Join the official Goodgame Big Farm Discord today!
Are you looking for a community of like-minded farmers to discuss your farming experience with? Look no further than the GoodGame Big Farm Discord Server!
Our server is the perfect place to connect with other farmers from around the world. Whether you're looking to chat about strategy, share tips and tricks, or just make new friends, our community has got you covered.
And that's not all - as a member of our Discord server, you'll also have access to exclusive giveaways and other special events. It's the perfect way to stay up to date on all the latest news and updates from GoodGame Studios.
So what are you waiting for? Join the GoodGame Big Farm Discord Server today and start connecting with fellow farmers from all over the world. Just click here to join the fun!
Flash Player Security Issues
bikeboy (GB1)
Posts: 486
Just one day after Adobe released its monthly security patches for various software including Flash Player, the company confirmed a major security vulnerability that affects all versions of Flash for Windows, Mac and Linux computers. You read that correctly… all versions. Adobe said it has been made aware that this vulnerability is being used by hackers to attack users, though it says the attacks are limited and targeted. Using the exploit, an attacker can crash a target PC or even take complete control of the computer.
And now for the fun part: The only way to effectively protect yourself against this serious security hole is to completely uninstall Flash Player from your machine.
So will GGS continue to tell us all that we are perfectly safe when Adobe themselves say flash player is vulnerable
http://bgr.com/2015/10/15/adobe-flash-player-security-vulnerability-warning/
Comments
Bikeboy, can you add something to the title like "threat" or "security issue"? I almost did not read it because I thought the post was about crashes and lags.
Latten commented on this in another thread on the old forum. I don't want to say what was posted since I can't recall for sure. I'll look around to see if I can find it.
Here's the link for the thread......
https://community.goodgamestudios.com/bigfarm/en/discussion/43336/how-safe-is-big-farm-with-adobe-flash-player
Here's the direct link to Latten's post if you don't want to scroll through....
https://community.goodgamestudios.com/bigfarm/en/discussion/comment/853190/#Comment_853190
Cheers but I know what was said before. That was when Firefox temporary blocked Adobe flash Player. However what was said was not completely correct.. Big farm will NOT harm our computers that is correct but Big Farm uses Adobe Flash player which COULD harm our computers. This is NOT a complaint against GGS, it is FACT that is on the web, certain BIG companies... much bigger than GGS have stopped or are stopping the use of Adobe Flash player because it is so vulnerable to hackers. If we take Google, they want us to use Google safely, so warn us about the threats with using Flash player and try to protect us... on the other hand another company wants our business BADLY and to warn us of the possible threats ( let us choose if to keep running Flash Player) could mean losing valuable customers.
As I have said else where I am still playing as I believe the risk is very small, who wants to target my pocket money, but if the risk is minimal, it is still a risk.. and any site that using adobe flash player SHOULD be warning the people that use it, it is not Big Farm that will be effected, the hackers use ADOBE FLASH PLAYER to access your computer, yes our computers not the servers at GGS. So Big Farm is safe from them, and Big farm itself will not harm our computers.
I don't know, I guess we just have to decide if we're willing to take the risk. Maybe eventually GGS will stop using Adobe Flash. Its possible to have our computers hacked in many ways. My computer was hacked through Google+. He took complete control and we couldn't do anything with the mouse or keyboard. Thankfully my computer is touch screen, otherwise I don't know what would've happened. I had anti virus protection and all that but it never detected anything.
I wish I could be more helpful but I don't know much about it really.
I wish sites would just stop using it. Find something better.
Adobe has announced that they expect to have a Flash player update today in order to fix the issue and prevent further potential limited targeted attacks. You can follow their announcement here.
As for security, of course by creating or using browser games, you know that additional software is required in order for the game to be played. There is a wide variety of browsers out there and we cannot completely rule out that there will never be a security issue with one of them. Same goes for Adobe's Flash player, unfortunately.
That's why we would encourage you to avoid visiting shady websites, keeping your protection software, such as firewalls and antivirus, up to date and to keep an open eye on news announcements for the software you are using.
Until the issue is fixed, you could use an alternate Flash player, such as Chrome's built in PepperFlash. It has some more built in security features and is also available as a plug in for Chromium and Opera.
