A Computerworld Windows 7 system, however, was not silently updated to 11.2.202.235, the patched version, within an hour of booting the PC, the interval the tool uses to check for new updates. Adobe was unable to explain the problem, other than to suggest an initial failure by those browsers to connect to its servers. In that case, the silent updater is designed to stop pinging Adobe for 24 hours before resuming.

The current stable version of Chrome -- Google's browser is the only one that includes the Adobe software in its updates -- reports running the patched 11.2.202.235 edition of Flash Player. Google shipped that version of Chrome, 18.0.1025.168, on Monday, April 30, giving it a four-day jump on Adobe's plug-in patching.

It was Chrome's largest-ever lead: previously, to Flash Player patching by hours, or at most a day.

Adobe today again explained Chrome's faster Flash patching by noting that it hands Flash updates to Google as "soon as we updated the code," but needs more time on its part to test fixes on scores of operating system and browser combinations before it's confident enough to ship the update to all users.

Microsoft's vulnerability research group reported the Flash vulnerability to Adobe.