Until a few days ago, Adobe had decided not to fix one of its security vulnerabilities. Instead, it tried pushing the next release of its Creative Studio, CS6 as a solution to a critical security issue. This was wrong on multiple levels and was downright unacceptable. The intellectuals and Adobe received thumbs down for this decision. Finally seeing the wrong it has done, now Adobe has decided to retract its decision, and has announced that it is releasing a security fix for the CS5 after all.

Adobe is notorious for having security vulnerability in its products. For a company that is known for having poor security and releasing numerous fixes every few days, Adobe should take extra care when handling matters like these. Now that Adobe has come out in support of a security fix, it is being given the benefit of doubt by The Verge.

The confusion seemingly came from the original wording of the Adobe product security bulletin, which stated, “Adobe Photoshop CS6 addresses these vulnerabilities” without mentioning that a security patch for older versions was being worked on.

However, the security fix is not a complete one. Adobe is supposed to support all versions of its Creative Suite. However, the fix is appearing only on the CS5 for now. This means, CS4, which is also a supported version still remains vulnerable. This lax attitude from Adobe in time when hacks are the order of the day is appalling.

Adobe has posted a security bulletin for Adobe Photoshop recently, where it addressed a security vulnerability regarding TFF files. The vulnerability allows arbitrary code execution resulting in a system wide control for a cracker. This vulnerability affects all versions of Photoshop prior to and including CS5, on both Windows and Mac.

The vulnerability is specified on Symantec’s Security Focus as:

Adobe Photoshop is prone to a use-after-free memory-corruption vulnerability.
Attackers may exploit this issue to execute arbitrary code in the context of the user running the affected application.
Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 (version 12.1) is vulnerable; other versions may also be affected.

The only solution, which in reality is a non-solution, is to update to Adobe Photoshop CS6 and just in case you were wondering, no, it will not come for free if you already have CS5. With this shoddy decision, Adobe is creating a new trend in the world of security fixes, where a later paid version can be called as a fix for an existing vulnerability in an earlier version. In a way, it will force users to upgrade and while they are at it, Adobe will earn some free cash out of its own fault.

Adobe has released Adobe Photoshop CS6, which addresses these vulnerabilities. For users who cannot upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS6, Adobe recommends users follow security best practices and exercise caution when opening files from unknown or untrusted sources.

Whenever we install software, we agree to an EULA. The same EULA statement has liability provisions as well, and now that Adobe is (probably) psych testing its users for this new liability based business model, someone might just go ahead and file a class action lawsuit in the coming days.

If you want to see this vulnerability in action, proof-of-concept apps are available at this page.

(Via: Slashdot)

Adobe has released the beta version of the most eagerly awaited photo editing tool - Photoshop CS6. The preview version of the upcoming PS CS6 is now available for free download on the official Adobe Labs site. The final version will go on sale later this year for $700 for new users and $200 upgrade fee for existing users.

The beta version of Photoshop CS6 unveils a fully redesigned user interface and sports several new features and fun tools including the iris blur and title shift. Adobe says that the new Photoshop CS6 sports over 60 percent new features than the CS5 including 65 user-requested features such as a Paste Lorem Ipsum option to fill up text blocks.

The most striking feature in the Photoshop CS6 is the improved Content-Aware tool. With the new content-aware tool, you can seamlessly move or remove objects from an image. The new feature includes a whole lot of improvements to the CS5 Content-Aware technology.

Bryan O’Neil Hughes, Senior Project Manager of Photoshop, tells Wired that Adobe’s focus in this release has been on making Photoshop more productive – “We’ve been fine-tuning workflows,” Hughes says, “not just adding, adding, adding. There’s a lot of working with what we’ve got and making sure it works as best it can.”

Here are some of the features (full list) available in the Adobe Photoshop CS6 -

Brushes

• HUD brush resize and hardness can now change opacity
• Increase brush size to 5000px
• Change color dynamics to per stroke instead of per tip (user option for old behavior)
• Brightness/contrast slider for textures when painting
• Brush projection for static tips
• Brush cursor reflects brush dynamics for round and captured tips

File formats

• Read common stereo image pair formats (JPS, PNS) Allow for more bit depths in TIFF files
• Read BIGTIFF format
• Give the user choices regarding how they want transparency treated in OpenEXR on file open

Layers

• Add a contextual menu item that deletes a layer effect not just disables it
• Add dither options to Layer Styles for Gradient Overlay and Gradient Stroke
• Allow 00 or Shift 00 to work when setting layer/fill opacity (previously no way to get 0%)
• Add bicubic sharper & bicubic smoother options when free transforming layers
• Allow changing of blend modes for multiple layers at once
• Multiple layers locking and allows changing color labels to multiple layers at once
• Layer tooltips to include layer name (if defined)
• Show blend if/Blending Effects badge on layer
• Tab goes to next layer on inline layer rename, SHIFT + TAB goes to previous
• New command to raster layer effect into layer, merging the selected layers into themselves
• Reorder effects in the layers palette to match the Z-­­order style/blend mode (bottom most effects in terms of blending order, drop shadow is below the other effects

