4 ms·

Ask HN: Do some people avoid malware by not clicking links on social news sites?

8 points by amichail 4y ago

And if so, do you think this is rational behavior?

anenefan 4y ago
If not so savvy users have been burned once or twice by their poor habits of getting online and having a link shower, then yes, they'll typically blame certain areas of the web they've visited ... social media though is a good area to blame.
- amichail 4y ago
  What about rich savvy users? Don't they have a lot more to lose from malware?
  - anenefan 4y ago
    That's a tight subset, and I couldn't even guess what their browsing habits might be. However I could guess a savvy user has their firewall rules set sufficiently, disallowed a bunch of api scraping sites and may have installed additional safe browsing software. It might even include someone who's just got a good sense when a random link being dropped is bound to be full of nasties. The next question is, would they be spending much time on social media in the first place?
stmblast 4y ago
I'd argue it's reasonable behaviour depending on how dodgy the link is, but it doesn't prevent them getting malware in general, especially if they're not careful with regards to what kind of things they are downloading.
LinuxBender 4y ago
Aside from local security measures I preview sites through archive.ph [1] It might be a fun exercise to see if one could get the archive site to relay exploits. [1] - https://archive.ph/ https://archive.ph/
- ianai 4y ago
  Is that site itself reputable? I’ve gotten a weird impression from it the few times I’ve gone to it.
  - LinuxBender 4y ago
    Is that site itself reputable? No idea, but it does seem to defang some javascript whilst keeping a javascript-only site readable. I’ve gotten a weird impression from it the few times I’ve gone to it. Same. They do an incredible job of turning sites meant to be only viewed by the browser into a static site. I've only run across a couple of sites that manage to block them. There is probably an interesting story behind that. The nice thing is that I can keep all javascript neutering addons in place when using them. But maybe they do some IP correlation. No idea really.
    - blacksmith_tb 4y ago
      Some background discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28457655 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28457655 I am sure publishers don't consider it reputable... but I haven't ever had any problems with it.
m3047 4y ago
For someone versant with the technology, the question itself is irrational. Plenty of stuff can be delivered without user interaction or with deceptive interaction. "Avoid malware" is so innocent it almost makes me cry. The operationalized embodiment of this genuflection would be some appreciable amount of stuff will not be installed on my machine (some other way) if I don't click. It says nothing of malware which is installed on the site you're visiting or that won't be delivered some other way, but maybe that's of no concern to you. The question is: will you click on the (legitimate dialogue, maybe?) prompt (if there is one) warning you about installing something? Please decide how you will rationalize your behavior: 1) I thought it was a link on the web site; 2) I have antivirus software; 3) experts on HN said clicking / not clicking has no appreciable effect. Let's have fun with this: that popup from your bank's site which just showed up in front of that pr0n you were watching, ordering you to check your account immediately because an unauthorized transfer has been detected? Definitely legit. You should click that. Oh yeah, definitely. It's absolutely your bank, and my name is Danny Flanagan. You definitely should take mitigation measures, and you should be inside that OODA see -> click loop.
karmakaze 4y ago
For starters, I generally don't (directly) visit other social media/news sites. Any links that make it to the top pages of HN is less likely to carry malware. I do read some subreddits but they tend to have text-only submissions or images. On rare occasion uBlock Origin will flag a link. I'm also extra careful if I happen to be using a Windows machine which I typically only use for gaming.
omgmajk 4y ago
Somewhat related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34388866 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34388866

8 points by amichail 4y ago

And if so, do you think this is rational behavior?

If not so savvy users have been burned once or twice by their poor habits of getting online and having a link shower, then yes, they'll typically blame certain areas of the web they've visited ... social media though is a good area to blame.

amichail 4y ago
What about rich savvy users? Don't they have a lot more to lose from malware?
- anenefan 4y ago
  That's a tight subset, and I couldn't even guess what their browsing habits might be. However I could guess a savvy user has their firewall rules set sufficiently, disallowed a bunch of api scraping sites and may have installed additional safe browsing software. It might even include someone who's just got a good sense when a random link being dropped is bound to be full of nasties. The next question is, would they be spending much time on social media in the first place?

stmblast 4y ago

I'd argue it's reasonable behaviour depending on how dodgy the link is, but it doesn't prevent them getting malware in general, especially if they're not careful with regards to what kind of things they are downloading.

LinuxBender 4y ago

Aside from local security measures I preview sites through archive.ph [1] It might be a fun exercise to see if one could get the archive site to relay exploits. [1] - https://archive.ph/ https://archive.ph/

ianai 4y ago
Is that site itself reputable? I’ve gotten a weird impression from it the few times I’ve gone to it.
- LinuxBender 4y ago
  Is that site itself reputable? No idea, but it does seem to defang some javascript whilst keeping a javascript-only site readable. I’ve gotten a weird impression from it the few times I’ve gone to it. Same. They do an incredible job of turning sites meant to be only viewed by the browser into a static site. I've only run across a couple of sites that manage to block them. There is probably an interesting story behind that. The nice thing is that I can keep all javascript neutering addons in place when using them. But maybe they do some IP correlation. No idea really.
  - blacksmith_tb 4y ago
    Some background discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28457655 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28457655 I am sure publishers don't consider it reputable... but I haven't ever had any problems with it.

m3047 4y ago

For someone versant with the technology, the question itself is irrational. Plenty of stuff can be delivered without user interaction or with deceptive interaction. "Avoid malware" is so innocent it almost makes me cry. The operationalized embodiment of this genuflection would be some appreciable amount of stuff will not be installed on my machine (some other way) if I don't click. It says nothing of malware which is installed on the site you're visiting or that won't be delivered some other way, but maybe that's of no concern to you. The question is: will you click on the (legitimate dialogue, maybe?) prompt (if there is one) warning you about installing something? Please decide how you will rationalize your behavior: 1) I thought it was a link on the web site; 2) I have antivirus software; 3) experts on HN said clicking / not clicking has no appreciable effect. Let's have fun with this: that popup from your bank's site which just showed up in front of that pr0n you were watching, ordering you to check your account immediately because an unauthorized transfer has been detected? Definitely legit. You should click that. Oh yeah, definitely. It's absolutely your bank, and my name is Danny Flanagan. You definitely should take mitigation measures, and you should be inside that OODA see -> click loop.

karmakaze 4y ago

For starters, I generally don't (directly) visit other social media/news sites. Any links that make it to the top pages of HN is less likely to carry malware. I do read some subreddits but they tend to have text-only submissions or images. On rare occasion uBlock Origin will flag a link. I'm also extra careful if I happen to be using a Windows machine which I typically only use for gaming.

omgmajk 4y ago

Somewhat related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34388866 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34388866