Adobe AIR Support with Patch Management Solution

Products

Patch Management Solution

Issue/Introduction

Adobe has transitioned "ongoing platform support and feature development of ADOBE AIR to HARMAN":

Adobe will provide basic security support – limited to security fixes only for desktop platforms (Windows 7 and above, and Mac OS X) – for Adobe AIR v32 until the end of 2020. After that time, Adobe support for AIR will be discontinued and ongoing support will be managed by HARMAN and communicated by them directly. However, beginning with the release of AIR v33 by HARMAN, developers should contact HARMAN directly for AIR support on both mobile and desktop platforms – including bug fixes, platform compatibility, and new and improved functionality.

https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2019/05/30/the-future-of-adobe-air.html#gs.3kbz71

Similar statement has been provided for Adobe Flash Player:

Adobe Flash Player reached its end of life on December 31, 2020. At this point companies should be removing the historically highly targeted application from their environments if you have not already done so. If you need to continue running Flash for any specific reason it should be specific exceptions in controlled circumstances. Also, Adobe has worked with Harman to transition extended support for enterprise customers. You should reach out to Harman for additional services or coverage past the end of life date. For details see the Flash Player Enterprise End-of-Life page: https://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/enterprise-end-of-life.html

Currently Patch Management Solution does not offer HARMAN as a vendor; hence, a customer cannot patch through Patch Management Solution the endpoints that need an update after Adobe AIR 31.

Environment

ITMS 8.5, 8.6

Resolution

At this point Patch Management Solution doesn't have Harman as one of the provided vendors.

Regarding Adobe AIR (Runtime vs. SDK versions of it):

"Current patches for Adobe AIR after the transition to Harman as a new vendor associated to this product are not provided, just Adobe AIR Runtime is planned right now to be included when Harman is added.

No specific ETA for Adobe AIR Runtime at the moment, this is in the backlog right now."

In the meantime, you could use Software Delivery to deliver the files to a managed computer. This is the best guidance that we can provide without going to customization realm:

Workaround. Create a Software Package by Importing the desired files as a new Software Package; then create a Managed Software Policy to deploy the Software Package, and finally create a Target of vulnerable systems.

Steps to complete the Workaround:

Download the desired files from the vendor Site.
Copy the file over to the SMP server
Use the Import Method to create a new Software Package
1. See Page 39 of KB 175693 (Software Management Best Practices) for additional information and instructions
Create a Managed Software Delivery Policy to deploy the package to targeted systems.
1. See Page 77 of KB 175693 for additional instructions
Create a Target of systems to deploy
1. Pages 78 and 71 of KB 175693