Is this a legit Adobe update or a virus?

That's real. The get3 is one of Adobe's load balancing servers.

when I see the popups, I always go directly to get.adobe.com/flashplayer instead of clicking on the popup

Ongoing

old-wiz said:

when I see the popups, I always go directly to get.adobe.com/flashplayer instead of clicking on the popup

Click to expand...

This is an ongoing problem for Mac users and Adobe has no interest in
fixing it. Adobe flash is a problem filled application. Its driven me nuts
You can have the latest Adobe Flash but it does not matter. This is
a crazy maker....but Adobe could care less. I posted this issue on their
face book page and did not receive a response. I suggest if someone
has a twitter account post it there.

Interesting options:
Legit?
Virus?

No, everything that you are unfamiliar with is not a virus.
Don't worry, as there isn't any such thing as a virus affecting Mac OS X.

Gregg2 said:

No, everything that you are unfamiliar with is not a virus.
Don't worry, as there isn't any such thing as a virus affecting Mac OS X.

Click to expand...

In this case this is a legit concern. There was malware for OSX that poised as an update from Adobe. I think that is why the OP is asking.

Personally, I do as others suggested, I never click any installs or updates from a popup, I always visit the site directly (unless I know that pop up originated from an application while checking for a legitimate update -- just not when visiting websites).

xriderx11 said:

the "get3" in the begining of the URL is very suspicious... Shouldnt it be "get.adobe??

Click to expand...

Any prefix to adobe.com is still part of adobe.com. As old-wiz suggested, the wisest thing to do is to get updates directly from a developer's website, especially in this case, since Adobe had issues in the past with malware disguising as Adobe updates.

Read the What security steps should I take? section of the Mac Virus/Malware FAQ for tips on practicing safe computing.

Mountain Lion vs Leopard

Hey Guys!

The Adobe Update is pretty bad. It annoys me every time I have to do it. I have Mountain Lion running and just had to go through it again. Yesterday I updated the Flash player on my girlfriends Leopard Macbook and it was so much better.

You do it all from System Preferences and don't get redirected to any website. There's no "software from the internet- are you really sure you want this??" dialog box. Why can't it work like that on Mountain Lion?

(PS: I'd like to think I'm not paranoid about phishing and other similar activities. But the get3 prefix (or whatever) to the adobe website does make me uneasy. Especially because until the next update comes along I'll probably forget that prefix and ask myself the same question. Is it real or is it dubious? )

Cheers!

fatboyondiet said:

Hey Guys!

The Adobe Update is pretty bad. It annoys me every time I have to do it. I have Mountain Lion running and just had to go through it again. Yesterday I updated the Flash player on my girlfriends Leopard Macbook and it was so much better.

You do it all from System Preferences and don't get redirected to any website. There's no "software from the internet- are you really sure you want this??" dialog box. Why can't it work like that on Mountain Lion?

(PS: I'd like to think I'm not paranoid about phishing and other similar activities. But the get3 prefix (or whatever) to the adobe website does make me uneasy. Especially because until the next update comes along I'll probably forget that prefix and ask myself the same question. Is it real or is it dubious? )

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Regarding bolded section above:

When parsing a URL.... anyprefex.adobe.com/anypostfix/anyotherpostfix should generally be safe. The fact that "adobe" is immediately before the period is the key. Hence, get3.adobe.com is OK. There is some syntax that will redirect to another website (which I personally do not understand)... so take my advice with a grain of salt.

HOWEVER:

Lets say that the URL was adobe.get3.com then it would most likely be a scam... because the domain would be "get3.com" and would likely have nothing to do with Adobe.

BTW: I agree that the constant Adobe updates are a total PITA and I also go directly to adobe for updates rather than clicking on popups.

/Jim

You can blame the people who totally refuse to even update their software for this.

The whole opinion of the internet is that updates do more harm to your system than they do good. Microsoft ends up installing gigs and gigs of drivers and all the fixes just pile up. So people have grown to hate Windows Update and even go as far as disabling it.

These same people are the ones who probably bombard companies with support tickets when something stops working or things go wrong. Their hard drives are a mess too, because when system updates are done, so is background cleaning of caches and other stuff.

Since there are many, many, many individuals who refuse to believe the security risks, this is where it has ended up - Silent updates and disabled plugins. Maybe it doesn't look like a good idea from your end, but it's better for companies like Adobe. Because people getting hit with malware with versions that were replaced month ago is just bad press. It just adds to the many reasons why people hate Flash so much these days.

As for Adobe's URLs. They have many of them, and blocking them won't really matter as they're always adding new ones.

fatboyondiet said:

Hey Guys!

The Adobe Update is pretty bad. It annoys me every time I have to do it. I have Mountain Lion running and just had to go through it again. Yesterday I updated the Flash player on my girlfriends Leopard Macbook and it was so much better.

You do it all from System Preferences and don't get redirected to any website. There's no "software from the internet- are you really sure you want this??" dialog box. Why can't it work like that on Mountain Lion?

