Flash Update Script

Any particular reason not to curl against the official Adobe FlashPlayer Mac version xml file instead of trying to scrape the page?

1$ curl -sf http://fpdownload2.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/update/current/xml/version_en_mac_pl.xml | xmllint --format - | awk -F'"' '/<update version/{print $2}' | sed 's/,/./g'
2$ 25.0.0.171

Oh, the xml file is good to know. How's it updated though when the NPAPI and the PPAPI versions diverge (happened a couple of weeks ago)?

Hmm. That's a good question, which I don't know the answer to. As far as I can tell, that xml will always show the most current NPAPI version. I'm not sure how Adobe handles it for PPAPI though. I get the feeling that xml is only for NPAPI, and just by coincidence it often matches up with the PPAPI version, except for on occasion.

Hi Guys, the latest curl line on here didn't work for me. I added one last awk request to it:

1curl -s http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/about/ | grep -A4 "Macintosh" | grep -A2 "Safari" | sed -e 's/<[^>][^>]>//g' -e '/^ $/d' | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $1}' | tr -d "
2" | awk -F "<" '{print$1}'

As for why we don't use the xml, it's a fact that that source of version checking is not available.

We have been utilizing a script and Casper policy such as described here, to update Flash, and it has been working for 2+ years, except it broke last December 2016 and again some time around May 15, 2017.

I think what broke the script is a direct-download link to the installer is no longer available: Now the first page requires authentication with your AdobeID and is just a listing of all available installers (this is the link we are not allowed to post as per the Adobe distribution license agreement).

Anyone seeing the same in your environment? For now, I have gone back to a standard enterprise-style deployment, using the Flash PKG and a SmartGroup to determine scope.

Yep, our script stopped working too! If anybody figures out a way around this, do share! :)

Thanks,
Matt

We use this url for version checking: "http://fpdownload2.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/update/current/xml/version_en_mac_pl.xml"

curl --connect-timeout 8 --max-time 8 -sf "http://fpdownload2.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/update/current/xml/version_en_mac_pl.xml" 2>/dev/null | xmllint --format - 2>/dev/null | awk -F'"' '/<update version/{print $2}' | sed 's/,/./g'

and use this to download the latest version (where "$evalFunc" = the reported version number)

"https://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/pdc/"$evalFunc"/install_flash_player_osx.dmg"

This is still working today..

Thanks rblaas. Adapted the original script accordingly. worked when I stepped through at the command line. will try it out with users tomorrow. woot

@rblaas

This worked fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

Just in case anyone else would like a copy of the updated script, I can confirm that the following is currently working for me:

