link contains malware May 12, 2010 12:15 PM Subscribe
pony: Could "Link contains malware" be added to the Post/Comment Flagging reasons list?
This project contains a link to a page which serves up a dodgy JS redirect to a "Your Computer has been infected" scamware site.
This is the second or third time I've hit a site like this from metafilter (Not that it can be helped - this is symptomatic of the larger web), and as happy as I am to track down the Admin contact form, I wondered if "Link contains malware" could be added as a reason for flagging a post.
This project contains a link to a page which serves up a dodgy JS redirect to a "Your Computer has been infected" scamware site.
This is the second or third time I've hit a site like this from metafilter (Not that it can be helped - this is symptomatic of the larger web), and as happy as I am to track down the Admin contact form, I wondered if "Link contains malware" could be added as a reason for flagging a post.
No, it'd better to flag and then drop us a line directly via the contact form; we're likely to see it sooner and it'd help to have a little bit of description of what exactly happened in any case.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:19 PM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:19 PM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
Malware can be sneaky. It's better to explain via the contact form in detail than have the mods examine the link without more knowledge than just Here Be Malware!
posted by Kattullus at 12:21 PM on May 12, 2010
posted by Kattullus at 12:21 PM on May 12, 2010
Who's dumb enough to follow the link anyway? This girl. Gah, that was horrifying. That's not real, right?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:22 PM on May 12, 2010
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:22 PM on May 12, 2010
here be preview fail
posted by Kattullus at 12:22 PM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Kattullus at 12:22 PM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
On the specific subject, can anyone verify the JS badness? I'm not getting anything from where I'm sitting and I'd rather be sure this is repeatable behavior before I nuke the link on someone's project.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:25 PM on May 12, 2010
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:25 PM on May 12, 2010
Something crazy happened here, that's for sure. Windows flashing, INFECTION, SCAN, YOUR COMPUTER IS DYING, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:28 PM on May 12, 2010
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 12:28 PM on May 12, 2010
That's what we get for looking at coeds in tights. damn you internet karma!!
posted by Think_Long at 12:30 PM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Think_Long at 12:30 PM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
I think someone should donate a Windows computer to all that Mac using mods so they can more effectively identify malware.
posted by idiopath at 12:34 PM on May 12, 2010
posted by idiopath at 12:34 PM on May 12, 2010
You should paint it yellow and make it chirp as the startup sound.
posted by idiopath at 12:35 PM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by idiopath at 12:35 PM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
I've removed the project for now with a note that if it can be cleaned up we can restore it. Thanks for the heads up, seanyboy, and for the forensics everybody else.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:35 PM on May 12, 2010
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:35 PM on May 12, 2010
Having had a post deleted for malware, I wonder: Isn't there some link checker on-line that could be plugged into the New Post form? We probably wouldn't trust it to block posts for fear of false positives, but it might be a good way to tip off the mods early on when something like this happens.
posted by Dr Dracator at 12:43 PM on May 12, 2010
posted by Dr Dracator at 12:43 PM on May 12, 2010
Google has an experimental (labs) API for malware links, but I don't think it would have helped in this specific case (when the site gets owned some time after it's posted to MetaFilter)
posted by threetoed at 12:50 PM on May 12, 2010
posted by threetoed at 12:50 PM on May 12, 2010
It's not a brand new post, is part of the thing. Unless we were going to run a linkchecker over every URL in the db on a daily basis, it'd be a moot point.
In general we get pretty prompt reports when malware or other such stuff is popping up behind a link, especially so on stuff that just went up since there's a lot of eyes on it.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:54 PM on May 12, 2010
In general we get pretty prompt reports when malware or other such stuff is popping up behind a link, especially so on stuff that just went up since there's a lot of eyes on it.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:54 PM on May 12, 2010
"It's a moo point."
"Yeah, it's like a cow's opinion. It just doesn't matter."
posted by misterbrandt at 1:21 PM on May 12, 2010
"Yeah, it's like a cow's opinion. It just doesn't matter."
posted by misterbrandt at 1:21 PM on May 12, 2010
Look, man, I'm not saying their stupid or anything - you know me, I'm not cowist. Fuck, some of my best friends are ruminants. All I'm saying is that they stand around chewing all day, shitting where they stand, and probably aren't the first place to look for enlightened policy decisions. Somebody's gotta stand up and say it, 'coz we all know it's true. We can't just be a bunch of cowards, after all.
posted by kaibutsu at 3:56 PM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by kaibutsu at 3:56 PM on May 12, 2010 [1 favorite]
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by seanyboy at 12:16 PM on May 12, 2010 [7 favorites]