Regards,
Steffi
Yesterday I had a shed load of problems with Chrome and Big Farm, could not get on the forum to report it, logged in but as soon as I read a post it told me to log in. The game was very slow, If I moved the cursor over my farm, the building etc got highlighted about 3 seconds later, same with harvesting click to harvest and nothing for 3 seconds. Yes I cleared the cache and gave my computer a bath, but no joy, So I un-installed Chrome and Re installed it.. seemed to do the trick.
As for the hackers, I am keeping my bonfire toffee / chocolate and slime slices out of sight.
Yes Artmaker, No idea if GGS intend to go the hmtl5 route like a lot of other game sites, not that they would forewarn us, I am sure the new additions to Big Farm could be made using hmtl but we would still need flash player for the older bits. So would that mean a total shutdown .. new game ? Not scare mongering just wondering things out loud lol. The game could be made a whole lot better without Flash Player.
Spybot S&D v2.4
Adaware ll
malwarebytes
I run these weekly and they have caught many bugs and prevented most hackers from getting in to my computers. I suggest to just google them and do some research before signing up and or down loading them into your computer.
If you're affected, please use another browser (e.g. Firefox or Opera) for the time being. Thank you!"
I therefore started to check on the WWW what chrome are doing about this, and I cannot find any recent articles, so the question is .. will it be fixed if GGS are blaming Chrome , yet Chrome do not seem to know about this. All this seems to have happened after GGS started experimenting with some other browser/server. When I brought this subject up about adobe flash security GGS said that we the players were safe, yet here we are with major issues ( not necessary security based) with FLASH PLAYER. Only last week the forum CM's issued a comment saying to use Chrome because the pepper Flash has more security features, a week later we hit problems and we are told now to use the less secure versions of flash player in Firefox and Opera ... No mention of Internet explorer ! If we disable pepper flash and use the "run of the mill" versions, we in theory should be fine... i'll go try it.
I have sent a screenshot of the comment made by GGS to Google Chrome to see if they have any answers on this issue, I have used Chrome to access and use sites that require Flash Player and found no problems.. so I find it hard to believe the problem is "global"
As always we only get very limited information, but a few things remain the same within any released information... its not the fault of GGS and here is a work around ! The only really safe and secure thing to do is to disable Flash player, BUT that will mean not playing Big Farm, which is the last thing that most of us want to do, another bit of information that GGS fail to tell us is that Opera uses the same version of Flash Player as Chrome... so how does Opera work ok with the same Flash Player as Chrome ?
These security updates are now live, so there is no more need to worry about this specific leak if you updated to most recent versions.
However, some issues with Pepperflash have arisen. That is why we suggest trying another browser in case you are affected, as a workaround until those issues can be fixed.
I don't know if this is the right thread but didn't know what this would come under. I was playing a few minutes ago when the game suddenly shut down and I had the following in the address bar -
stats3.unrulymedia.com/audience/blank.gif?
What does this mean please?
what exactly do you mean by "shuts down"?
The URL is one of our video partners', so this might have appeared after the game crashed while watching a video? Do you maybe have screenshots for us?
Thanks in advance.
Regards
Steffi
Do you have any sort of firewall, malware protection or anti-virus software or addons installed that could have reacted to there being a video frim unrulymedia available?
I'll pass your information on already, as you definitely shouldn't be taken off-site. However, if this was caused by software basically "freezing" your game in order to block any external video data loaded in the background, there will be only so much we can do.
Thanks Steffi. Fingers crossed it doesn't happen again, but if it does I will try to get screenshot and also try to remember what I was doing at the time.
" you definitely shouldn't be taken off-site." but she obviously was ! ! !
So GGS any update on the Chrome/pepper flash issues or is it now just swept under the carpet and somebody else's problem !
And GGS's holy Bible say's:
Rule 1: GGS do never doing mistakes!
Rule 2: If someting goes wrong in the game, always remember rule 1 !
Ps: until yesterday the game runs fine here, for more than a hour in Opera before it was necesarry to reload the game.
Now already af few minutes, the game begin running slow and lagging in Opera
We're looking to provide workarounds and improve our software (if possible) in order to alleviate the problems as best as possible. So far we unfortunately have no results yet.
