weird malware type thing

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Last night when I was on here, something strange kept happening. While I was reading or posting, my browser window would suddenly expand to take up the whole screen and a whole bunch of downloads would flood onto my desktop. It looked like multiple versions of the same web archive, all with the name of the same URL. I had to quit Safari to make it stop. At first, they looked like text files, but then they started showing up as "dual action files" or something like that (I'm not a computer expert by any means). It looked just like some malware I got from a random site once. Of course I deleted them all right away.

This seems to be connected to WP because I spent the rest of the evening on other sites and it didn't happen there. When I tried going back here, it happened again. If my computer was causing the problem, it would happen on other sites too, right?

Hmmm, the last time I ever had any malware from this site was when it tried to install DriveCleaner or something like that. Thankfully, my antivirus intercepted it. Malware, however, is AFAIK not around on this site, so perhaps it is doing these things...

Is this the only website you actually log into?

My advice: get Ad-Aware from Lavasoft, update it, and kill anything that it scans as malware.

No. I visit several forums of various sizes. There's one that I have to log into each time. On this one and the others, I'm automatically logged in. After the weird thing happened, I went to the other forums I visit, just to see if it had to do with the type of site as opposed to this site in particular. But it only happened here, and it happened about five times. On the other sites, everything was normal.

Does Ad-Aware work on Macs?

...on a mac? Macs generally do not have issues with that sort of thing.

Do you have anything extra installed alongside Safari? (Like PithHelmet) Have you downloaded the new version of Safari? (Out today, don't think it would help, but sometimes updates are like magic. Sometimes they just break your ability to play DVDs because Apple has no love for 12" powerbooks and their nvidia video cards. -___- )

That's another weird thing about it. This sort of thing has only happened to me once before during the time I've had this computer (nearly 2 years). It was a single web-archive-like file that downloaded from a random site that turned up in a Google search. I talked to a Mac expert about it and he said it was malware but it probably couldn't hurt my computer because those things are designed for Windows. And I managed to delete it before it finished downloading.



No.



I have the version that came with Tiger. Maybe I'll try the new version.

Update: The weird thing happened again tonight, even after I had logged out and then back in to see if that would prevent it from happening. It usually happens when I'm in the Random Discussion, but I kind of doubt that means anything. I tried downloading Ad-Aware, but it's for Windows only. Now I'm using Firefox, so I'll find out if it has to do with Safari.

What version of Safari do you use? There may be some update on Apple's website.

safari was updated today so unless he installed the update today, he isn't using the latest version.

I have an old version, the one that came with Tiger. Right now I'm using Firefox and it hasn't happened again so maybe it did have to do with that version of Safari.

Could be. The events only happening on this site has puzzled me...

It is puzzling. I'm still using Firefox. So far so good. I updated Safari, but I'm not in a hurry to try it with this site since Firefox is working out so well.

I have a wireless router that is not protected by a password due to my laziness. Might that have something to do with it?

I think protecting your router is a good idea.

An unprotected router is rather like parking your car, and taping the keys to the bonnet, along with a large notice saying "please drive me".

Last edited by lau on 19 Mar 2008, 12:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

this sounds more like a content encoding mismatch than any sort of malware. I suggest upgrading your browser and telling me exactly which version of Safari you're using.

I downloaded the new update for Safari. My computer says that I'm using Version 3.1 (4525.13).

After that thing happened, I unplugged my wireless router and packed it away. It was a good thing because I had to start packing anyway, since I was supposed to be moving to California. Now I'm in California, using a password-protected wireless network. I'm using Safari and the weird thing hasn't happened again. So maybe it did have to do with the unprotected wireless network back in Texas.

I use Firefox version 2.0.0.13 and while using this site sometimes get problems. The web page suddenly is much wider than the screen width so I have to use the horizontal scroll bar. Once the problem occurs it doesn't go away until I log out and restart the browser. Don't know if the problem is with Firefox or this site?

That's weird. It sounds a lot like what I was experiencing, except it only happened when I was using Safari.