Shockwave Flash has crashed issue in Chrome.

[WonderVM]

I have an issue with my vCenter Web Client (6.0 u3) since yesterday.

I get the log in screen no issue but when I log in I get an error saying that Shockwave Flash has crashed and it says "RELOAD" but that doesnt do anything.

It was fine all along.

I tried 3 different machines and the response in Chrome is all the same.

In IE 11 I get this message.

Content was blocked because it was not signed by a valid security certificate.

For more information, see “About Certificate Errors” in Internet Explorer Help.

Its OK in Firefox strangely enough.

Anyone any ideas whats going wrong.

[daphnissov]

Many people are reporting the same issue with Chrome. I myself have noticed it in two different vCenters on two different setups. It appears to be an incremental Chrome update causing it.

[hostasaurus]

Same issue here; Chrome on MacOS can no longer access our vCenter 6.5 appliance.

[vijayrana968]

Same for me, Switch to Firefox, Internet Explorer, Edge, Safari or something else until this is fixed. Use Firefox (Not latest version)

Latest vCenter and Latest Chrome = No Love

[selinacui]

Which version of firefox can work? I tried 56, 55 and 52 esr,  got flash crash error in all these versions.

[mowgus]

Same issue on 6.5, latest build.  I'm trying to deploy an OVF template and can't through IE because it has a 4 GB upload limit.  Thanks again VMware for removing the C# client...

[javier_dp]

I'm on the Flash plugin crash boat as well.

Shame on you VMware for removing thick client support. I used to have a Windows VM with the C# client for this times flash decided not to work properly.

Shame on you for using a slow, cumbersome flash based client, in late 2017.

Shame on you for forcing odd, weird translations without letting users switch to the default english language UI they have been working with for a decade.

Shame on you for required administrator access just to check if overnight vdp backups went well.

Shame on you for not even having a search box to add a single VM to a backup job (when you have thousands of vms to pick from) or to remove a single VM from a backup job.

You are slowly drowning in a world of companies that listen to their customers.

[wsanders11]

I was told six months ago they were on the verge of delivering a flash-free version that had complete functionality, unlike the lobotomized HTML version currently in 6.5.0.1. Guess not. Now I'm starting to get concerned.

[OriginFR]

Hi all,

Same here...

But it seems more "flash related" than Chrome : I just installed a fresh Firefox and a fresh Flash player ... and the web client still crashing !!!

Cedric

[AaronHowe]

Having the same issue here. It appears that its a new security measure in the browser that stops an HTTPS website serving content using and HTTP connection in the background. If you press F12 when you get the error that's essentially the error you get from the browser.

If that is the case its likely vmware will need to update the way their page works to conform to the new security measure which I believe is being implemented by most browsers eventually.

[ConstantinGhioc]

There is a workaround for Chrome published by William Lam:

http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2017/10/shockwave-flash-has-crashed-workaround-for-vsphere-web-flash-client.html

It involves replacing the Flash version from Chrome with an older one (provided you still find one).

[OriginFR]

Big thanks to William (I just posted a French post on my blog too), the manipulation he describes works like a charm !

Just a precision, keep in mind that the Flash Reader is "architecture" dependant, so you have to get an older version compatible with your windows distro, x86 or amd64.

Cédric

[ConstantinGhioc]

Adobe released a security bulletin regarding previous Flash versions:

Adobe Security Bulletin

Firefox has also released a new version (with the new Flash plugin and same problems in loading vSphere Web Client).

[dennisluvm]

a KB article has been published/updated with some workaround steps (similar to William Lam's post).  We are continuing to investigate as well

Shockwave Flash crashes with vSphere Web Client 6.5 (2151945) | VMware KB

Pasting the workaround steps here for easy reference (but these may go stale as the KB is updated)

-------------------------

Caution: This has not been verified by Adobe. fp_27.0.0.159 is not the latest version,  the latest Flash version is 27.0.0.170.

All versions previous to 27.0.0.170 are impacted with the vulnerability CVE-2017-11292. See, https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb17-32.html.

Workaround for FireFox:

1. Click Start > run, type appwiz.cpl and click Run.
2. Uninstall Adobe Flash Player 27 NPAPI Version 27.0.0.170.
3. Download https://fpdownload.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/installers/archive/fp_27.0.0.159_archive.zip.
4. Extract the fp_27.0.0.159_archive.zip\27_0_r0_159\flashplayer27_0r0_159_win.msi.
5. Close FireFox.
6. Run the extracted flashplayer27_0r0_159_win.msi.
7. Click Start > run, type services.msc and click Run.
8. Disable Adobe Flash Player Update Service.
9. Open the vSphere Web Client in FireFox.

Workaround for Chrome:

1. Download pepflashplayer.7z available at https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/attachment?aid=307292.
2. Extract the pepflashplayer.dll to the Desktop.
3. Open C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\UserData\PepperFlash\27.0.0.170\ in File Explorer.
4. Rename pepflashplayer.dll to pepflashplayer.old.
5. Copy the pepflashplayer.dll extracted earlier from the desktop to‘C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\UserData\PepperFlash\27.0.0.170\.
6. Open the vSphere Web Client in Chrome.

[CloudAssociates]

Whats the workaround for Mac and Firefox?

I resorted to uninstalling Flash and installing the older version.

Here is Adobe's standpoint on the current issue

Shockwave Flash has crashed - 27.0.0.170 | Adobe Community

[wsanders11]

I can confirm that reverting to the previous version of Shockwave works with Firefox 56 on MacOS SIerra.

- Uninstall all the Adobe crap from your system (you should have an uninstaller app)

- Download 27_0_r0_159 from the link above

- During install be sure to check the option that does not allow Adobe to  autoupdate your Adobe crap

- Adobe says “All versions previous to 27.0.0.170 is impacted with the vulnerability CVE-2017-11292," so be careful.

[bbiandov]

All fixed in Adobe Flash Player - Version: 27.0.0.183

[Bleeder]

Yes, fixed.. until a future release breaks it again.

[virtualnobody]

Not fixed here, using latest Chrome (32-bit) and Pepperflash 27.0.0.183. It is not chrashing but shows "To view this page ensure that Adobe Flash Player version 11.5.0 or greater is installed." and a download button (Adobe).

Edit: Just click the download button and it starts the Web Client, sorry, my fault.

[vijayrana968]

Yeah, this is showing in upper left corner to download but when you click on it, web client is loading successfully.

[bbiandov]

vijayrana968​ that's another story; add the FQDN for vCenter in Chrome: chrome://settings/content/flash as "allowed"