Adobe Asks Users to Pay Up for Critical Photoshop Security Updates–Shameful!

Several of Adobe's most popular software have been found to have multiple security vulnerabilities, including Shockwave Player, Adobe Flash Professional, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Adobe has since released some patches for these, but the kicker is that they're charging users for them.

With the exception of the Flash Player, which is available for free, the price to get the security upgrade for Adobe Flash Professional is $99, while it's set at $199 for Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 and $249 for Adobe Illustrator CS5.5.

Adobe has come under fire for forcing users to pay up in order to get these critical upgrades. However, they defended their decision by saying that Photoshop and Illustrator weren't actual targets of cybercriminals, so users were only advised to install the updates at their discretion.

The thing is, Adobe has published security bulletins detailing these aforementioned vulnerabilities, so I don't think these security holes are as under the radar as they think anymore.

• APSB12-13: A critical Adobe Shockwave Player update, which addresses five vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to run malicious code on any affected systems.
• APSB12-12: A critical security upgrade for Adobe Flash Professional CS5.5, which addresses a vulnerability that could give an attacker complete control of the affected system.
• APSB12-11, APSB12-10: Both are critical security upgrades for Adobe Photoshop CS5.5, which take care of vulnerabilities that could let an attacker take control of the affected system.

Article by Hazel Chua
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