will not update itself after the Scheduled task is run / triggered automatically. This happens on a very high amount of Windows 10 machines I have access to.

It does NOT matter if they are installed fresh with Windows 10 1607 or 1703 or have quite a veteran state coming from previous Windows 10 releases or upgrades from Windows 7 or 8.1, so running for years.

I have at least seen this happening since FP 21 or newer.

Workaround:

if you run the scheduled task "Adobe Flash Player Updater" or "Adobe Flash Player PPAPI Notifier" manually Flashplayer will be updated correctly and silently.

This is apparently a bug and security related as people trust that they get automatic updates for flashplayer but they may not unless they do some manual action as described in the workaround.

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Adobe Employee ,
Jun 15, 2017 Jun 15, 2017

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Hi alqamar

I have added several comments to the bug record.  Please review and provide the requested information.

Thank you.

--

Maria

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 17, 2017 Jun 17, 2017

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I will check that.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 17, 2017 Jun 17, 2017

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Maria when searching for the bug  FP-4198485 on bugbase he will not find the bug.

also on the main screen it says

Issues you have created

You haven't created any issues

 

 

Issues you have voted for

You haven't voted for any issues

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Adobe Employee ,
Jun 19, 2017 Jun 19, 2017

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Hi alQamar ,

I'm also not able to find the bug record in tracker.adobe.com, but it is in our replicated internal bug record, so it's not completely lost.  I don't know why it's not found in tracker.adobe.com and have escalated for assistance.  In the interim, here is my comment, and request for information, that I posted to the bug record:

I'll need to get some more information from you to troubleshoot the bug. Please provide the following:

  • In the Task Scheduler, post a screen-shot of the 'Last Run Result' for the Adobe Flash Player Updater task (also please translate the contents of Last Run Result)
  • Are you using a proxy server?
  • Are you hosting the Background Update files locally, or using the Adobe servers?
  • Post a screen-shot of the contents of the C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash directory.

I also need the FlashIntall log file with Background Update verbose logging enabled. Please do the following:

  • add SilentAutoUpdateVerboseLogging=1 to the mms.cfg file saved at C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash
  • After 24 hours, upload the FlashInstall log file saved at C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash to the bug record. If there's more than one FlashInstall log file, upload all of them

You can upload the requested files and screenshots to cloud.acrobat.com/send (see How to share a documentā€‹) and I'll add them to the bug record.

--

Maria

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 19, 2017 Jun 19, 2017

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Thank you for taking care about this. For my own computer I can report you that the updater for PPAPI showed up yesterday after logon. I have not clicked on the manual download but cancelled the window.

By today I see that both Flashplayers for NPAPI and PPAPI got updated to 26.0.0.131 silently, by yesterday the 18th of June, despite I have cancelled the PPAPI window yesterday. I have expierenced this before that the PPAPI updater may behave differently to the NPAPI updater.

However I am still convinced that this does not solve the issue. Of course you will understand that it is hard deal with to catch up logs for other people computers.

Could you confirm that the Flashplayer updates get released in a kind of waves, other than all of them will be updated as soon the Taskplanner does run automatically? This would still not explain why a manual run will always update both.

- Last Run Result' for the Adobe Flash Player Updater task (also please translate the contents of Last Run Result)

by default the tasks for the NPAPI and PPAPI updater have no logging enabled, so the history is empty.

Both updater tasks will always report "the task has been completed successfully (0x0), regardless if they run automatically scheduled or manually launched.

- Are you using a proxy server?

Yes, I am personally using Sophos XG Web Proxy but the described behaviour does definitely also affect many people I know who do not use any proxies.

- Are you hosting the Background Update files locally, or using the Adobe servers?

No, as I've said all computers that are affected are not part of an enterprise environment, so they all use a standard installation and will fetch updates from Adobe. There is no mms.cfg file.

- add SilentAutoUpdateVerboseLogging=1 to the mms.cfg file saved at C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash

I will try to do this for systems that do no use any proxy and I have two more in my network that are using a proxy.

I also have a notebook that does not use proxy and has direct access. I won't have a recent FP as it was offline for longer I will use this for the verbose logs additionally.

Do I need a mms.cfg in C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash too, if it is a 64bit Windows?

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Adobe Employee ,
Jun 19, 2017 Jun 19, 2017

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Thank you for the update.

By today I see that both Flashplayers for NPAPI and PPAPI got updated to 26.0.0.131 silently, by yesterday the 18th of June, despite I have cancelled the PPAPI window yesterday.

the silent update and notification update are independent of each other.  Cancelling the notification update does not cancel the background update.  Version 26.0.0.131 was released on 16-June, so it sounds like it was updated within an expected time-frame.

Of course you will understand that it is hard deal with to catch up logs for other people computers.

Totally understand.  Whatever you can provide will help us.

Could you confirm that the Flashplayer updates get released in a kind of waves, other than all of them will be updated as soon the Taskplanner does run automatically? This would still not explain why a manual run will always update both.

Flash Player updates are released all at once, not in waves, however, they are updated to a CDN which requires clearing cache to delete old cached files.  This does take some time to complete across the CDN.