(PS: I'd like to think I'm not paranoid about phishing and other similar activities. But the get3 prefix (or whatever) to the adobe website does make me uneasy. Especially because until the next update comes along I'll probably forget that prefix and ask myself the same question. Is it real or is it dubious? )

Cheers!

Click to expand...

I am running Mountain Lion, and System Preferences is how I update Adobe.

I don't trust update pop ups

old-wiz said:

when I see the popups, I always go directly to get.adobe.com/flashplayer instead of clicking on the popup

Click to expand...

I always go to the page and get the update there after infecting my computer with a virus that looked like a Java update. It looked identical to the Java update so I don't think I'll ever trust a pop up update again.
I still have residual damage on my computer. It hid all my files and it took me a week to figure out that I needed to view hidden files to see my files and then I had to change all my properties of every folder. I couldn't change all of them, hence the residual damage. Don't trust the pop ups and go to the site directly.

All these discussions remind me why I love Little Snitch.

If I have Google Chrome installed, why does it have a background task trying to contact Google servers 10 times a day? Especially when I haven't used the app in over a month? What data is it sending?

It should only look for updates when I actually use the app, not via background process.

Bad Google

One of the reasons why I never allow popups, auto-update checking and install.

Manual update only, through MacUpdate - and no Betas.

Amatyi1 said:

I always go to the page and get the update there after infecting my computer with a virus that looked like a Java update. It looked identical to the Java update so I don't think I'll ever trust a pop up update again.
I still have residual damage on my computer. It hid all my files and it took me a week to figure out that I needed to view hidden files to see my files and then I had to change all my properties of every folder. I couldn't change all of them, hence the residual damage. Don't trust the pop ups and go to the site directly.

Click to expand...

Are you talking about Mac OS X or Windows? And which malware, post #7 has good information about malware, did you got infected with?

Gregg2 said:

Interesting options:
Legit?
Virus?

No, everything that you are unfamiliar with is not a virus.
Don't worry, as there isn't any such thing as a virus affecting Mac OS X.

Click to expand...

Actually, Macs can get viruses. They just down own as much of the computer market as PC does. Apple owns roughly (6%) So when people design viruses, the target are PC users, because there is a larger number of users. Make sense?

nathanb007 said:

Actually, Macs can get viruses. They just down own as much of the computer market as PC does. Apple owns roughly (6%) So when people design viruses, the target are PC users, because there is a larger number of users. Make sense?

Click to expand...

No, it doesn't make sense. It has been proven that Mac users are more affluent and should therefore be better targets. (references: http://mashable.com/2009/10/05/mac-ownership-study/ , http://www.forbes.com/sites/adriank...26/mac-users-have-money-to-spare-says-orbitz/ , these are just the first ones I stumbled upon, there are probably tons more)

Can Macs get viruses? Probably. But in OS X's 12+ years of existence, there has been zero. None. The fact is, it's just not as vulnerable as Windows.

The same can be said for all those years that iOS had more market share than Android and yet Android received the bulk of the malware. Immunity due to obscurity is an excuse made up by apologists.

nathanb007 said:

Actually, Macs can get viruses. They just down own as much of the computer market as PC does. Apple owns roughly (6%) So when people design viruses, the target are PC users, because there is a larger number of users. Make sense?

Click to expand...

By the definition of a virus, they can't. They can get Trojans and worms, but no viruses. Mostly due to the UNIX subsystem.

nathanb007 said:

Actually, Macs can get viruses. They just down own as much of the computer market as PC does. Apple owns roughly (6%) So when people design viruses, the target are PC users, because there is a larger number of users. Make sense?

Click to expand...

No, it doesn't make sense. The market share theory has been debunked countless times, because it doesn't hold water. There were many viruses in the wild that affected Mac OS 9 and earlier versions, at a time when Mac market share and installed base was much smaller. With OS X, the market share and installed base has grown, with around 75 million Mac users. And as market share grew, the number of viruses decreased.... to zero. The instances of malware in general is a fraction of what was in the wild with earlier versions and smaller market share.

No one is saying Macs are immune to malware, but all OS X malware in the wild can successfully be avoided by practicing safe computing.

nathanb007 said:

Actually, Macs can get viruses.

Click to expand...

It might be possible, someday. My post didn't say it's impossible. It said that there are none.

Flash is a virus

I just let flash auto update itself. Set to search for updates automatically. safe that way.

Macs can't get viruses. Viruses do not require a user to install them, mac is just that way. Completely safe unless you install the virus yourself which I am sure even the lowest of IQs would realise.

Best thing about installing stuff on a mac is you don't have to click custom because mac apps don't have all that ******** attached to them like the windows software does aka Internet explorer bars and worms. My gf has a windows laptop and has experienced enough crap that she goes through installation processes very slowly and carefully and googles anything foreign before clicking next. So far so good but the system still gets bogged down thanks to the way windows is lol.