Mac users may be surprised that versions of Apple’s latest operating system, Snow Leopard, also installs an older version of Adobe System’s Flash player, potentially putting them at a higher security risk.

• With Mac OS X Snow Leopard, you can adjust the local Flash storage settings to change the way the tool buffers video content. Launch your Web browser and go to the page that contains the Flash video you want to watch.
• I have Snow Leopard and have loaded Flash 11.6 only to find that attempting to play videos replies that I need to load the latest Flash player.

The “initial” release of OS X 10.6 includes an earlier Flash player version than the latest version, which is 10.0.32.18, according to an Adobe blog post on Wednesday.

Upgrading to Snow Leopard, which was released on Friday, will actually downgrade the latest Flash player to version 10.0.23.1, which is not patched against some security problems, wrote Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.

That’s problematic, as vulnerabilities in Adobe applications are frequently used by hackers in order to gain control over a PC. As operating systems have become harder to exploit, hackers have turned their attention to probing third-party applications.

Adobe’s programs are an attractive target. Millions upon millions of computers worldwide have Flash Player, as well as other products as Acrobat and Reader, used for PDF (Portable Document Format) files.

Flash Player isn’t on that schedule, however. In July alone, Adobe issued 12 patches for the Flash Player. At least 10 of the vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on a machine.

Adobe’s Flash Player is a bit different than other applications in that its “Settings Manager,” which is used to control security, privacy and other parameters, must be accessed through Adobe’s Web site.

Through the Settings Manager, users can set how frequently Flash checks for an update, such as at seven, 14, 30 or 60-day intervals. The default interval is every 30 days. Adobe also has an online tool that confirms the version of Flash a computer is running.

Apple representatives contacted in London did not have an immediate comment. The Flash player snafu comes as Apple has sought to build more protection into its OS, adding basic detection into Snow Leopard of two Trojan Horse programs called “RSPlug.a” and “Iservice”.

Spyware disguised as a Flash plugin for Firefox is making the rounds, and Snow Leopard is installing an old, unsafe version of the Adobe program.

Apple has shipped an out-of-date and vulnerable version of Adobe Flash Player with Snow Leopard, security companies have warned.

On Monday, Intego, an Austin, Texas firm that specializes in Mac security software, noted that Snow Leopard installs Flash Player 10.0.23.1. The current version of Flash Player for the Mac, however, is actually 10.0.32.18. “It seems that Apple is shipping an outdated, even dangerous version of Flash Player,” Intego spokesman Peter James said on a company blog .

On Wednesday, U.K. antivirus vendor Sophos echoed Intego. “Imagine you have been really diligent about keeping your copy of Adobe Flash up-to-date,” said Graham Cluley, a senior technical consultant, in a Sophos blog . “Now, imagine you got your copy of Snow Leopard on Friday, and have now updated your computers. Unfortunately, during the course of that update, and unknown to you, Apple downgraded your installation of Flash to an earlier version, which is known not to be secure and is not patched against various security vulnerabilities.”

Computerworld confirmed that Snow Leopard installs Flash Player 10.0.23.1 on Macs that had previously been running Leopard and Flash Player 10.0.32.18.

Adobe updated Flash Player to 10.0.32.18 in late July to plug a dozen vulnerabilities, including three inherited from flawed Microsoft development code and one that hackers had been exploiting for at least a week. Prior to that, Adobe last updated Flash Player in February, when it rolled out 10.0.22.87.

The version of Flash included with Snow Leopard, 10.0.23.1, appears to be an interim build between the February and July updates. Reports as early as mid-June had pegged that version as the one that would be bundled with Snow Leopard.

It’s not unusual for operating systems to include outdated third-party software, since developers must lock down the code at some point, making it impossible to include relatively recent updates.

It’s unknown when Apple will ship the first security update for Snow Leopard. In 2007, Apple updated Leopard about three weeks after it released that operating system.

Cluley advised Snow Leopard users to manually trigger a Flash Player update to stay secure. Users can determine the current version of Flash Player by heading to this page on Adobe’s site, then upgrade to 10.0.32.18 by downloading it from here .

“This should be done as a matter of priority,” Cluley said. “Adobe is the ‘new Microsoft’ when it comes to security vulnerabilities, with hackers targeting their software looking for vulnerabilities to exploit. Mac users who have been diligent enough to keep their security up-to-date do not deserve to be silently downgraded.”

Flash Player Snow Leopard Download

Apple isn’t the only operating system maker that’s been caught fobbing off outdated Flash software. In June 2008, Microsoft shipped an out-of-date , vulnerable version of Flash with Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), that venerable operating system’s last major upgrade.

Flash Player Para Snow Leopard

Apple did not reply to questions about when Snow Leopard was locked down, or when it will update the operating system to provide the latest version of Flash Player.