Adobe Flash Finished 2015 With Over 300 Exploits Discovered

2015 has proven to be a massive year for Adobe's Flash plugin, but for all the wrong reasons. Flash is already infamous for being one of the most vulnerable pieces of software on the planet, but in 2015, 316 bugs were found and squashed. That comes out to about 6 bugs per week for a piece of software that's used by the vast majority of notebook and desktop users.

What's most impressive about the sheer number of bugs Flash has is the fact that ultimately, we're dealing with a mere plugin here, not a massive software package. While Flash was once considered "cool", a de facto choice for Web animation, the past decade hasn't been too kind to it. The negative reputation was earned thanks mostly to the vulnerabilities it suffers, but also because it can sometimes behave like a tank, sucking down valuable computer resources.

After many years of us hoping that Adobe would pull the plug on Flash, the company announced just earlier this month a replacement, called Animate CC. This suite starts from the ground up, and will let designers produce content in HTML 5, making it so that a plugin wouldn't even be needed to run it.

It's incredible that for a piece of software that's going on 20 years old, a new bug is discovered with Flash nearly every single day. We can imagine that Flash's developers have to look at the software as a leaky pipe; put your finger over one hole and the leak will occur somewhere else. 

One thing most people will agree on is that Flash can't die quick enough. It had a good run, but its replacement is long, long overdue.