Adobe hacked, product source code stolen, customer database accessed

Bad news folks.

Adobe has been hacked.

A post by Adobe CSO Brad Arkin broke the news to the world that “very recently” the company discovered its network had been infiltrated, and that the hackers had accessed customer information as well as the source code for “numerous Adobe products”.

Adobe says that the hackers accessed customer IDs and encrypted passwords. In addition, personal information related to 2.9 million Adobe customers – including names, order information, and encrypted credit card details.

Adobe products affected by the source code theft include Adobe Acrobat, ColdFusion, and ColdFusion Builder. Obviously there will be fears that malicious hackers could examine the source code and attempt to find flaws and zero-day vulnerabilities that they might attempt to exploit.

Further information about the stolen source code is available in a separate post on Adobe’s website.

Adobe says that is resetting affected customers’ passwords, but has advised users that if they were using the same passwords elsewhere on the net they should also change them as a matter of urgency. This is *always* good advice, because if a hacker manages to grab your password in one place the last thing you want is for them to be able to use it to unlock accounts elsewhere on the web.

According to security researcher Brian Krebs, a hefty 40GB worth of Adobe source code was found on a server used by cybercriminals a week ago.

It should go without saying that no software company ever wants to have criminals steal its source code – it is, after all, the technology company equivalent of losing the Crown Jewels.

Separately, Adobe has announced that it is releasing critical security patches for Adobe Reader and Acrobat next week.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is an award-winning keynote speaker who has given presentations around the world about cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. A veteran of the computer security industry since the early 1990s, he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows, makes regular media appearances, and is the co-host of the popular "Smashing Security" podcast. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.