What is with all the Flash updates?

Question

Is Flash so buggy it needs to be patched every couple of weeks? Every time I boot my system (about once every week or so) there seems to be a Flash update needed!

Answer 1

Flash Player isn't your typical piece of software.  There are very few programs on your computer that process inherently untrusted content.  It's basically Flash Player and your web browser.  They run code that other people write, and due to the nature of the web, run code that may be constructed by a malicious attacker.
Like the major browsers, Flash Player in on a pretty fast, regular update cadence.  This ensures that new security work and functional fixes get to you quickly, and that when a vulnerability is discovered in the wild, that it's fixed and patched in the shortest possible amount of time.  Most current browsers are on a 6-week major release cycle, and Internet Explorer is on a 4-week cycle for alignment with Microsoft Patch Tuesday.  Because we ship everywhere in tandem, we're also aligned with the fastest player, which in this case is Microsoft.
Adobe works with industry, academic and government intelligence and research to proactively identify potential vulnerabilities and harden the player based on emerging research and intelligence.  Both Flash Player and JavaScript are powered by purpose-built virtual machines and just-in-time compilers.  There's a tremendous amount of investment being made on offensive research in this area, and Adobe works closely with the small cadre of experts in the industry (Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, etc) to both share intelligence and deploy emerging best practices to the extent possible.  They're very complex and challenging computer science problems.  Flash Player source is regularly reviewed and audited by the best researchers in the field, and we're continually finding new ways to harden the player against new attacks while balancing performance and real-world requirements.
So, you get a monthly Flash Player update which includes functional patches and security changes, and in the event that we or our extensive network of industry partners discovers something being abused in the field, we'll release additional out-of-cycle patches to address those issues quickly and responsibly.
If you don't want to deal with Flash Player updates, there are a couple options available to you:
1.) Enable Automatic Updates - Go to Control Panel > Flash Player > Advanced > Allow Adobe to install updatesYou'll still get a quarterly update that requires manual installation, but all of the intermediate updates, including any emergency patches will get downloaded and applied automatically
2.) Use Google Chrome (on any platform) or Internet Explorer on Win8+
Both browsers include Flash Player as a built-in component of the browser, and Flash updates are distributed automatically through the browser's update system (or Windows Update, respectively)
There's nothing separate that you ever need to download or manage.  It's just handled by the browser's pipeline.