1#!/bin/sh -x
2#####################################################################################################
3#
4# ABOUT THIS PROGRAM
5#
6# NAME
7#   UpdateFlash.sh -- Installs or updates Adobe Flash Player
8#
9#
10####################################################################################################
11#
12#   Peter Loobuyck grabbed bits from the net 
13#
14####################################################################################################
15
16
17dmgfile="flash.dmg"
18volname="Flash"
19logfile="/Library/Logs/jamf.log"
20
21#
22    latestver=`/usr/bin/curl --connect-timeout 8 --max-time 8 -sf "http://fpdownload2.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/update/current/xml/version_en_mac_pl.xml" 2>/dev/null | xmllint --format - 2>/dev/null | awk -F'"' '/<update version/{print $2}' | sed 's/,/./g'`
23    # Get the version number of the currently-installed Flash Player, if any.
24    shortver=${latestver:0:2}
25    url="https://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/pdc/"$latestver"/install_flash_player_osx.dmg"
26    currentinstalledver=`/usr/bin/defaults read "/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin/Contents/version" CFBundleShortVersionString`
27    #else
28    #   currentinstalledver="none"
29    #fi
30    # Compare the two versions, if they are different of Flash is not present then download and install the new version.
31    if [ "${currentinstalledver}" != "${latestver}" ]; then
32        /bin/echo "`date`: Current Flash version: ${currentinstalledver}" >> ${logfile}
33        /bin/echo "`date`: Available Flash version: ${latestver}" >> ${logfile}
34        /bin/echo "`date`: Downloading newer version." >> ${logfile}
35        /usr/bin/curl -s -o `/usr/bin/dirname $0`/flash.dmg $url
36        /bin/echo "`date`: Mounting installer disk image." >> ${logfile}
37        /usr/bin/hdiutil attach `dirname $0`/flash.dmg -nobrowse -quiet
38        /bin/echo "`date`: Installing..." >> ${logfile}
39        /usr/sbin/installer -pkg /Volumes/Flash Player/Install Adobe Flash Player.app/Contents/Resources/Adobe Flash Player.pkg -target / > /dev/null
40        /bin/sleep 10
41        /bin/echo "`date`: Unmounting installer disk image." >> ${logfile}
42        /usr/bin/hdiutil detach $(/bin/df | /usr/bin/grep ${volname} | awk '{print $1}') -quiet
43        /bin/sleep 10
44        /bin/echo "`date`: Deleting disk image." >> ${logfile}
45        /bin/rm `/usr/bin/dirname $0`/${dmgfile}
46        newlyinstalledver=`/usr/bin/defaults read "/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin/Contents/version" CFBundleShortVersionString`
47        if [ "${latestver}" = "${newlyinstalledver}" ]; then
48            /bin/echo "`date`: SUCCESS: Flash has been updated to version ${newlyinstalledver}" >> ${logfile}
49        else
50            /bin/echo "`date`: ERROR: Flash update unsuccessful, version remains at ${currentinstalledver}." >> ${logfile}
51            /bin/echo "--" >> ${logfile}
52        fi
53    # If Flash is up to date already, just log it and exit.       
54    else
55        /bin/echo "`date`: Flash is already up to date, running ${currentinstalledver}." >> ${logfile}
56        /bin/echo "--" >> ${logfile}
57    fi

Script works great to update the NPAPI plugin. Is there a way to update the PPAPI plugin as well?

@agerson There's a good PPAPI script here: https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/23579/ppapi-version-check-update-script

Sorry to keep this going, but the latest script failed on a few of our machines because there was a space in the $0 path. The following update seems to resolve the issue...

1#!/bin/sh -x
2#####################################################################################################
3#
4# ABOUT THIS PROGRAM
5#
6# NAME
7#   UpdateFlash.sh -- Installs or updates Adobe Flash Player
8#
9#
10####################################################################################################
11#
12#   14-Dec-2017 (bkp): Updated to support $0 with spaces in path
13#   Peter Loobuyck grabbed bits from the net 
14#
15####################################################################################################
16
17
18dmgfile="flash.dmg"
19volname="Flash"
20logfile="/Library/Logs/jamf.log"
21srcPath=`/usr/bin/dirname "${0}"`
22
23#
24    latestver=`/usr/bin/curl --connect-timeout 8 --max-time 8 -sf "http://fpdownload2.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/update/current/xml/version_en_mac_pl.xml" 2>/dev/null | xmllint --format - 2>/dev/null | awk -F'"' '/<update version/{print $2}' | sed 's/,/./g'`
25    # Get the version number of the currently-installed Flash Player, if any.
26    shortver=${latestver:0:2}
27    url="https://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/pdc/"$latestver"/install_flash_player_osx.dmg"
28    currentinstalledver=`/usr/bin/defaults read "/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin/Contents/version" CFBundleShortVersionString`
29    #else
30    #   currentinstalledver="none"
31    #fi
32    # Compare the two versions, if they are different of Flash is not present then download and install the new version.
33    if [ "${currentinstalledver}" != "${latestver}" ]; then
34        /bin/echo "`date`: Current Flash version: ${currentinstalledver}" >> ${logfile}
35        /bin/echo "`date`: Available Flash version: ${latestver}" >> ${logfile}
36        /bin/echo "`date`: Downloading newer version." >> ${logfile}
37        /usr/bin/curl -s -o "${srcPath}/${dmgfile}" $url
38        /bin/echo "`date`: Mounting installer disk image." >> ${logfile}
39        /usr/bin/hdiutil attach "${srcPath}/${dmgfile}" -nobrowse -quiet
40        /bin/echo "`date`: Installing..." >> ${logfile}
41        /usr/sbin/installer -pkg /Volumes/Flash Player/Install Adobe Flash Player.app/Contents/Resources/Adobe Flash Player.pkg -target / > /dev/null
42        /bin/sleep 10
43        /bin/echo "`date`: Unmounting installer disk image." >> ${logfile}
44        /usr/bin/hdiutil detach $(/bin/df | /usr/bin/grep ${volname} | awk '{print $1}') -quiet
45        /bin/sleep 10
46        /bin/echo "`date`: Deleting disk image." >> ${logfile}
47        /bin/rm "${srcPath}/${dmgfile}"
48        newlyinstalledver=`/usr/bin/defaults read "/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin/Contents/version" CFBundleShortVersionString`
49        if [ "${latestver}" = "${newlyinstalledver}" ]; then
50            /bin/echo "`date`: SUCCESS: Flash has been updated to version ${newlyinstalledver}" >> ${logfile}
51        else
52            /bin/echo "`date`: ERROR: Flash update unsuccessful, version remains at ${currentinstalledver}." >> ${logfile}
53            /bin/echo "--" >> ${logfile}
54        fi
55    # If Flash is up to date already, just log it and exit.       
56    else
57        /bin/echo "`date`: Flash is already up to date, running ${currentinstalledver}." >> ${logfile}
58        /bin/echo "--" >> ${logfile}
59    fi