- Last Run Result' for the Adobe Flash Player Updater task (also please translate the contents of Last Run Result)

by default the tasks for the NPAPI and PPAPI updater have no logging enabled, so the history is empty.

Both updater tasks will always report "the task has been completed successfully (0x0), regardless if they run automatically scheduled or manually launched.

This would indicate the task is running successfully, otherwise, it would have a different result.

- Are you using a proxy server?

Yes, I am personally using Sophos XG Web Proxy but the described behaviour does definitely also affect many people I know who do not use any proxies.

The Background Updater task (and installation) uses the SYSTEM account, please ensure your proxy server is configured to allow the SYSTEM account to perform the required tasks (making a request to adobe.com to check if an update is available, download the update if it is available, install the update).

- Are you hosting the Background Update files locally, or using the Adobe servers?

No, as I've said all computers that are affected are not part of an enterprise environment, so they all use a standard installation and will fetch updates from Adobe. There is no mms.cfg file.

thank you for confirming.  Flash Player installer creates the mms.cfg file it it doesn't exist, so there should be one on the system, unless it was deleted.  On a 32-bit OS, the mms.cfg file is saved at C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash.  On a 64-bit OS, it is saved at C:\Windows\SywWOW64\Macromed\Flash

- add SilentAutoUpdateVerboseLogging=1 to the mms.cfg file saved at C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash

I will try to do this for systems that do no use any proxy and I have two more in my network that are using a proxy.

I also have a notebook that does not use proxy and has direct access. I won't have a recent FP as it was offline for longer I will use this for the verbose logs additionally.

Thank you. The verbose log file should provide some information.  Yes

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 19, 2017 Jun 19, 2017

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Hello Maria, thanks for your helpful answers. Please allow me to answer inline again.

First of all I have received an email from the tracker system but still I cannot open my submitted bug so the state is still like in post #3 in my "Home" page. When using the link from the email it says "no issue found".

This is the cited text from the email:

"Adobe Flash Player NPAPI / PPAPI will not update when scheduled Taskplanner runs automatically

Change Details:

Reason Code updated from 'None' to an empty value"

If you can please try to solve the issue with the bugtracker. Perhaps the issue got hidden from public because it is a security related issue, but it should be visible at least on my home page record or reachable with a direct link.

--

Back to your answer:

This does take some time to complete across the CDN.

I have seen FP not updating weeks after the release and some updated and some not, region is Germany for any system. So my suspect that there might be a "problem" with the CDN seems not to be true. I hope to get a verbose log. The notebook I spoke of seems a promising target. I will deal with it tonight.

This would indicate the task is running successfully, otherwise, it would have a different result.

Please know that systems that are affected and won't update if the task does run automatically, will report the same action results.

So there is no visible error at this level.

The Background Updater task (and installation) uses the SYSTEM account, please ensure your proxy server is configured to allow the SYSTEM account to perform the required tasks (making a request to adobe.com to check if an update is available, download the update if it is available, install the update).

I am aware about that. Since my proxy does not need a user authentication this won't cause us any trouble. All of the systems behind the proxy have updated now, so I need to find some remote systems.

Flash Player installer creates the mms.cfg file it it doesn't exist, so there should be one on the system

I can confirm this.

As said I will try to get some verbose logging and I am trying to find some affected systems.

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Adobe Employee ,
Jun 20, 2017 Jun 20, 2017

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Hi,

Thank you for the update. I look forward to reviewing the log file once you have one available.

The issue is indeed blocked from public view as it was marked 'Security Issue'.  At this time, based on what little information we have, and the lack of more widespread reports, it's not clear if it's security-related or not, however, I can understand it being security-related from your perspective.

<edit>

The bug is now externally visible, https://tracker.adobe.com/#/view/FP-4198485

--

Maria

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 20, 2017 Jun 20, 2017

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no problem and thanks for your ongoing assistance.

one small question. The line to add in mms.cfg is

- add SilentAutoUpdateVerboseLogging=1

or

SilentAutoUpdateVerboseLogging=1

Where will I find the log files?

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Adobe Employee ,
Jun 20, 2017 Jun 20, 2017

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Sorry, it's just:

SilentAutoUpdateVerboseLogging=1

the log file is saved at:

  • 32-bit OS: C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash
  • 64-bit OS: C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash AND C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash

The file name is FlashInstall.log.  In FP26, the file was renamed to FlashInstall32.log (for the file saved in System32 directory) and FlashInstall64.log (for the file saved in SysWOW64 directory).  If your system has both files, FlashInstall.log and FlashInstall32|64.log, provide all files with FlashInstall in the file name

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 20, 2017 Jun 20, 2017

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Alright. I have some clean Hyper-V Machines for testing purposes with Windows 7, Windows 8.0, 8.1 and 10 Insider and I will try to reproduce this based on FP25. Unfortunately I do not have an older release of FP to test it.

I will also try the laptop I mentioned before but there is no FP installed so I will begin with FP 25, too.