SDK

• Add the ability to return an array of guides in a document from the scripting SDK
• Add ability to access tool name associated with the tool preset name via scripting
• Selections
• Make the marquee, lasso, and mask panel feather values support decimal places like the feather dialog
• Remember feather radius when showing dialog for selection from a path

Download Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Free

The Photoshop CS6 beta is available to free download for both PCs and MACs, and you will not require a serial number to install the product. All you need to do is select the “Try. I want to try Adobe Photoshop CS6 for a limited time” option in the welcome screen when you start the installation process.

• Direct Link - Download Photoshop CS6 beta for Mac (DMG, 984 MB)
• Direct Link - Download Photoshop CS6 beta for Windows (ZIP, 1.7 GB)

The download is around 1GB in size and comes with all the features in the Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CS6 Extended. The (minimum) required system configuration for PC is 2GHz or faster processor with 1GB of RAM, and a multicore Intel processor also with 1GB of RAM for Mac.

Adobe has released an update to its Adobe Flash and Shockwave Player, as there were critical vulnerabilities found in both the products. The vulnerabilities were found by two Google’s security team members and reported the same to the Adobe.

According to the advisory from Adobe, Google’s Tavis Ormandy and Fermin J. Serna found the integer error and a memory corruption vulnerability, which could have been used by hackers to take advantage of it and completely control the computers that are affected by it.

Adobe has rated these vulnerabilities as “critical,” and has fixed the bugs with an update for Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris OS users. The update comes with the priority rating 2, and urges users to apply the update within the next 30 days.  According to the definition of “Priority 2″ given by Adobe, the update completely resolves the issues that caused the product to pose significant risk, and currently there no known exploits.

The two vulnerabilities found are -

CVE-2012-0768 is a memory corruption vulnerability that could lead to remote code execution by exploiting a flaw in Matrix3D.

CVE-2012-0769 is an information disclosure vulnerability as a result of integer errors in Flash Player.

Vulnerabilities are rated “critical” when the product poses a risk to the user’s computer, and if it is exploited, it would allow hackers to run malicious native-code to execute on the user’s system without the users being aware of.

The vulnerability is addressed to Adobe Player 11.1.102.62 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris, Adobe Flash Player 11.1.115.6 and earlier versions for Android 4.x, and Adobe Flash Player 11.1.111.6 and earlier versions for Android 3.x and 2.x.

Adobe recommends users of Flash Player 11.1.102.62 and earlier versions to update to Flash Player 11.1.102.63, and users of Flash Player 11.1.115.6 and earlier versions on Android 4.x, should update to Flash Player 11.1.115.7. Android 3.x users are asked to update the Flash Player on their device to Flash Player 11.1.111.7.

Windows users can check the current version of the Adobe Flash Player installed on their system by right-clicking on any Flash content. The version details will be displayed at the bottom of the menu. Android users on the other hand can go to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Adobe Flash Player x.x to check the current running version.

Download the latest Adobe Flash Player 11.1.102.63 from here. Android users can download the latest version from the Android Marketplace from here.

Adobe has officially launched Adobe Photoshop Touch for iPad 2, which was pulled yesterday since it was scheduled for a Monday, February 27th launch. Last October, Adobe had first announced the product, alongside 5 other upcoming tablet applications. This app is the flagship app from the company.

The app is described as a tool to “let you quickly combine images, apply professional effects, share the results with friends and family through social networking sites like Facebook, and more”. Adobe Photoshop Touch for iPad 2 is available for $9.99 in the US and is only compatible with the iPad 2. Adobe Photoshop for Touch can be download via the App Store here.

Adobe has been exploring the tablet market by entering onto the iPad and other tablets with a series of applications. However, they have yet to match the capabilities of the desktop version of Adobe’s key software products. The company’s initial goal for the iPad was to explore how the device might be used as an auxiliary input for the desktop version at first, but now the company has expanded to including some image editing features from Photoshop. MacStories has a fantastic review of the app.

Clearly, the iPad is just for “content consumption” and not content creation.

Adobe’s Photoshop has been a part of every web designer out there and I’m sure that they would agree with me on this. Adobe Photoshop has not only made a designer’s life easier with the new features and technologies that are released in new versions, but has also helped in expanding the peripheral vision of creativity, art and imagination.

For the last two decades Adobe Photoshop has been the world’s most popular image editor and today the Adobe team is celebrating the editor’s 22nd anniversary.

