<![CDATA[Adobe secretly modifies your hosts file for the stupidest reason]]>Adobe secretly modifies your hosts file for the stupidest reason

If you're using Windows or macOS and have Adobe Creative Cloud installed, you may want to take a peek at your hosts file. It turns out Adobe adds a bunch of entries into the hosts file, for a very stupid reason.

I found that in my hosts file the other day too, and I investigated to find why they're doing

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Adobe secretly modifies your hosts file for the stupidest reason – OSnews

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]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/c9b75c5a-d6f0-4257-8ee6-091d7e589294/adobe-secretly-modifies-your-hosts-file-for-the-stupidest-reasonRSS for NodeThu, 30 Apr 2026 22:35:15 GMTSun, 05 Apr 2026 13:59:08 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Adobe secretly modifies your hosts file for the stupidest reason on Tue, 07 Apr 2026 03:13:36 GMT]]>@osnews Why and how does Adobe have access to change protected files?

It shouldn't have access to /etc/hosts or the raw disk

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lufthans/statuses/116361240010168975https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lufthans/statuses/116361240010168975Tue, 07 Apr 2026 03:13:36 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Adobe secretly modifies your hosts file for the stupidest reason on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 10:20:24 GMT]]>It's to detect whether you have it installed already.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/aeveltstra/statuses/116357255925916608https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/aeveltstra/statuses/116357255925916608Mon, 06 Apr 2026 10:20:24 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Adobe secretly modifies your hosts file for the stupidest reason on Mon, 06 Apr 2026 10:11:49 GMT]]>@osnews well they used to use the first sectors on disk, overwriting GRUB, so I guess that's a progress?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://m.g3l.org/users/mmu_man/statuses/116357222175621028https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://m.g3l.org/users/mmu_man/statuses/116357222175621028Mon, 06 Apr 2026 10:11:49 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Adobe secretly modifies your hosts file for the stupidest reason on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 16:19:43 GMT]]>@osnews »adds another 127.0.0.1 entry in /etc/hosts«

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://tiggi.es/users/isocat/statuses/116353006528663588https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://tiggi.es/users/isocat/statuses/116353006528663588Sun, 05 Apr 2026 16:19:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Adobe secretly modifies your hosts file for the stupidest reason on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 16:11:37 GMT]]>@osnews@mstdn.social Saying that they use this to detect if you already have CC is a bit diminishing of what they can actually use this for. Any system can use this. It can be their site, marketing emails, ads... or even third party softwares like malware attempting to remotely detect the presence of CC on your machine. I wouldn't be surprised if this was also usable by the Adobe fonts loader for sites using those.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://transfem.social/notes/akpiwmpgu7bf001ahttps://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://transfem.social/notes/akpiwmpgu7bf001aSun, 05 Apr 2026 16:11:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Adobe secretly modifies your hosts file for the stupidest reason on Sun, 05 Apr 2026 16:04:47 GMT]]>@osnews sounds like malware to me, beaconing back to a C2 server.

Now the flip side, what happens if I insert that line into my host file or maybe an employers computer host file? Do they try to use it to say hey you aren't paying for creative cloud? Or can I then access features I shouldn't?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/nowayeast/statuses/116352947785547099https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/nowayeast/statuses/116352947785547099Sun, 05 Apr 2026 16:04:47 GMT