Aw, don't be silly.
We're always happy to investigate if we're at fault if any problems arise.
However, our investigations always go both ways, since experience shows that a lot of problems can arise if e.g. software installed on your system is misconfigured for browsergames or not up to date.
This lag issue is global across all our games. Common points for all affected users lie within their Flash versions and especially Chrome being affected. This is probably to blame on recent changes in how Chrome handles browser plugins, but as said before, we now have a task force specifically looking into this matter at hand.
... and also somewhere I read something about it could be antivirus programs that maybe gives video problems. - maybe GGS's next advise for video problems will be people should deactivate their antivirus programs?
Come on lets try to get serious about several facts and things:
Facts no. 1: There have never before september have been so many different problems with the game as there is now..
Facts no. 2: Since the videos have been implemented, more players than before september complaints about game speed problems.
Facts no. 3: Several players have reported they can play other webgames in Chrome without problems... only Bigfarm seems to have problems with Chrome.
- Also I was sometimes playing on other websites with Chrome without problems.
Facts. no. 4: Lots of people don't like advertising they don't have search after and/or ask for... that's why popup-killers and addblockers are very popular software.
- How many players do you think will see these 3rd party advertising-videos, if they never get a reward for it?
Facts no. 5: On other websites where I sometimes playing, there is an opt in/out for advertisement: If I play for real money, I get no 3rd party advertisements... If I only play for free, I get get 3'rd party advertisement.
- Why can bigfarm not give us the same choice: Free players get the 3rd party videos whatever they like it or not, and player who have buy gold have an option so they can enebale/disable themself from the video feature.
Facts no. 6: Many of your 3'rd party partner trying to save files on my pc even I never have seen any of their videos or visit their websites!
- Why?
How usefull are these 3'rd party files for me, when I never see their videos and never visit their sites?
Can we make a deal and an experiment?
As you maybe know, I have 2 farms: BriannospamDK on the us server, and BriannospamGame on the skn server, and on both I am a involuntary laboratory rat
Let's make this deal: You disable the video feature on the one of my farms (I'm don't care which one of them), so I can compare the difference between the video feature on, and the video feature off, and tell you about it, and even its gives me more hassle I'm also willing to test both farms in 4 different browsers I have on my pc: Opera, Maxthon, Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge (Normaly I never use MS$ Edge)
But do not expect I also will try see some of the videos! - If you want me to do take that risk, you may pay me for it in real money!
Now seeing as the problems that Yorkypoo brought up over a year ago are still present within the game, getting told the same thing "refresh the game, or clear cache" how much investigation is being carried out ? Of course it is not just Big Farm, players should visit the other games forums, I will not spoil your surprise upon visiting them
I use Chrome with an ad blocker running I do not have the videos and I have zero problems. No slowdowns, no issues at all.
Seems to me if this is a chrome/flash player problem then I should be having issues the same as others but mine is running perfectly.
I think GG should be giving players the option, to op out of the videos if they don't want to see them, no amount of earned gold is going to compensate for not being able to play the game. If I do get the videos/advertising you will be loosing a player. I came here to play Big Farm not watch advertising that is not what I signed up for or have ever agreed too.
If 1 or 2 people have problems connecting to BF or performance issues with their game, then it makes sense to suggest they check everything at their end, because if there was a massive breakdown with GGS, clearly more people would be effected. Just as it makes sense that when the numbers of complaints increase, they start to look for things that players have in common (flash versions, browsers, OS, security, connections etc) The fact that GGS has now assigned a task force to investigate the performance issues, sounds to me like they ARE taking it seriously & investing resources in tracking the problem. Yet you continue to berate them, they are no better or worse than any other company, but its like they just can`t win with you, you critisize them endlessly for not fixing bugs in the game & then you expect them to use their tech team to chase down every little performance issue anyone has, just in case it is a problem their end, then when they do accept that something may need investigating & they put a team on it, you take the p*ss about that too, with comments like "A task force, so that is it, once they've had their cup of tea it'll be Manchester Screwdriver time".
So once again the world is asking if having flash player installed is worth the risk, i suppose its like playing with a loaded gun, if it goes off and shoots you dead, its too late to worry if its worth it.