Version Cue CS3 Disables Mac Firewalls
This isn’t InDesign news, but many of us are now installing InDesign as part of the newly released Adobe Creative Suite 3. The default installation of the Suite installs Version Cue CS3, a utility for creating and managing file versions.
During the install, in Mac OS X systems which have the personal firewall enabled, the installer turns off the firewall to properly set up the ports it needs to set up the Version Cue Server. However, the installer doesn’t turn the firewall back on. Adobe has identified this as a potential security vulnerability, and has issued an advisory.
Adobe recommends manually turning the personal firewall in Mac OS X back on using these steps:
(1) In the Finder, choose Apple > System Preferences.
(2) Click the Sharing icon, then then click the Firewall tab.
(3) Click Start.
Thanks to Jay Nelson for tracking this and publishing it in an email to subscribers to his excellent Design Tools Monthly.
How many people use version cue?
Fritz,
That would probably be hard to say. It is a good utility, particularly for workgroups, who want to manage files. Its biggest advantage is that it is built into the Creative Suite, and can be used either by a workgroup or individuals.
Here’s a link to a review published just this week at MacWorld:
http://www.macworld.com/2007/05/reviews/versioncuecs3/index.php
The point of the posting, however, is that it is installed by default with Adobe Creative Suite 3, whether you’re using it or not.
Yes Steve, it’s installed, but it’s not enabled by default as it was in CS2 !
You’re quite right, Branislav.
On the two Macs where I installed the Adobe Creative Suite 3 (one iMac G5 and one MacBook Pro), the installer DID turn off the firewall during installation. However, the Version Cue CS3 server is turned off by default, as you say.
I also had to turn my Firewall back on.
Without Jay’s alert I would have been left very vulnerable.
Fortunately, though, all you need to do is turn the Firewall back on. Not one of the worst security lapses.
I’ll bet Bill Gates is having a good laugh over this one.
I reinstalled creative suite cs2 on a macbook pro 10.4.11
and all went well except version cue. I tried to turn it on but it won’t and reinstalled it fresh but still no luck. Now the version icon has an ‘x’ showing on my top right desktop and clicked turn on but doesn’t work.
Note: It was fine till I had to reinstall OSX and then reinstall the suite.
Anyone help!