SSMB's virus alert thread. Report strange virus errors here.

[goku262002]

So lately, people have been making complaints about their virus scanners flipping their shit over complete random pages in some topics.

My guess that its one of the members....not intentionally of course.

Usually from past experience these kind of things happen because an image or a link from a sig or display is offsite linking to a susceptible website thats making your virus scanners red flag the pages. its just a guess though...

So, if my guess is right, we need to find the common poster, someone whose been posting in the said random threads that have been complained about. but since statuses go like lightning off the main page (and status area). can you guys link to the pages that have been causing trouble so the Mods/Admins can deal with the issue?

I can't tell you anything personally since I don't keep a 24/7 virus scanner on. But I figured that theres been enough statues to warrant a topic about it.

Edited December 18, 2012 by goku262002

[Sean]

I wasn't around during the status updates that mentioned this, but I looked into Jetronic's latest status and noticed that Solkia mentioned a seusers (dot) com. I looked into it, and apparently Vex/Mordecool had a signature image that was linked from said site. I removed the offending image, so can anybody please look into the topics where you got virus warnings and see if he posted there or not, and if you still get them?

[Solkia]

The Japanese/English thread no longer trips Chrome's preventive stuff, so that might have been it.

[Autosaver]

Malware Bytes tends to go crazy on SSMB in some threads. Yes, it is usually because someone linked an image to an offending site. It hasn't been a problem lately so I don't know how big of an issue it has been recently.

[bmn]

Unfortunately, if a domain has done anything malware-related in the last 3 months, every single thing from that domain usually gets flagged, regardless of whatever it's dangerous or not.

That said, browsers are very lenient when it comes to dealing with file types, so perhaps that approach is necessary.

[Vec]

I wasn't around during the status updates that mentioned this, but I looked into Jetronic's latest status and noticed that Solkia mentioned a seusers (dot) com. I looked into it, and apparently Vex/Mordecool had a signature image that was linked from said site. I removed the offending image, so can anybody please look into the topics where you got virus warnings and see if he posted there or not, and if you still get them?

Really? Oh boy...I didn't know it was my sig...strange since it's the first time it happens...anyway, sorry for the trouble caused

[Sean]

It's no big deal dude, like the Bman said it was probably a domain issue and not necessarily the image itself.

Anyway normally I'd lock this, but in case anyone runs into a similar problem again, let us know here.

[Kamicciolo]

Since this thread seems to be for reporting this stuff, I'll post this one

The "Video Games Facts & Secrets" topic has kinda flagged up for me just a couple of minutes ago, as I tried to move to the second page. It's probably the same issue about the domain itself being flagged, but it was suggested that I speak up anyways to let you guys know

I did a printscreen to show the error I got as well, if that helps

[Solkia]

Yep, got it too.

[Carbo]

Scott's image hotlinked to a flagged site. Should be fixed now.

[goku262002]

Guys, again, its no good hotlinking when your virus scanners go apeshit over a link.

Really this some of the best advice I was ever given, DO NOT HOTLINK EVER! Not only that your leeching off the other sites bandwidth but these things happen as well and your embarrassed when you find out that its your fault that the rest of the board's virus scanners are spazzing over your link. You want the image for whateverthefuck reason? just save it and re-upload it with whatever image hosting service you like using.

Personally I use Photobucket for .gifs and Imageshack for everything else.

[Jin.]

Personally I use Photobucket for .gifs and Imageshack for everything else.

Its likely easier to use Tinypic or something, since Imageshack takes longer to get the direct link if you don't have an account. I don't know about Photobucket.

Then again, I have an Imageshack account, so I usually use it.

[Jeffhog]

...okay, this is more to do with the Front Page than anything, but I'm getting something that shouldn't even exist... Something along the lines of "I can't access this unless I put in a username and password on Track/Sitemetre" thing or whatever. Warning you all now: I think it's bogus.

EDIT: Yup, there it is again. "tracking.sitemeter.com" or something.

[Solkia]

screencap it

[DarkOverord]

Guys, again, its no good hotlinking when your virus scanners go apeshit over a link.

Really this some of the best advice I was ever given, DO NOT HOTLINK EVER! Not only that your leeching off the other sites bandwidth but these things happen as well and your embarrassed when you find out that its your fault that the rest of the board's virus scanners are spazzing over your link. You want the image for whateverthefuck reason? just save it and re-upload it with whatever image hosting service you like using.

Personally I use Photobucket for .gifs and Imageshack for everything else.

Technically you're still hotlinking anyway XP

But yeah. Just host the images elsewhere. There are a variety of services that allow image uploading and hot-linking for free. Go use them

Hell. http://imgur.com/ Lets you rehost from the internet itself. Tumblr makes use of Amazon's cloud, photobucket and imageshack while being horrible sites as they're incredibly bloated, still make good image hosts. There's majhost and tinypic. It's not too hard to have a signature that won't flag for hotlinking.

[goku262002]

While I agree about Photobucket seeing there allways big brothering you, Imageshack isn't soo bad. I use my account as a dumping ground and save for rare server outages, I've got images from 2005 that are still up to this day.

[Detective Shadzter]

I'm getting malware warnings from a bunch of threads across the forum. Page 1 of the Sonic boxart topic and page 1 of the Sonic 2 topic are 2 examples.

[Badnik Mechanic]

If you link to an image being hosted by a 'known site' or a site that's recently suffered from a virus/malware attack, your anti virus is going to trigger.

Most likely someone has linked an image whose website has or has had a problem with malware.

[Candescence]

The malware warnings are due to content and links from Sonic Retro, which has been having some malware problems over the past week first due someone managing to embed malware in Wordpress' code that only infects IE and Firefox users with out of date Java installed, but now Retro has changed DNS servers and fixed the problem, and antivirus and Chrome malware scanners are suddenly throwing up alarm bells, and one of the mods noted that Retro may have been compromised again and are looking into the issue.

[Detective Shadzter]

The malware warnings are due to content and links from Sonic Retro, which has been having some malware problems over the past week first due someone managing to embed malware in Wordpress' code that only infects IE and Firefox users with out of date Java installed, but now Retro has changed DNS servers and fixed the problem, and antivirus and Chrome malware scanners are suddenly throwing up alarm bells, and one of the mods noted that Retro may have been compromised again and are looking into the issue.

Thanks. Just realised that the Axis of Evil gif I had in my sig was linked from Retro, so I've removed that on my 3DS browser and that's helped.

Some other topics are still giving malware warnings though, so others may have content linked to Retro or other sites with malware problems.

[Solkia]

[Cola]

Here's a screencap:

Edited July 26, 2012 by Colasaurus Rex

[Sonic the Hedgehog in 3D]

Just got that as I tried to go into the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 topic

[Remy]

Welp, if you read it it says it's an issue with something linked from Retro.

Who as Daimon as said are having some malware trouble atm. I'll try and clean up the hotlinked images causing the problem.

edit: cleaned the sonic 2 topic.

If anyone else finds topics giving a malware warning, either post them here or report them. I'll sweep through and try and mop up.

Also, it's good policy not to hotlink images in general

[Shaddix Leto Croft]

Well I get malware warnings in Felix's topics because it's most likely he's used images from Sonic Retro and it pops up still remy