While individual users rarely face lawsuits, Adobe actively pursues distributors of patchers. Additionally, organizations caught using patched Adobe software can face fines of up to $150,000 per infringement (U.S. Copyright Act) and reputational damage.
Avoid all third-party “downloaders and patchers” for Adobe products. The short-term savings are not worth the long-term costs – financial, legal, or cybersecurity.
Historically, patchers worked by locating a specific Dynamic Link Library (DLL) file installed with the software. This file is responsible for "phoning home" to Adobe’s servers to verify a subscription. A patcher would replace this genuine file with a modified, or "cracked," version. This modified version would trick the software into believing it was running on a licensed machine or that the license check returned a positive result.