South African Tax Agency releases its own browser just to 'reactivate Adobe Flash'

by valentin.d

Development and distribution of Adobe Flash Player ended on December 31, 2020, and Adobe Flash is no longer supported by web browsers such as Chrome and Firefox. However, South Africa's National Tax Agency is reported to have released its own web browser, the SARS Browser, just to re-enable support for this Flash.

SARS is making changes following Adobe Flash issues
https://businesstech.co.za/news/finance/461902/sars-is-making-changes-following-adobe-flash-issues/

South African government releases its own browser just to re-enable Flash support | ZDNet
https://www.zdnet.com/article/south-african-government-releases-its-own-browser-just-to-re-enable-flash-support/

It was discovered in 2015 that Flash Player is vulnerable to a zero-day PC hijacking . As the media standard on the web was migrating from Flash to HTML5, Flash was excluded from major browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Flash Player will be distributed and updated on December 31, 2020. It has officially ended.

Adobe ends distribution and update of Flash Player on December 31, 2020, blocks Flash content execution after the deadline --GIGAZINE

The South African Tax Agency (SARS) used Flash as a system for performing various procedures online, but despite the fact that it had been three and a half years since the end of support was announced, the system was released. I wasn't working on porting to HTML5 or JavaScript. As a result, it is no longer possible to carry out various procedures, including tax returns, from the Internet.

SARS is aware of certain forms not loading correctly due to Adobe Flash. We are currently working on resolving the matter and will advise once the problem has been resolved. We sincerely apologise for the current in convenience.

— SA Revenue Service (@sarstax) January 12, 2021

To overcome the situation of 'cannot process taxes online', SARS has released the Chromium browser ' SARS Browser ' that re-enables Flash support and allows access only to the SARS site. ..

'Migrating from Adobe Flash to HTML5 requires a large number of forms, and the migration process itself is very complex, requiring the development, testing, and deployment of new forms,' the system said. It is clear that it was decided that releasing the browser would be a lower cost solution than porting.

Chris Peterson, a software engineer at Mozilla, predicts that the SARS Browser is locked to connect only to the SARS site, which will result in lower security risks and lower web browser maintenance costs.

To be fair, this SARS “browser” is locked to a single site controlled by SARS so the security risks (and application maintenance costs) are probably low.

— Chris Peterson (@cpeterso) January 25, 2021

This is not the first time that the system has become abnormal due to the end of support for Flash. China's railways were forced to stop operating because the system for viewing the operation status could not be seen due to the end of support for Flash. This case is resolved by installing an older version of Flash Player released in 2018.

How did the Chinese railway stop operating due to the end of Flash and how did it recover? --GIGAZINE