FireFox infected my computer!

[southernlady]

Oh, and btw, that was written by the same *paperghost* that posted in this thread: http://www.techist.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45613

See his posts #20, 21, 32, 33, 35, and 37.

Post #21:

this WILL work in opera with the right permissions enabled

#35

The sad thing is, only Mozilla came back to me with a response - the other vendors haven't as of yet. Though that speaks volumes for Mozilla's willingness to take on such a problem.

For more of his comments, either go read the rest of the thread again or go to his site: www.vitalsecurity.org Liz

 

[yELLOthar]

I know I may be in a dead topic, but ignorance kills me. I registered just to say this, and will probably never come back, but:

1. FireFox will not make browsing 100% safe, only safer.

2. Avast is IMO one of the best free Antivirus systems, better than a lot of paid ones...

3. Kerio Personal Firewall is one of the best free firewalls. It is free to download, but after 30 days you will lose the paying member benifits, stuff that only advanced users need, all the firewall and stuff stays. I use the free version, it works.

4. Spybot S&D is the best thing for getting rid of spyware. It works great and fast. I dissagree with all of that scanning twice a week, I scan about once every few months, and I do not have spyware. Avast watches everything, mail and messengers, and KPF watches ALL incoming and outgoing connections. If spyware got onto my computer, it would automatically be taken care of, but it rarely does because KPF and Avast are constantly scanning my Incoming/Outgoing connections!

5. RegSeeker will clean up your registry. I run it after I run Spybot S&D, I must say it is the fastest, and best Registry Cleaner I have used. The first time I used it it cleaned out a couple thousand no longer needed/harmful entrys. A must have IMO.

That is the best combination I can tell you. About FireFox opening IE, that is simply untrue. You had spyware and it goes through IE because FireFox blocks popups. I know this because FlashGet, I downloading program I used to use made popups appear while you were using it. FireFox didn't open IE, you just had spyware.

I got to crack/warez/emulation/roms and plenty of other "1337 hacker sites" and I do not get anything. My system is completely secure, just make sure to have SP2 as well, and don't use the Windows Firewall and KPF, turn the windows one off.

Thank you for your time, goodbye!

 

[shuaibao]

Well, i am not sure if I got infected by them, but Avast found alot of trojans in the program files/180solutions. I blame FF. Nothing happend with Opera

get a firewall and sp2: it may be that your computer was already too infected with 180 that it didn't get much off of opera. Opera may be the faulty one.

 

[shuaibao]

no i was saying that the link made an activex control come. since firefox don't have it, IE open up, follow by the viruses, trojans etc.

sometime IE will open up in the background and you won't see it.
that use to happen to me on the crack sites with netscape. back then I
ended up using opera to browse the crack sites, because as major had said, it didn't happen with opera. somehow it just didn't

OF COURSE! Remember to set Firefox as your default browser too!

 

[southernlady]

About FireFox opening IE, that is simply untrue. You had spyware and it goes through IE because FireFox blocks popups.

Firefox: more debate

Friday, March 18, 2005
Firefox: more debate

...because debate is good, right? However, the debate caused by the Firefox article has taken two directions, intelligent and stupid.

The intelligent debates asked whether the applet would install automatically with no user interaction if the certificate was valid, or whether it would work on a Linux system (it would - it just wouldn't do anything fromthat site as it was downloading a Win32 Executable).

Once a browser vendor has said its a browser issue, then its a browser issue - end of story. Our opinion of what it is or isnt doesnt really mean much after that. Seeing as how Mozilla security team actually got involved in this, it would have been rather odd to then slant the article towards Opera / Netscape / someone else.

Fact: The "exploit" can be carried out on any browser that supports Sun Java Runtime (including IE presumably, though that one wasn't tested!)

Not true. There have been well documented difficulties getting this to work on Opera for various reasons depending on browser and java version. They seem to be having more success with this now, but it still seems a touch hit and miss. Also, the install is "intelligent" - it detects what browser you are using and then launches the appropriate install method. If youre using IE, you get an active x prompt. If youre using Firefox you will get the applet.

So the assertion that "Every single browser is going to pop up a similar warning when it encounters this particular Java applet", is utterly, utterly wrong.

The Lyricspy site has a JavaScript launcher which decides installation method. That installation method is this:

(IE) use the activeX installer
(Netscape/Mozilla) use the Java installer

Not exactly the same for every browser!

I think an Ed Bott quote is in order:

Ed Bott: There is nothing that prevents IE from running this as well. That's not news. But there is nothing that prevents Firefox from running this, and that IS news.

The fact that it works on other browsers is irrelevant - if you're specifically talking about Firefox, you have to admit that it works.

Fact: A user must click to "approve" the exploit.

And how many spyware installs are caused by just that? Its not good enough to simply say the "stupid end user gets what they deserve" when they click "yes" to an applet, even an untrusted / unsigned one.

The applet itself downloads a native executable binary (PE file) into the Windows temp directory where it then executes. Nowhere in the applet does it say anything about doing that - and the average user would not worry much about such a warning, because they have the (incorrect) notion that Java applets only operate inside a sandbox. With this install, the sandbox doesn't even come into it. The install is done by the PE file that the Java applet downloads and runs - the applet is just a gateway.

Add to that the fact that many average users using Firefox will be under the misguided notion that theyre "safe" because there's no Active-X and Xpis are "secured" and its quite right to assume this would catch more people out than a regular, bog standard popup appearing whilst using IE.

After all, you're "Using the browser you can trust", right?

So what you just said, isn't true any longer...they've figured a way around it...Firefox isn't invincible. Liz

 

[ZeroX]

My system is completely secure,

I doubt it:amazed:

 

[EricB]

what the big deal? nothing in the computer world is truly safe.

but some things are safer than others (way safer). there will never be an invincible browser. but you will have a safer alternative

 

[yELLOthar]

No, it truly is secure. I ran Avast (it is updated by the way...) and Spybot yesterday and not one thing showed, and I always do the most thorough search Avast can when I do do it. Absolutely nothing was on my computer. That was also the first time I scanned and stuff in 2 months. As far as I'm concerned, I'm secure. Sure, if someone really wanted to get me they could, but as far as spyware and viruse/trojans, nothing to worry about here.

 

[EricB]

avast is really good antivirus. it act like a firewall too, sometimes