Photshop CS3 stopped by keylogger

Your Question

Photoshop CS3 has lost most tool function, tries to run an Adobe 'keylogger'?

As of yesterday, when I bring bring up Photoshop CS3, my online'Armor' shows a 'keylogger' wanting to open. I followed it online and it does appear to be an Adobe 'keylogger'. If I block it, photoshop will not open, and says 'Photoshop needs at least a 256-color display'. If I allow it, photoshop opens, but no tools function. and no keyboard shortcuts. 'Text' works, paintbucket, and a very few others work. I have restarted pc, but no change.
It will sometimes function briefly, but when my shield shows 'keylogger detected' if I allow it, ps stops working, if I block it, ps stops working.
I have Lightroom 2, and it works well, but I need my photoshop functions.
Thanks for any help.
Category

Computers & Internet > Software

was it a legit version of CS3 ? Keyloggers are usually trojans and are often found in keygens for pirate software - or if a legit version of CS3 you could have got a virus from somewhere else. Do you have uptodate anti-virus ? ...not heard of an Adobe keylogger (so no idea if it is a virus or not....just sounds like a virus)

Either your "online Amor" is giving a false positive or your computer is infected by some malware. Photoshop does not have any keylogging functions; CS3 did include Bonjour which allows connections on a LAN but that can be blocked without affecting Photoshop functions.

does cs3 work like cs4


cs4 will phone home to check the activation is correct ( ie it connects to adobe to verify )

I am not sure that cs3 does the same


but if you block the phone home, cs4 will behave as you describe not sure about cs3 tho

A friend installed CS3 for me, and it has worked well for two years. It's apparently (obviously) not a real version, and has been deactivated.
So, I need to buy an Adobe version of CS3 or CS4, don't care which for CS3 does everything I want.
I see it available on Adobe website for $699..
Are honest copys available elswhere for better prices? I'm not a student, and I'm a bit scare of this from Ebay. Don't need 'Extended', just a fully functional CS3 or 4.
Thanks for any help.

Prices don't vary much. You can look for a used copy on EBay, the only gotcha is that they have to have uninstalled and deactivated it on their end or you will have trouble. Some people have gotten a fresh in-the-box disk package of CS3 for a decent price -- whoever had it just never installed it. Maybe some computer/software outlets might let an unsold copy go for a low price.

If you get CS3 for a good low price, then an upgrade to CS4 is ~$300USD.

Be careful of Ebay copies of CS3/4 - they may well be pirated versions which appear legit but fail when updating.

I had that problem before my current version of CS4.

When I downloaded the trial version of CS4 I was not aware of this verification but I'm sure the software did some kind of double check. Is this a problem if I ever decide to use post processing software on a PC that does not have internet access?

I ask because I have been sorely tempted to do this more than once.

Lowner wrote in post #9449522
When I downloaded the trial version of CS4 I was not aware of this verification but I'm sure the software did some kind of double check. Is this a problem if I ever decide to use post processing software on a PC that does not have internet access?

I ask because I have been sorely tempted to do this more than once.

It doesn't need to be connected to the internet to work... but will expire anyway. perhaps if you take out your cmos battery and are stuck at the same day forever you'll get around it, but I doubt that even that will work 100%

i remember when i went to an OSX seminar - the speaker said that his company offered big software companies like microsoft and adobe and such services whereby his company can track all pirated software and report them.
apparently - these big companies don't mind pirated software because it allows a greater number of users of their product... and if there's a big fan base... then this creates a demand for their product hence the more people/company purchase their products in return

and some of you may not like this but i actually believe this and it does make sense!

muscleflex wrote in post #9449602
i remember when i went to an OSX seminar - the speaker said that his company offered big software companies like microsoft and adobe and such services whereby his company can track all pirated software and report them.
apparently - these big companies don't mind pirated software because it allows a greater number of users of their product... and if there's a big fan base... then this creates a demand for their product hence the more people/company purchase their products in return

and some of you may not like this but i actually believe this and it does make sense!

It's the flex system. You can easily get around it be disabling internet access to the programs in your firewall. This is suggested only for actual licenses...

Photoshop Elements is cheaper.

CS4 authenticates its installation with servers set up by Adobe. Without internet access on your machine, it can't determine if the serial number you entered is valid, and also may not be able to determine when your time runs out if you install a trial copy.

Hen3Ry wrote in post #9454234
CS4 authenticates its installation with servers set up by Adobe. Without internet access on your machine, it can't determine if the serial number you entered is valid, and also may not be able to determine when your time runs out if you install a trial copy.

I've realized this started last week, after I spent time on the Adobe site, reading various forums.
Interestingly, it now requires me to 'Allow' the keylogger for Lightroom to work (also not bought) but it does work as always.
I'm buying a new copy, but I need also to verify it is Adobe doing this keylogging. Otherwise I have a serious problem.

Thanks

trailguy wrote in post #9454323
I've realized this started last week, after I spent time on the Adobe site, reading various forums.
Interestingly, it now requires me to 'Allow' the keylogger for Lightroom to work (also not bought) but it does work as always.
I'm buying a new copy, but I need also to verify it is Adobe doing this keylogging. Otherwise I have a serious problem.

Thanks

I doubt very seriously that it is Adobe doing this. First, they simply don't have the manpower to monitor the amount of keylogging that would be going on from the who-knows-how-many illegal copies of CS4 that are out there, much less sending the software police to do anything about it. It takes a knowledgeable systems person very little time to hijack CS4, so there are plenty of illegal copies of later software than CS3 running in the wild. It's very hard to believe they would have singled out an illegal copy of CS3 to monitor.

If I were you, I'd uninstall everything Adobe, and download the trial/beta versions of current software.