Comments on: Experts predict Firefox spyware will show up this year

By: notagain

notagain — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 17:58:34 +0000

Hmm, still not getting the pop-up. Tried browsing around the forums as well. Even tried turning off ad-block to see if that might be it. Still no pop-ups…

By: Chris G.

Chris G. — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 22:43:36 +0000

Actually, I don’t believe Firefox can intentionally get infected by spyware in the way IE normally does.

When you attempt to install an extension into Firefox from any site other then update.mozilla.org, Firefox blocks the installation. The only way to install a blocked XPI is to either 1) manually download it by right-clicking the link and clicking save as… (which only longtime Mozilla users even know you can do) or 2) adding the domain where the XPI is hosted to a whitelist.

This blocks the most common cases of spyware, which pop-up with an ActiveX install dialog when you visit a site. Most users are stupid enough to click ‘Yes’ everytime.

This does not however block a security vulnerbility being taken advantage of and spyware installed via that method. It also doesn’t prevent spyware from being installed by a program you download and install like any exe (common with some games and programs I have noticed).

So in theory, as long as spyware doesn’t get into update.mozilla.org…cases of Firefox spyware shouldn’t be that high…hopefully.

Anyways, IMHO, the only way to take on spyware is to treat them as viruses and get antivirus programs to detect spyware installation just as well as they detect viruses. Right now the spyware detection of antivirus programs is absolutely pathetic…most “protection” from spyware comes from the cleanup afterwards.

By: Scrivs

Scrivs — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 22:43:26 +0000

I get it when I click on the forums tab.

By: notagain

notagain — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 22:39:54 +0000

So, where do you get popups on sitepoint??? I’m trying and haven’t found one. How do they come up?

Using firefox 1.0

By: Scrivs

Scrivs — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 22:04:36 +0000

And what makes you think Google would create a browser from scratch? You don’t think they will use existing technology which could have holes in it to exploit? Please man. I love Google, but I don’t see that much more innovation that can come from browser kingdom. Just show me a page and let me click the links.

And yes bypassing a technologies’ popup blocking scheme is annoying because if one site can do, then every site can do it.

By: thyrium

thyrium — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 21:52:48 +0000

OMFG, A POPUP!

It’s really not that fucking bad. It’s not like you get them everyday or anything…

And so what if FireFox get’s bombarded with spyware?

That’s just all the more reason for GOOGLE to create the Best Browser EVER!

By: The Wolf

The Wolf — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 21:15:29 +0000

http://www.drudgereport.com doesn’t give me any popup windows…

I’m shocked at sitepoint, what a bunch of wankers!

By: Ray

Ray — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 21:00:27 +0000

Ever visited http://www.drudgereport.com? I’ve used Firefox through the last two or three versions and that site has ALWAYS been able to create a popup. But only once a day. Annoying? You bet…

By: B. Adam

B. Adam — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 19:30:02 +0000

Sitepoint isn’t really “bypassing” pop-up blockers — they just don’t show you a pop-up until you click the mouse. Which is unabashedly annoying (and against so many of the things they preach about on the site itself) and why I only visit the site via RSS.

By: pasta

pasta — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 18:49:45 +0000

Well, actually there already have been a few reports of spyware for Firefox. However, oddly enough, they infected Internet Explorer with a toolbar. I don’t know what kind of effect it would have on *Nix based systems. :)