How safe are Active X, or Flash games on the web?

[Mickymoody]

I heard a rumour that they download content, then dissassemble locally, and can contain viruses?

I seem to always get an ActiveX download update, virtually daily? Are these basic games good to go, or are they full of viruses, yet undetected? I don't use them, but my partner does. And her computer dies, frequently. Where mine doesn't. Seems illogical where someone would shoot bubbles, flash style, when Bubble Bobble is a download.

 

[digdilem]

Unlikely, and flash is not designed to allow access to your files even if the coder wanted to.

What is possible, and I'm fairly sure it was the way I got a virus last week (either that or an unpatched Firefox) - certainly on a driveby somehow - is flash embedded on websites exploiting flaws in flashplayer. These tend not to be visible, and installed on otherwise good websites via serverside compromise.

They do allow remote code exploitation, but if you keep everything patched to the latest version, risk is low. However, nothing with computers is ever 100% safe.