Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe Creative Cloud is Adobe’s desktop app for installing and updating its creative apps, adding fonts and managing files. It’s made by Adobe, based in the United States.
Criminals have used its name in fake downloads or scams, so get it only from adobe.com.
What it is
People use Creative Cloud to install and update Adobe apps, add fonts, find plugins and manage cloud documents and shared libraries.
It can display files in local folders you select and upload selected files to cloud storage. Adobe also uses background processes for updates, file syncing and notifications.
It is Adobe’s official manager for its creative software. Its background activity supports those services. Adobe recommends Full Disk Access for certain plugin installation errors; that is a troubleshooting step.
Who makes it
Adobe is a software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California. Its legal name is Adobe Inc.. Its website is adobe.com.
Adobe makes other software with flaws that attackers have used. Its page in Companies lists them.
Is it the real one?
Every Mac app carries a signature from the developer who made it. Apple checks who the developer is before handing out the certificate, and macOS refuses to open an app whose signature has been tampered with.
HARD hasn’t yet recorded the signature on a real copy of Adobe Creative Cloud. Its Mac app shows who signed the copy you have.
Its bundle ID, the name macOS knows it by, is com.adobe.acc.AdobeCreativeCloud or com.adobe.Creative-Cloud-Desktop-App. Download it only from adobe.com, not from an ad or a link someone sends you.
Fakes. In February 2018, attackers hosted Mac cryptomining malware on Adobe’s public Creative Cloud servers and delivered it through altered MacUpdate download links.
What it connects to
In normal use, Adobe Creative Cloud talks to these places on the internet. A firewall that asks before apps connect, like the one in HARD’s Mac app, will show them.
| Address | Why |
|---|---|
ims-na1.adobelogin.com | Adobe account sign-in. |
lm.licenses.adobe.com | Software licensing and activation. |
ccmdls.adobe.com | App installation downloads. |
ffc-static-cdn.oobesaas.adobe.com | App configuration and update information. |
fonts.adobe.com | Adobe Fonts. |
cc-api-storage.adobe.io | Creative Cloud file storage. |
What it can see
macOS asks you before an app can use these. You can change them any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security.
| Permission | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| Full Disk Access | Adobe recommends this for Creative Cloud and Adobe Desktop Service when certain plugin installations fail on macOS Sonoma. |
| Microphone | Adobe says specific features may use it, but its permission guide does not name those features. |
Security record
Problems with Adobe Creative Cloud or Adobe in the last three years, newest first. Keeping the app up to date covers the ones that were fixed.
| When | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Adobe fixed a Windows-only flaw that could let an attacker gain greater system privileges. | ↗ | |
| Adobe fixed critical Windows-only flaws that could let an attacker run code with the current user’s permissions. | ↗ | |
| Adobe fixed a macOS flaw that could make the app unavailable, with version 6.8.0.821 listed as the corrected release. | ↗ | |
| Adobe fixed a macOS flaw that could allow unauthorised file writes, with version 6.8.0.821 listed as the corrected release. | ↗ | |
| Adobe fixed a critical Windows-only flaw that could let an attacker run code with the current user’s permissions. | ↗ |
References
- Homebrew Creative Cloud package definition raw.githubusercontent.com
- Adobe Community: macOS bundle identifiers for Creative Cloud Desktop community.adobe.com
- Adobe annual report: company background sec.gov
- Adobe office locations adobe.com
- Adobe Creative Cloud desktop app features helpx.adobe.com
- Manage local storage in Creative Cloud desktop app helpx.adobe.com
- Download and install Creative Cloud desktop app helpx.adobe.com
- Troubleshooting cloud documents: Creative Cloud automatic updates helpx.adobe.com
- Creative Cloud desktop app release notes helpx.adobe.com
- Network endpoints for Adobe apps and services helpx.adobe.com
- External plugin installation failures and Full Disk Access helpx.adobe.com
- Manage microphone permission for Creative Cloud desktop app helpx.adobe.com
- Objective-See: Mac malware of 2018, including CreativeUpdate objective-see.org
- Adobe security bulletin APSB26-135 adobe.com
- Adobe security bulletin APSB26-77 adobe.com
- Adobe security bulletin APSB25-120 helpx.adobe.com
- Adobe security bulletin APSB25-95 helpx.adobe.com
- Adobe security bulletin APSB24-44 helpx.adobe.com