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Could you give some examples of malware that you reported that are still there? What conditions do you use to classify extensions as malware?

by slacka 12y ago

ocdtrekkie 12y ago
A good example of Vosteran New Tab. Almost two million users, none or near none of which are consensual users. Nobody I've ever uninstalled that from ever intended to install it. It hijacks your new tab page and search. Interestingly enough, Vosteran also produces a rogue fork of Chrome which makes Vosteran's own search/ad platform built-in and unavoidable. Said rogue fork is also installed without users' permission. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/vosteran-new-tab/oilkkkefbalmbfppgjmgjoefbclebkce https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/vosteran-new-tab/o... I invite you to peruse the first five pages of search results here and make your own assumptions about the legitimacy of all it's five star ratings: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=vosteran https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=vosteran
- username223 12y ago
  Hm, let's take a look at Vosteran. From Wikipedia[1]: "Vosteran is a browser hijacker that changes a browser's home page and default search provider to vosteran.com. This infection is essentially distributed bundled with other third-party applications. Vosteran carries the PUP virus. The identity of Vosteran is protected by privacyprotect.org from Australia." Okay, so it's malware. Let's check out their webpage[2]! Hm, they give a physical address at 28 Lilienbulm St. in Tel Aviv... as an image, to avoid search engines. Let's look at their "how-to-get-rid-of-this-crap-I-don't-want" process[3], which "shouldn't take more than 10 minutes": so they basically put their tentacles into any crevice they can find, and make it annoying to pry them out. Let's see if it's easy to see who runs this bit of evil... nope. They're amoral scum. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_hijacking#Vosteran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_hijacking#Vosteran [2] http://www.vosteransearch.com/contact-us/ http://www.vosteransearch.com/contact-us/ [3] http://www.vosteransearch.com/how-to-remove/ http://www.vosteransearch.com/how-to-remove/
  - ocdtrekkie 12y ago
    And Google has received reports for it, but clearly thinks there's nothing wrong with it being there.

Could you give some examples of malware that you reported that are still there? What conditions do you use to classify extensions as malware?

by slacka 12y ago

Could you give some examples of malware that you reported that are still there? What conditions do you use to classify extensions as malware?

ocdtrekkie 12y ago

A good example of Vosteran New Tab. Almost two million users, none or near none of which are consensual users. Nobody I've ever uninstalled that from ever intended to install it. It hijacks your new tab page and search. Interestingly enough, Vosteran also produces a rogue fork of Chrome which makes Vosteran's own search/ad platform built-in and unavoidable. Said rogue fork is also installed without users' permission. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/vosteran-new-tab/oilkkkefbalmbfppgjmgjoefbclebkce https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/vosteran-new-tab/o... I invite you to peruse the first five pages of search results here and make your own assumptions about the legitimacy of all it's five star ratings: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=vosteran https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=vosteran

username223 12y ago
Hm, let's take a look at Vosteran. From Wikipedia[1]: "Vosteran is a browser hijacker that changes a browser's home page and default search provider to vosteran.com. This infection is essentially distributed bundled with other third-party applications. Vosteran carries the PUP virus. The identity of Vosteran is protected by privacyprotect.org from Australia." Okay, so it's malware. Let's check out their webpage[2]! Hm, they give a physical address at 28 Lilienbulm St. in Tel Aviv... as an image, to avoid search engines. Let's look at their "how-to-get-rid-of-this-crap-I-don't-want" process[3], which "shouldn't take more than 10 minutes": so they basically put their tentacles into any crevice they can find, and make it annoying to pry them out. Let's see if it's easy to see who runs this bit of evil... nope. They're amoral scum. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_hijacking#Vosteran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_hijacking#Vosteran [2] http://www.vosteransearch.com/contact-us/ http://www.vosteransearch.com/contact-us/ [3] http://www.vosteransearch.com/how-to-remove/ http://www.vosteransearch.com/how-to-remove/
- ocdtrekkie 12y ago
  And Google has received reports for it, but clearly thinks there's nothing wrong with it being there.