It looks like Adobe Creative Suite 3 kicks your security in the nuts while it installs its call home software. It sounds as if it a) doesn’t ask for permission to shut your firewall down, b) doesn’t inform you that it is shutting your firewall down and c) doesn’t bring your firewall back up when it’s done.

Not cool, folks. It is good of you to discover the problem and post it in a public forum, though.

During the installation, the Adobe installer sets up controlled access to the Version Cue CS3 Server through specific ports in the personal firewall. To be granted access to these ports, the installer first turns off the personal firewall. After the installation is complete, the Adobe installer does not automatically re-activate the firewall.

It sounds to me like OS X needs a bit better MAC management interface. I won’t install CS3 on my laptop until I know that the installer app *must* request my permission before futzing with security settings. As it stands, the installer asks for your permission to acquire superuser status, after which it may do anything without asking. Whee. It would be better if it described what it intended to do explicitly and allowed me to allow/deny on an individual level.