On Sundays, I run my McAfee Virus Scan and SpyBot Search & Destroy. This week, I also ran a check with McAfee Internet Security. In a check of Web Bugs, whatever that is, it said there was a web bug in the charming “Badger, badger, mushroom, snake” flash animation.
I think I know what a virus is. I think I understand spybot and worm. What is a web bug, if it’s not any of those things? The McAfee I.S. said it smote the web bug, but the badgers will still do their relentless workout. I’m baffled. Can you 'splain web bugs for me?
A web bug is generally an image that isn’t an image, but a webpage. The HTML contains a link to an image, and the browser goes off to find it. When it gets there, it finds a web page that records some sort information.
Generally speaking, it will record that the page has been viewed, when it was viewed, what browser was used, and what the IP address was. Usually, web bugs aren’t malicious, and the collected information is used for web stats. They do collect that info in a slightly underhanded way. more info
A web server records all the info Bakhesh mentions every time you make a hit on it, so it’s pretty pointless to use a web bug on a web page. However, in some cases people will use web bugs on a web page if the bug is linked/hosted from another site, which allows that second site to collect info. This is often done for third-party server stats packages, and third-party banner ads are essentially the same thing.
Typically a web bug is used in something that will be on your computer so it can “phone home” when you open it. They’re often used in emails so the sender can tell you opened it when your HTML viewer makes a request to their server for the image (which is likely a 1x1 transparent pixel so you don’t know you’ve been bugged, but it could be any image).
If this Flash animation is something you’ve downloaded to play repeatedly instead of hitting a web page each time, a web bug within it would let the creator know when it ran. While the lines are blurry, I think I would refer to this as spyware rather than a webbug since the Flash is executable code that’s been programed to contact its host. I would use the term webbug for more passive carriers like email.