I am trying to run this script on a test computer via a policy, and according to the jamf logs (in the jamf pro web portal) the policy ran successfully, but I do not see a jamf log at /Library/Logs. Does the log file have to pre-exist, or should the log file be created automatically?

We use a similar but different script, this does seem to be working for patching flash on our Macs 79% are on the latest version.

1#!/bin/sh
2
3###################################################################
4#
5# This script will check whether the currently installed version
6# of Flash Player matches that available from Adobe's servers. If
7# the versions differ, it will download the latest version and
8# install it.
9#
10##################################################################
11
12install_flash() {
13  # Create a temporary directory in which to mount the .dmg
14  tmp_mount=`/usr/bin/mktemp -d /tmp/flashplayer.XXXX`
15
16  # Attach the install DMG directly from Adobe's servers (ensuring HTTPS)
17  hdiutil attach "$( eval echo "${DOWNLOAD_URL}" )" -nobrowse -quiet -mountpoint "${tmp_mount}"
18
19  # The package has used some slightly different naming schemes
20  pkg_path="$(/usr/bin/find ${tmp_mount} ( -iname *Flash*.pkg -o -iname *Flash*.mpkg ))"
21
22  # Install the package, logging as much as we can
23  /usr/sbin/installer -dumplog -verbose -pkg "${pkg_path}" -target "/"
24
25  # Let things settle down
26  sleep 1
27
28  # Detach the dmg and remove the temporary mountpoint
29  hdiutil detach "${tmp_mount}" && /bin/rm -rf "${tmp_mount}"
30}
31
32## URL pointing to a direct download of the Flash Player disk image
33DOWNLOAD_URL=`curl http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/webservices/json/ | python -m json.tool | grep osx.dmg | awk -F '"' '{sub(/^http:/, "https:", $4); print $4}'`
34
35ME=$(basename "${0}")
36
37installed_version="$(defaults read /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin/Contents/version CFBundleShortVersionString)"
38
39available_version="$(/usr/bin/curl --silent http://fpdownload2.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/update/current/xml/version_en_mac_pl.xml |
40                 grep 'update version' | sed -E 's/.*update version="([0-9,]+)".*/1/;s/,/./g')"
41
42# If the version installed differs at all from the available version then we want to update
43case "${installed_version}" in
44  "${available_version}")
45    echo "$ME: Flash version checked OK (${available_version})"
46    ;;
47  *) 
48    echo "$ME: Flash version differs - installed: ${installed_version} available ${available_version}"
49    install_flash
50    ;;
51esac
52
53exit 0;