Meanwhile I am able to see the submitted bug report. Thanks for that. Perhaps you should try to mention that a bug report even it is security related and hidden by design, should be visible for the posted in the home page of the bugtracker, otherwise it would be hard to deal with these or react to responses there.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 20, 2017 Jun 20, 2017

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Hello Maria,

meanwhile I am checking a system that I haven't had under my maintenance for a longer time. This one is still running FP24 and won't update. However the taskplanner shows up an error code this time.

flash4.PNGflash5.PNG

The request was declined by the operator or administrator (0x800710E0). The client is still running Windows 10 1607 / 14393.1198 but my mission is to upgrade it to Windows 10 1703. From my observations the issue is not related to the OS Build.

The laptop will repeat the scheduled task in about 10 minutes (next run: 20.06.2017 18:28)

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 20, 2017 Jun 20, 2017

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-

There is no change on the next run. The error message is the same and the task will be repeated every 2 minutes.

I have attached  the flashinstall.log in the bug report.

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Adobe Employee ,
Jun 20, 2017 Jun 20, 2017

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Error 0x800710E0 was fixed in FP 25. This error was returned when the computer was shut down when scheduled task runs, and it failing to run after the system is turned on.  Now, if the computer is turned off when the task is supposed to run, it'll run as soon as possible after the computer is on.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 20, 2017 Jun 20, 2017

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Hello Maria, thanks for the information.

For this affected machine do you think that if I issue shutdown -g -t 0 the system will do a proper restart and the task should run again without an error?

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Adobe Employee ,
Jun 20, 2017 Jun 20, 2017

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For the system with FP24 installed you'll need to install FP25 or newer for it to fix the issue.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 20, 2017 Jun 20, 2017

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Ok I will update to FP25. I have the installer and will come back with results. I think that I will have more information by tomorrow.

As for the security related context. I suspect that this one error may prevent also other users from updating their FP. I think that the average user is not expierenced enough to notice that FP is outdated and they are on risk, other than they use Firefox which will block the extension by default if it is outdated.

How does Adobe think about addressing this for existing loop for FP24 users, without manual interaction?

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Adobe Employee ,
Jun 20, 2017 Jun 20, 2017

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How does Adobe think about addressing this for existing loop for FP24 users, without manual interaction?


When a system is opted into Background Updates it's also opted into Notification Updates by default.  Background Updates checks for an update once every 24 hours, while Notification Updates is once every 7 days.  Eventually users would have been notified an update is available and given the opportunity to update that way.  This bug only impacted Windows 10 systems.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 21, 2017 Jun 21, 2017

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I have good but irritating news. You remember the laptop that was bugged out in a loop in FP24. You said that with installing FP25 the known issue should be resolved. So I have enabled the logging on FP24 on this particular machine and attached the log in the bug tracker.

Then I upgraded the Windows 10 1607 to 1703. After the upgrade the background updater issue seemed to be fixed. It directly updated to FP26 from the FP24. So in contradiction to what you said it is a known FP24 issue it seems that an upgrade fixes this issue aswell.

Based on my oberservations in the past and this bug report: it might be that the most systems that were not updating used 24 or earlier, so if you cannot narrow down that the error 0x800710E0 was introduced in FP24, this might be one puzzle why I have noticed so many unpatched systems on Windows 10.

I will still try to reproduce this in a virtual environment and report back. Hope that this information is of any help your team too.

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Adobe Employee ,
Jun 21, 2017 Jun 21, 2017

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Thanks for the additional information. The bug with error 0x800710E0 was not introduced in FP 24.  I actually don't have the exact build it was introduced in, but it was fixed in FP 25.  And the bug only manifested if the system was turned off when the task was scheduled to run.  I'll review the log file attached to the bug record.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 21, 2017 Jun 21, 2017

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Thanks. I will now attach FlashInstal_Laptop_Keine_1703.log for review on the bugtracker. So you can see that FP24 now updated to FP26 silently.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 29, 2017 Jun 29, 2017

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Hello Maria,

today I was hired for Update Deployment in a company and they to face the problem that a lot of FP installations are stuck in an old versions on Windows 7, variing from FP 14-22. I admit the enviroment does differ from my initial post where when reported this to happen for usual users.

I will have check if they have disabled autoupdate or there are proxy issues. After this is cleared I try to collect some log data and attach it to the bug report, is this ok for you? I am sorry I haven't had the time to try to reproduce the issue as outlined before.

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Adobe Employee ,
Jun 29, 2017 Jun 29, 2017

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Hi,

It'd be great if you could provide the FlashInstall log files for one or two impacted systems, in addition to the update setting and proxy configuration (if any).  Background Updates uses the SYSTEM user account to check for updates and install if no user is logged on but the machine is connected to the internet.  If a proxy server is in use and a system is not being updated it's possible the proxy server is not configured to allow the SYSTEM user to check for an update.

Also, Adobe North American offices are closed next week, as such, my reply to any comments posted after today will be delayed until Monday July 10.

--

Maria

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 29, 2017 Jun 29, 2017

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Thank for giving more details about the process. It will take some time till I can reply, enjoy your free time - hope you have some if the offices are closed.

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