Hey Adobe - Why does embedded Flash-in-PDF content call flashservice.adobe.com?

[NLee1234]

I recently upgraded to Flash Player 12.0.0.44.  Now, when I open a PDF with embedded flash, I get the message that a call is being made to flashservice.adobe.com.  The user is able to allow or block the call.  if you block you will get error messages for all future Flash-in-PDF files that you open.  That will be ugly for my 50,000 users.  I won't allow access until I have a better understanding of 'what' is occurring.  I can't find any mention of it in the Release Notes.  Can someone from Adobe address this? 

[NLee1234]

Adobe, Please explain what is occurring when you reference flashplayer.adobe.com in a Flash embedded PDF files?  The only sites that we 'trust' are sites that we control.  If I add Adobe.com as a trusted site, what kinds of activity will be occuring (now and in the future)?  If I block adobe.com for all of my 50,000 users, will they continue to see the block warning notices?  How can I turn off the Block notices?

[C_F_McBlob]

This is a "user-to-user" forum. You are not speaking to Adobe here, but to other Flash and Reader users, just like you.

[NLee1234]

Mike,  Thanks but I know that Adobe Staff also regularly read/post to the forums.  This issue was raised by other users as well so, hopefully someone from Adobe will shed light on the issue or point us towards release notes or additional resources that explain the recent change.

[NLee1234]

I guess someone from Adobe does read these posts.  This issue appears to have been fixed in 12.0.0.70.  Can anyone confirm that this was, indeed, a bug?  I wonder how many users received the auto-update and have, at this point, establshed a trust in Reader with adobe.com? 

[haysl89508725]

we have the same issue but better. our DNS servers cannot resolve flashservice.Adobe com - getting "Refused"

Adobe support tried to persuade me to open our firewalls for a number HTTP/S URL and when i pointed out that didn't include port 53, they recommended i use the forums...

So - Hi Adobe- anybody know what DNS is?

[jeromiec83223024]

Sorry for the delayed response.  I saw it come in, but I didn't want to reply until I could research it and provide a definitive answer.  I didn't want to guess and provide misleading information.

Based on the data you've provided:

1.) It's definitely not going to hurt anything to block this request.

2.) I think this is related to a long-dead feature, and this request was just grabbing a static config file from a trusted location on the server that allowed us to control in-client messaging without having to ship an update to the Flash Player binary itself.  It was a short-lived experiment, and the service and server are both long dead, which is why the DNS entry doesn't resolve. 

3.) If this is happening in current versions of the Flash Player plug-in for Acrobat, that's definitely a bug; however, I'm thinking that this is coming from stale clients.

I'm working from incomplete information, and a few things would help me definitively confirm that my analysis is correct, and what, if anything, needs to be done at this point:

• What's the full URL of the request?  (running a local web debugging proxy on the client would give you both the request and body)
• What version of Flash Player are you using in Acrobat (and/or is the request made in the latest version)?
  • Adobe Reader and Acrobat Flash Player Download for Windows
• What version of Acrobat are you suing?