Malware: Urgent Firefox Update

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1

Twice now, when I’ve opened an SMDB page, it has popped up a new tab in Firefox that looks like this: http://imgur.com/4bHTt8N

It is trying to get me to download an “urgent Firefox update.”

The url of this page is: [spoiler]https://queidwhoreslag.net/9291157587323/fd2e0cac6abf1466b48c0c135b0ec692.html[/spoiler]

The page that caused the new tab to open had these two ads on it: Imgur: The magic of the Internet
http://imgur.com/1G94uJb
The URLs of the two ads are:

https://secure.flashtalking.com/47145/ON_Product_HTML5_RL_728x90_v1c/index.html
http://d.adroll.com/r/ISRFVJ4CYZEJLCRYPCOWW4/XRVEJ4F2K5DF7C2C4OV7OI/0e4b9bc199084bda05bb929a3792a100.re?adroll_height=600&adroll_width=160&site_url=http%3A//boards.straightdope.com&adroll_ad_payload=__HIAb4BkwHaAazIAagAAbvHoMSyLSos1DkkNNg7JMjd0cU90jjEz8TD11hqm5G7uYtnuEmUm5uja4izi6lvQLhfmKfFtmBnv1BfE6_gADc3szB3FydzN4uAIH-rcwy8617bbEzKSUzOjk_Kr4gvKMpMzsxLdzsuyDR3__Ynn9d8uHTy1PR953d9nM3qzuB9yI8_5qwBR-ms0mLd8tTiEl2jxJr_tf_PdO7JKCkpsNLXLy8v1ysuKUrMTM8oSckvSNVLzs_VPzP7XHhXT8aZBduT8hOLUooxVJxZxHBm8eEzS4TOnFpulJZilGqQdOb0cTaWiecYRF5_PnMG6Jo1r_Zs6u5q_P0e5pozv47zMjeuSC3LTMnPiy85azXjzN_JBnqmZxmVbzEoJ5omGliYJhubGViYWSYaJZuaJqWYppkbJVuaGBlamqZY5RSdZYo4x8AaIHeWKXJ1cWFBaXp8mWm8oelZpqjDZ5lizzG0vftxlikOHEJnmU7cYlAwNDdLMzFNSk41tjRLNjI0s7BITDRONjMzSUpONDc2Tj7L4nP4LOuq1QVF-cUFqcklwHA8y5ZxVuYHAKwdnVD-BD5ey9st5oY&adroll_subnetwork=r&cpm=BF7A3904C10539BC&adroll_network=n&clickurl=http%3A//beacon-us-west.rubiconproject.com/beacon/rs/9a91d425-db49-41e4-9ebf-8640a3fcb94f/0/I7Vrj49xgSSRGnOClmMvdfOh8zs/%3Furl%3D

The time was 2:35 pm (GMT -5).

2

Needless to say, Firefox does not distribute updates in this way. If anyone else sees this, don’t get fooled into downloading the update.

3

seems legit

4

Backup detail: Mozilla support page specifically discussing this, and stating it’s not a real update.

5

I’ve seen this event two or three times in the past week or so. (The first time was at least a week ago.) This evening it happened when I was on a Walmart page, I believe.

6

Haven’t quite had that problem, but my company uses Firefox, and the SDMB shows up as malware to them, so I can only visit this site at home or on my phone.

7

I use Firefox. This has not happened to me yet.

8

And even Mozilla are recommending you use Adblock (Well, uBlock Origin) to stop it.

Sure, disable it on sites you trust that you want to support. But it’s one of the best forms of protection from malware and malvertisements for the average user.

All the SDMB can do is tell their ad providers upstream that these guys are a problem. But it seems they are doing some tricks to make it harder to block them.

9

Once again I thank the gods (and the developers of the software) for Noscript and Adblock Plus.

10

I use uBlock Origin and I’ve been very happy with it -
Firefox:

Chrome:

Always practice safe computing.

11

I’ve seen it a couple of times on facebook links. It’s not just SDMB that’s affected.

12

Yeah, I’m sure the vector is the advertising brokers both SDMB and Facebook are contracting with.

Haven’t seen any attention from TPTB, alas. This can’t get fixed until the administration contacts the ad folks and makes 'em stop, per this active unlocked ATMB sticky.

OP, maybe you should post warning on that thread? Maybe that’s the one TPTB monitors.

13

This has happened to me a couple of times as well. I use Firefox, and whenever it happened, I went to the Firefox site, and determined that I was using the most up-to-date version of Firefox, therefore, the pop-up must have been some kind of malware. Or at the very least clickbait of some sort.

I have had a problem lately with script errors on the SDMB, which cause me to have to close the entire browser. I have the problem on my laptop and my tablet. I use a scriptblocker o the tablet, which stops about 90% of them, but I still have to close once in a while. The tablet has 8.1; laptop, 10, and the scriptblockers don’t seem to install well on the laptop, which I’m assuming is a not-ready-for-Win10 problem.