Updates for Flash and Reader/Acrobat, released earlier today by Adobe, address a variety of security vulnerabilities “that could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.”

Flash 17.0.0.188 includes fixes for at least eighteen vulnerabilities, all of which have been flagged as Critical.

Adobe Reader/Acrobat version 11.0.11 addresses seven Critical vulnerabilities.

Anyone still using Flash in a web browser should update Flash as soon as possible. If you use Adobe Reader to open PDF files from unknown sources, you should update Reader as soon as possible. As usual, newer versions of Internet Explorer will auto-update, as will Chrome (to version 42.0.2311.152).