Hacker News is a community-driven platform for sharing and discussing technology news, startups, and programming-related topics. Through user submissions and comments, Hacker News offers insights into emerging technology trends, industry developments, and entrepreneurial ventures. Readers can participate in discussions, share their insights, and stay informed about the latest advancements in technology and innovation.

Hacker News

Adobe Creative Cloud silently modifies the system hosts file on Windows and macOS to detect whether Creative Cloud is installed when users visit adobe.com. The technique works by injecting a DNS entry so that a JavaScript-loaded image request succeeds only if the entry is present, revealing the installation status to Adobe's servers. This was introduced as a workaround after Chrome began blocking Local Network Access, which broke Adobe's previous method of pinging localhost ports. The discovery has sparked outrage over software vendors making unauthorized system-level modifications, with comparisons drawn to the Sony/BMG rootkit scandal.

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