Fighting Malicious Ads on Download Pages

donho

Sure. Now it looks like this (scale shrunk to fit):

Cool ! it seems the blocking is working - thanks to block https://ff.sitesearchweb.com/offer.
It’s tricky. Typing https://ff.sitesearchweb.com/ will redirect to https://www.sitesearchweb.com/ so I realize https://ff.sitesearchweb.com/ is not a real domain. And the main part of the link you provide is https://ff.sitesearchweb.com/offer (after stripping the parameters) so blocking it make work.

I will remove https://ff.sitesearchweb.com/ from the list because 349 blocages restants (limite de 500) - please let me know if these ads returns back, then I’ll add it again into the list.

The 3 domains that you provided has been blocked:

scamSite: get.wavebrowserpro.com
scamSite: productivityboost.net
scamSite: photoeditor.net

Please let me know if you see others.

donho

@Coises

I have no reason to think that it doesn’t block what you enter. What I meant was that it’s not accomplishing much, since it seems like no matter how many bad ads you block, there are always more to take their place. It seems like this is making a lot of work for you, but the whole nature of the advertising system is just undermining your efforts. (No complaint or criticism towards you, just disgust for the whole ad-supported nightmare that is the modern web.)

I do what I can do.

Though a lot of them are missleading, not all of ad destinations are “malicious” - here’s an example:

The link of “Download the White Paper” is:

https://more.suse.com/Security_controls_for_the_OWASP_Kubernetes_Top_10.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=5_0004280_OA_Google_NeuVector_OWASP_Whitepaper_mp_2024737_en&utm_term=NeuVector_Prime&qgad=749273370457&gad_source=5&gad_campaignid=22495509070&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIq7mXqOCgjgMV3Yd_BB0V5DQqEAEYASAAEgJecfD_BwE

which leads to https://more.suse.com/ - a section of suse.com website.
It’s not the first time I’ve seen this - I have also blocked Microsoft & Google chrome.

I don’t think these prestigious companies are aware that they are running the misleading ads. The real issue, I suspect, is that the marketing departments within these companies work with ad agences that view the traffic as an efficient way to boost superficial performance metrics and revenues.

OTOH, back to 2013, in Oracle Java download from their website, it contained even the crapeware:
https://www.facebook.com/Notepad.plus.plus/photos/pb.100057220819766.-2207520000/569194946466175/?type=3
And Adobe did the same thing:
https://www.facebook.com/Notepad.plus.plus/photos/pb.100057220819766.-2207520000/948957855156547/?type=3

The both cases above, it’s really too huge that I don’t see how they can be innoncent.

Fitsneezy

Malicious link removed
Malicious link removed

donho

@Fitsneezy
Both convertfile.ai & gamesuniverse.co are blocked.
Thank you.

Steve Bonds

Still showing misleading download links:

Malicious link removed

via

Malicious link removed

PeterJones

Instead of posting the actual links here – so that this forum becomes a honeypot for every webscraper and gets all these malicious downloads higher in search-engine rankings – could I suggest that people just email Don at the email address he’s already published in this discussion?

donho

@Steve-Bonds
Blocked, thank you.

@PeterJones
Sorry about the pollution with these scam links. I modified the 1st announce and I’ve removed some malicious links in this thread. Feel free to remove the rest if you judge necessary.

water hearwater

Malicious link treated & removed

gaberilde

More Malicious adds on the download page again here are the links

THE FOLLOWING LINKS BELOW ARE MALICIOUS:

https://wavebrowserpro.com/install
https://wavebrowserpro.com/blue-install

PeterJones

Future Posters: remember, it is better to e-mail Don directly with malicious links, rather than to post them here

gaberilde

@PeterJones no problem