The story of the World’s most popular image editor began in 1987, when Thomas Knoll programmed a pixel imaging program he called Display. Primarily, the tool displayed grayscale images on a black-and-white monitor. However, Display did create a strong foundation for what has now become the world’s most popular image editing tool.

Adobe licensed the software in 1988 and renamed it Photoshop, and shipped the very first version of Photoshop on February 19, 1990, at a price of $895.

Adobe predicted that they would sell 500 copies of Photoshop per month, but with the unique features it offered, Adobe managed to beat those projections. Today, the software is being used by over millions of people worldwide.

Here’s a timeline of how Photoshop kick started and went on to become the world’s popular image editing tool -

1987 – Thomas Knoll, a PhD student at the University of Michigan, develops a tool called Display for his Mac Plus with a capability of displaying 256-share grayscale images on black and white screen.

1998 – Adobe licenses Display and renames it to Photoshop. Approximately 200 copies of the version 0.87 were shipped in bundle with the scanners.

1990 – Photoshop 1.0 is released with system requirements of an 8MHz processor and 2MB RAM. The main features of Photoshop 1.0 were color correction, image optimization for output, Curves, Levels, and the Clone tool. The software could easily fit on 3.5-inch floppy disk.

1991 – Photoshop 2.0 (codenamed Fast Eddy) is released with CMYK support, Path tool, and the rasterization of Illustrator files. Abode also released an SDK for third-party plugin developments.

1993 – Photoshop 2.5 (codenamed Merlin) is released for Windows as well as Mac. It ships with 16-bit image support, Quick Mask, Dodge and Burn Tools, and visual color-correction tool.

1994 – Adobe releases Photoshop 3.0 with key feature – Image Layers, one of the most important features ever added in Photoshop. In the same year, Alien Skin Software developers the first drop-shadow effect plugin for Photoshop.

1996 – Adobe Photoshop 4.0 (codenamed Big Electric cat) is released with key features including, adjustment layers, macros, Actions, grids, Free Transformation tool, and a new user interface.

1998 – Adobe releases Photoshop 5.5 (codenamed Strange Cargo). Includes features like the History palette, layer effects, spot colors, and the Magnetic Lasso tool. This is first ever version of Photoshop that supported integrated online updating.

2000 – Adobe Photoshop 6.0 (codenamed Venus in Furs) is released with feature including Layer Styles, layer-based slicing for HTML development, Liquefy filter, and a redesigned user interface.

2002 – Adobe ships Photoshop 7.0 (codenamed Liquid Sky). Photoshop 7.0 introduces new features like, Healing Brush tool, custom workspaces, and a spell checker.

2003 – The release of Adobe Photoshop CS (a.k.a Photoshop 8, codenamed Dark Matter). This version features layer groups, Lens Blur Filter, keyboard shortcuts, and JavaScript support.  This is very first version to require activation, and came with a PDF manual.

2005 – Photoshop CS2 is released (codenamed Space Monkey) with Bridge, Smart Objects Spot Healing, HDR merging, and Lens Correction filter.

2006 – Adobe released a beta version of Photoshop Lightroom, an image management tool basically created for professional photographers.

2007 – Photoshop CS3 (codenamed Red Pill) is released with Smart Filters, the ability to import and process videos, Black and White conversion tool, and a improved Clone tool.

2008 – Adobe Photoshop goes online. Adobe creates a Flash based Photoshop Express app on Photoshop.com, offering limited image editing features. In the same year, Adobe release Photoshop Lightroom 2.0. Adobe also released Photoshop CS4 (codenamed Stonehenge) offering features like Content Aware Scaling, RAW image processing, and auto layer alignment tools. A 64-bit version for Windows Vista was also released.

2009 – Photoshop.com is available for the iPhone as a free mobile edition image editor. Adobe releases a public beta of Lightroom 3.0

2010. Adobe Photoshop turned 20 years. Releases Photoshop CS5 with better Edge Detection and Masking, Straighten and Multilayer Opacity, improved Content Aware fill, and improved Spot Healing tool.

2011 – Adobe releases Photoshop for Android and the iOS operating system. Also, Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 is released in May.

2012 – Adobe celebrates 22 years of awesomeness.

Adobe has released a new security update for its popular Flash Player closing down seven vulnerabilities, including one that was being publicly exploited. Six vulnerabilities enabled attackers to infect the user’s computer using crafted web pages, while the seventh vulnerability is a cross site scripting attack (XSS) that Adobe says is already being exploited in “active targeted attacks”.

The latest update has a fix to all these seven vulnerabilities, which affected Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris users. These vulnerabilities could even cause a crash and potentially enable the attacker to take complete control over the affected system.

