New warning with updated firefox?

Wes Bucey

Prophet of Profit
I have recently installed the latest update of Firefox web browser and decided to check up on an "odd" character who used to post frequently on a lot of different Forums related to Quality issues. His posts were often well-written, frequently funny, but always with an agenda against anybody or anything which smacked of authority, especially ISO and the various accreditation bodies.

A quick check of his usual haunts revealed he hadn't posted anything since April - an eternity for someone as prolific as he.

I decided to check his website and was surprised when firefox gave me this warning:(
(I'm omitting his url to save him embarrassment if it is some temporary thing.)
http://www.[his url]
Reported Attack Site!


This web site at www.[his url] has been reported as an attack site and has been blocked based on your security preferences.

Attack sites try to install programs that steal private information, use your computer to attack others, or damage your system.

Some attack sites intentionally distribute harmful software, but many are compromised without the knowledge or permission of their owners.
Are any of you familiar with this type of warning? (I haven't changed any of my security settings from the previous version of firefox.) Can you enlighten us uninformed folk?

Anybody REALLY into this can pm me for the actual url to check it out.
 

Wes Bucey

Prophet of Profit
So, I found a button on the warning page for more info and clcking brought me this
(url still masked)
Safe Browsing

Diagnostic page for www.[his url]


What is the current listing status for www.[his url]
Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this web site may harm your computer.
What happened when Google visited this site?
Of the 12 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 1 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 07/04/2008, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 07/04/2008.
Malicious software includes 1 scripting exploit(s). Successful infection resulted in an average of 0 new processes on the target machine.
Malicious software is hosted on 2 domain(s), including testwvr.com, upcomd.com.
1 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including upcomd.com.
Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?
Over the past 90 days, www.[his url] did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.​
Has this site hosted malware?
No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.
How did this happen?
In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.
Next steps:

  • Return to the previous page.
  • If you are the owner of this web site, you can request a review of your site using Google Webmaster Tools. More information about the review process is available in Google's Webmaster Help Center.
 

Jim Wynne

Leader
Admin
I have recently installed the latest update of Firefox web browser and decided to check up on an "odd" character who used to post frequently on a lot of different Forums related to Quality issues. His posts were often well-written, frequently funny, but always with an agenda against anybody or anything which smacked of authority, especially ISO and the various accreditation bodies.

A quick check of his usual haunts revealed he hadn't posted anything since April - an eternity for someone as prolific as he.

I decided to check his website and was surprised when firefox gave me this warning:(
(I'm omitting his url to save him embarrassment if it is some temporary thing.)Are any of you familiar with this type of warning? (I haven't changed any of my security settings from the previous version of firefox.) Can you enlighten us uninformed folk?

Anybody REALLY into this can pm me for the actual url to check it out.

The warning is from Google, not Firefox.
 

Wes Bucey

Prophet of Profit
The warning is from Google, not Firefox.
Right! Firefox loaded google when I first switched to it a year or so ago. All part of the package. If not firefox, why the new thing from google? Never saw or heard of it before today.
 
G

Gert Sorensen

Well, I have teenage nephews and godsons, and I have been doing a lot of "maintenance" on their computers over the years (virus, spyware, malware etc.,including looking at their tracking history....). I have seen this kind of Google warning several times but it usually shows up on sites that you would suspect a little more to be a risk :notme: I think this is a brilliant initiative from Google, and I hope that it will be implemented into IE etc.

Anyway, using Spywareblaster a lot of these sites are blocked when trying to access them.
 
There has been a lot of this going on lately, and if anyone still believes that you can stay out of harms way by not visiting "dodgy" sites: Forget it. A large number of very reputable sites including several run by governments (in Norway, for instance) have been spreading nasty things to visitors.

Apparently, the bad guys have learned some new tricks.

Anyway, like Jim says this has nothing to do with Firefox, but Firefox users can defend themselves very well if they use the No Script extension: It allows executable content to run only from sites you trust. For the record, I have no ties with the product, but I highly recommend it. Easy to use, and allows nothing to get past unless you say so.

/Claes
 

Jim Wynne

Leader
Admin
Right! Firefox loaded google when I first switched to it a year or so ago. All part of the package. If not firefox, why the new thing from google? Never saw or heard of it before today.

Firefox doesn't "load" Google; it provides a search bar that can be set to any number of different sites in addition to Google (Amazon, eBay, etc.). You haven't seen the warning before because (A) it's a relatively new thing with Google and (B) you haven't tried to visit any sites that would trigger it.
 

Wes Bucey

Prophet of Profit
does this mean the guy's web site has been hammered by some bad guys or has he gone "rogue?" (he is, after all, "anti-establishment")
does he deserve a phone call as a courtesy?
 
T

Tool_Inspector

Anyway, like Jim says this has nothing to do with Firefox, but Firefox users can defend themselves very well if they use the No Script extension It allows executable content to run only from sites you trust. For the record, I have no ties with the product, but I highly recommend it. Easy to use, and allows nothing to get past unless you say so.

/Claes

I do not know about that specific google warning, but thought I'd second the NoScript recommendation. Sometimes it works too well and wont show pull-down menus or search functions of an otherwise normal looking page, but if you remember its a new page it takes 2-3 mouse clicks to enable the content while still leaving out ads and anything else trying to run. This has kept me from debugging and file cleaning of my teenage childrens machine for the last year when it was a quarterly event with the change of the seasons.
 
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