Adobe's No Solution to bad software

Earlier this week, users of Adobe products, including Photoshop CS5 and earlier, were being warned about serious security issues.

In the case of the Windows and Mac versions of Adobe Photoshop, a vulnerability exists in version CS5 and earlier that could be exploited by a malicious attacker who tricks you into opening a boobytrapped .TIF file in order to take control of your computer.

That's a very serious problem. So, you would imagine that users would be rushing to download the security patch. Right?

Wrong.

Because the only fix that Adobe is making available is for users to upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Photoshop CS6. And that's going to cost users $199 or more. (If you aren't eligible for the upgrade, it will cost $600).

Ouch.

Update: Some good news. Adobe has clearly been influenced by the angry response from its users, and has now said that it will release a patch for Adobe Illustrator CS5.x, Adobe Photoshop CS5.x (12.x) and Adobe Flash Professional CS5.x. The security patches are not available yet, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for when they are available.

You can find more details on Adobe's blog.

This is clearly preferable to Adobe customers' only option being to pay hundreds of dollars to fix their software.