996637 - Huge increase of Mac OS X Flash crashes since 2014-04-08 (with Flash 13.0.0.182)

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(External Software Affecting Firefox Graveyard :: Flash (Adobe), defect)

Description

[Robert Kaiser]

We have seen a huge increase of Flash crashes on Mac OS X since 2014-04-08. It looks to me like this is when Flash 13.0.0.182 was released.

Here two comparative searches, both for Thursday through Sunday, first for the week before that date:

https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/search/?process_type=plugin&plugin_name=Flash&platform=Mac+OS+X&date=%3E2014-04-02&date=%3C2014-04-07&_facets=signature&_columns=date&_columns=signature&_columns=product&_columns=version&_columns=build_id&_columns=platform

1646 Results

And now for the week after:

https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/search/?process_type=plugin&plugin_name=Flash&platform=Mac+OS+X&date=%3E2014-04-09&date=%3C2014-04-14&_facets=signature&_columns=date&_columns=signature&_columns=product&_columns=version&_columns=build_id&_columns=platform

16302 Results

This is a 10-fold increase!

Faceting the latter for plugin versions confirms that 90% of those crashes now are with Flash 13.0.0.182.


Here are links to lists for the main affected signatures:
https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/list?signature=F284861780_______
https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/list?signature=F_1466881225_______________
https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/list?signature=F344568511_________________________________________
https://crash-stats.mozilla.com/report/list?signature=F1898074150_______

Comment 1

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

I was about to open a bug on this ... but you beat me to it :-)

Here's a partial list of old versions of the Flash plugin, which includes their release dates:
http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/archived-flash-player-versions.html

Comment 2

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/994897
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1447282

Comment 3

[Honza Bambas (:mayhemer)]

OSX 10.7.5., Flash 13.0.0.182

For me also safari crashes (says: "plug-in module failure").  This more seems like on the Adobe side.

Comment 4

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

Adobe's already acknowledged that it's their bug and is working on a fix:
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1447282

Comment 5

[Jeromie Clark]

I believe that this uptick is related to fallout from a recent compiler change, which exposed an outstanding bug in a system library.  New compiler optimizations caused instructions to be emitted which are unsupported on some Mac hardware shipped between 2006-2008.  This issue affects all browsers using the NPAPI Flash Player plugin.

We will be publishing a Mac-only update shortly to address this issue.  The update will be available via our background update service, so users who have opted-in to updates will be patched automatically.

Comment 6

[anthony.chadwick]

Thanks everyone.  I hope a patch comes out soon.  The problem mostly occurs when I go to any site that uses Flash, so its easy to duplicate.  I'll wait for the next Flash update.

Comment 7

[anthony.chadwick]

A patch is on the adobe website.  It works for me.  http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

Version 13.0.0.201

I'm on a (plane) MacBook circa 2007 running MacOSX 10.6.8; Processor = 2.16Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo; Memory = 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM.

Comment 8

[Honza Bambas (:mayhemer)]

Confirmed fixed with Flash Player 13.0.0.201.

Comment 10

[BMO Automation]

Version and milestone values are being reset to defaults as part of product refactoring.