Malware redirects

[Richard C]

I was creating a new post a few minutes ago and during that process I was redirected to a malware site about a handful of times during that process. I am relatively sure this is not something on my end, but rather a "Malvertising" attack via whatever ad-network the site uses. It happened once while editing this post as well. I have not had this happen on any other sites (which is why I think it is not me, but this site).

Richard

[Steven]

Hello Richard,
Sorry for this trouble!

Can you check your browser history and pass me the urls where you ended up please?
Then I will address the ad agents.

Steven

[Richard C]

PM sent with the details I have. Note I have not seen this happen since yesterday. I can imagine the ad-network may have already pulled the offending content. Thanks for looking into this.

Richard

[Richard C]

Happened again today. I sent PM with details.

Richard

[ME4ME]

Happened to me too today on W10 PC using Chrome. Redirect to some strange page with fake McAfee antivirus button. Later it happened again but got a blank page.

[mark6]

Sounds like a classic malvertising case – if it happens across different devices and browsers, it's 99% from the site's ads. Try using uBlock Origin or another ad blocker to test. Also, check the dev tools (F12) to see where the redirects originate from.

PS: Had this happen a few months ago on another site, turned out to be a specific ad network. Sometimes clearing cookies helps, but if it keeps happening, reporting to the admin (which you already did) is the way to go

[Richard C]

This is still happening. Recently it has been a redirect to download the "Brave" browser. I have seen this a handful of time. I can be viewing a page and doing nothing and then it will redirect. I can use back button to get back to the page here. I am using Chrome on Windows 11.

Richard

[Richard C]

The site is effectively unusable when creating or editing a post. I am finding that it is impossible to edit a post using the site UI before you eventually are redirected to another site. As an experiment, I tried to type in just this simple post in the UI and I had at least 5-6 redirects while typing something this small. I had to resort to what I have been doing in other posts which is to type if up in something like MS Word and then copy-n-paste the post in and hope I can click the submit button fast enough that I don’t lose the post.

Richard

[hollus]

Hmmm, maybe location specific. I have no issue with redirects. Anyone else with a similar problem?

[daren_p]

I've been constantly getting them as well, sometimes redirects or often times just goes to a blank screen. I cleared my cookies which seemed to help briefly but back to the same. Blank pages & just redirected here:

https://wu0e5l94nh.boats/?pz8t1s=U2FsdG ... mHfQ%3D%3D

[Richard C]

The ads I am seeing are clearly targeted, so they (and the malvertising) may also be geo-specific. There is a remote chance I might be targeted given the industry I work in. The redirects also come and go. Yesterday it was pervasive. Today close to zero. I have had this edit window open for over 45 minutes and have had only one redirect. I also opened up an alternative browser that I never use and have had no redirects (or targeted ads) there over the same time period.

Note, it seems to happen either 100% (or nearly so) of the time when typing while creating or editing a post. It also "seems" to happen just as the advertisement carousel rotates to a new add. My best guess is that it is using a JavaScript event to detect keypresses and to use those to trigger a redirect? I don't know, for sure.

My next step is to clear all of my cookies to remove tracking cookies to see if this helps (given it seems to address the issue with the other browser that had no prior cookies). That might work for awhile until tracking cookies reappear. If that doesn't work, my next step is an ad-blocker. There may be little if anything the site (f1technical.net) can do other than to not serve up ads (I understand why ads are required) or switch distribution networks (and that is no guarantee to work) as it seems modern malvertsing attacks are probably totally transparent to the server and are happening on the client/browser via CDN or other content served up by other sources (such as an ad network). And those who do this work hard to also prevent detection by those running the ad-networks.

Thanks again for taking this serious. I let my frustration show yesterday in my post. Sorry about that. I will say... I am ONLY seeing this on this site. But then again there are few sites I am in a web form editing content AND also having ads served on that page.

Richard

[mwillems]

I'm also getting this, as of today I think. Same redirects for me, I had a dodgy Mcafee advert (I think) and since then it redirects to a blank page. I have AdBlocker. it seems timed, I have about 10 seconds on the page before it redirects.

[Seanspeed]

I had gotten these occasionally in the past, but it does seem like I'm getting them somewhat frequently here lately. Even got one as I was about to type this message! lol

London, UK. Google Chrome/Win 10.

[Seanspeed]

Ok yea now this site is almost unusable. Relentless redirects.

[Seanspeed]

I cant even go like two clicks in this site before it gets redirected to some malware crap.