Adobe wrote to my hosts file. I've never had an app do this before(old.reddit.com)
51 pointsby speckx5 hours ago6 comments
  • jt21903 hours ago
    Redditor thenickdude commented:

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

    > They're using this to detect if you have Creative Cloud already installed when you visit on their website.

    > When you visit https://www.adobe.com/home, they load this image using JavaScript: https://detect-ccd.creativecloud.adobe.com/cc.png

    > If the DNS entry in your hosts file is present, your browser will therefore connect to their server, so they know you have Creative Cloud installed, otherwise the load fails, which they detect.

    > They used to just hit http://localhost:<various ports>/cc.png which connected to your Creative Cloud app directly, but then Chrome started blocking Local Network Access, so they had to do this hosts file hack instead.

    • michaelbuckbee34 minutes ago
      The underlying intent here (figure out if it's an existing customer of our locally installed apps when they visit our website) doesn't seem bad, but I certainly dislike both the hosts file and localhost detection options.

      I'm curious if there's a "good" way to do this.

      • ssdspoimdsjvv9 minutes ago
        I dislike the intent too. A website should simply not be able to see which apps I've got installed. Imagine Facebook doing stuff like this in order to know what ads they should serve.
    • tdeck3 hours ago
      This is clever in a way, but I wonder what the review process looks like on that team (I say that team because my experience at Adobe was that the company is very heterogeneous).
      • dagmx39 minutes ago
        They’re still completely heterogeneous in my experience as someone who works with each of their teams. It’s like talking to completely different companies who have little idea what the others are doing.
  • 107292873 hours ago
    The same Adobe that is squatting my /documents folder on my Mac ?
  • curt154 hours ago
    How is Adobe modifying a system file at all? Does Adobe run a background process with root privileges?
    • BoredPositron3 hours ago
      AGMServices it's optional but gets shoe horned at install time.
  • aisignaldev5 hours ago
    This is the kind of thing that erodes trust slowly. Most users will never notice, and that's exactly the point. Would be interesting to know if this is documented anywhere in Adobe's ToS or if it's purely undisclosed behavior.
  • scottburgess33a minute ago
    [dead]