The cross site scripting attack is basically aimed at Internet Explorer on Windows systems, tricking users to click on malicious links. Adobe says the vulnerability “could be used to take actions on a user’s behalf on any website or webmail provider, if the user visits a malicious website”.

The affected versions are Adobe Flash Player 11.1.102.55 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris operating systems. It also includes Adobe Flash Player 11.1.112.61 and earlier versions for Android 4.x, and Adobe Flash Player 11.1.111.5 and earlier versions for Android 3.x and 2.x.

Adobe highly recommends its users to update their Adobe Flash Player to the newest version 11.1.102.62 by downloading it from the Adobe Flash Player Download Center. Google Chrome users have received the update automatically, however, users can alternately update via the update system within the product when prompted. Android users can download the latest Flash Player version from the Android Market.

However, users unable to update the software can download a patched version of Flash Player 10.x from here.

Here’s the complete list of updates in the new version of Flash Player -

• This update resolves a memory corruption vulnerability that could lead to code execution (Windows ActiveX control only) (CVE-2012-0751).
• This update resolves a type confusion memory corruption vulnerability that could lead to code execution (CVE-2012-0752).
• This update resolves an MP4 parsing memory corruption vulnerability that could lead to code execution (CVE-2012-0753).
• This update resolves a memory corruption vulnerability that could lead to code execution (CVE-2012-0754).
• This update resolves a security bypass vulnerability that could lead to code execution (CVE-2012-0755).
• This update resolves a security bypass vulnerability that could lead to code execution (CVE-2012-0756).
• This update resolves a universal cross-site scripting vulnerability that could be used to take actions on a user’s behalf on any website or webmail provider, if the user visits a malicious website (CVE-2012-0767).

The new Content-Aware feature in the upcoming Adobe Photoshop CS6 just blew my mind. Adobe’s Senior Product Manager, Bryan O’Neil Hughes, came up with a video demonstrating the latest feature in the CS6. With the new Content-Aware feature, you can seamlessly move or remove objects from an image. The new feature includes a whole lot of improvements to the CS5 Content-Aware technology.

All of the tricks shown by Bryan in the sneak peek guide can be recreated in the earlier versions of Photoshop. However, to accomplish the end-result the task certainly is time consuming. With the new features added to CS6, it clearly makes work much easier, faster, and more flexible.

In the demonstration, Bryan uses the concept of Content-Aware that was introduced in the CS5. Added to this is the Content-Aware Move, Extend, and Patch tool in the Adobe Photoshop CS6.

Other changes we notice is the Photoshop interface, which is much darker compared to the earlier version.

So, how do you find the new Content-Aware feature? I can’t wait to get my hands on this feature and try it out myself!

Two years ago, Apple introduced iAds, which is Apple’s mobile advertising platform for its iPhone, iPod touch, and iPhone line of mobile devices. Last year, it was reported that  Andy Miller, the former founder and CEO of Quattro Wireless who was the vice president of mobile advertising and head of the iAd program at Apple, left the company. Since then, Apple has been looking for a replacement for the  executive.

Today,  Bloomberg‘s Adam Satariano reports  that Apple has hired Adobe executive  Todd Teresi  to lead its iAd mobile advertising unit. According to the report, he has been lured away from his position, VP and GM of Media Solutions at Adobe to take place of former Apple Vice President of Mobile Advertising, Andy Miller, who left in August 2011. Teresi will be a key player in Apple’s online marketing presence when he takes over the iAd division. According to his LinkedIn profile, Teresi worked his way through many  management  positions  at Yahoo!  including  Senior Vice President, and served as Chief Financial Officer at Quantacast before taking his most recent job at Adobe.

Before Teresi, Eddy Cue has been temporarily  overseeing  the iAd division at Apple.

It has been an year full of ups and down for Adobe’s Flash Player. While the late Steve Jobs  publicly  criticized Flash and said that it’s going to die soon, Android fanboy’s always said that Flash is far from dead and is required for a ‘full’ PC like web browsing experience on a handset.

However, Adobe itself killed Flash last month when it stated that it will stop the development of Flash Player for Mobile. The company did promise though that it will continue to roll out security fixes for Flash, and even update it to support the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, before the year ends.

Adobe Flash Player did get updated twice in the last one month or so, but none of the updates added support for Ice Cream Sandwich. Thankfully, Adobe pushed out an update late last night which adds support for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich running handsets, including the Galaxy Nexus.

This is the last time Adobe has updated Flash Player to support a new version of Android OS. The company won’t be updating the plugin to support future versions of the Android OS.

Galaxy Nexus owners, and other Android users who are running an Ice Cream Sandwich based custom ROM on their handset can download the latest version of Flash Player for Android from here.