A virus on the site?

In the past few days I've had a number of people report that there seems to be a virus on the site. I've also had it happen to me twice that I'll try to load a page of the site and instead be transferred to a spam site.

Could you all let me know if you're having similar problems. The more info I have, the easier it will be to track down the source of the problem.

I suspect the virus is being loaded onto the site via the ads, and I've contacted the ad hosting company. But there's a remote possibility a virus is actually on my server.

Anyway, I'm working on the problem.

Miscellaneous

Posted on Mon Jan 05, 2009


Comments

I had something very similar happen on my site once, I thought it was in my server but it turns out it was a malicious code embedded in a flash banner ad that was in my sidebar, I'd check the ads first before panicking if I were you.

And - it didn't happen to me just now when I clicked through from Google Reader. I'm using Firefox 3.0.5 if it means anything, I know different browsers handle pops and codes differently sometimes...
Posted by jean  on  Mon Jan 05, 2009  at  09:41 AM
No problems here today or yesterday. Using Firefox 3.0.5 with a number of flashbanner blocking add-ons. So it could be an ad banner indeed.
Posted by LaMa  on  Mon Jan 05, 2009  at  01:31 PM
Yesterday, any time I clicked on a link to a thread, I'd get an interception warning me that the page about to load may have malware on it, and I shouldn't continue.

I didn't.
Posted by JoeDaJuggler  on  Mon Jan 05, 2009  at  04:00 PM
No problem today!
Posted by JoeDaJuggler  on  Mon Jan 05, 2009  at  04:06 PM
I am not a member. but i like to read you site. I got a virus
Posted by Christine Haq  on  Mon Jan 05, 2009  at  05:59 PM
No problem for the last few days but I have been redirected to another site in the past week or two.
Posted by Sharruma  on  Mon Jan 05, 2009  at  06:22 PM
i visited your site recently about 1 day or 2 ago and yes i officially have a virus. i was bored so i went to your site then afterwards i finished browsing around i decided to turn it off and go to sleep. the next day i went back on the internet and have many many pop ups and just knew i had a virus. its a bunch of ads and different vacationing spots and many others. its keeps popping up and ruining my internet and freezing my computer.
Posted by Diane  on  Mon Jan 05, 2009  at  08:13 PM
I haven't had trouble here but I did on The Comics Curmudgeon site. Though I was using AOL, the browser started repeatedly downloading in Explorer. I've since stayed away from CC but am still having problems. Will probably have to do more tinkering. If you and the Curmudgeon share an ad, it might be a likely suspect.
Posted by Phred22  on  Mon Jan 05, 2009  at  08:45 PM
Using Firefox 3.0.5.........No problem here.
Posted by la798  on  Mon Jan 05, 2009  at  08:50 PM
Thanks for all the feedback. It's now confirmed that it was a virus piggybacking on ad script. The ad server says they've taken care of the problem. We'll see.
Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Mon Jan 05, 2009  at  11:28 PM
There might be a problem with a malicious .htaccess file installed on your server. A ham radio site I visited had this problem which only manifested itself if I got there via a google redirect. If I typed the URL manually, I got the correct site. If I searched and clicked on the google link, it sent me to the XP Antivirus (Russian, of course!) site.
Posted by Tom  on  Tue Jan 06, 2009  at  07:33 AM
No problem here...on a Mac 😜
Posted by HMM  on  Tue Jan 13, 2009  at  08:52 AM
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