Safari hijack? "updateplayer.us" demanding to be installed!

sgould

sgould

Registered
On holiday in France from UK. MacBook Pro. OSX 10.9.2 Safari 7.0.3

Last night I was in the hotel, connected to the internet using the hotel wi-fi "WifiPass from Passman". Safari suddenly posted a new page in a new tab from "updateplayer.us" demanding an "urgent update to FlashPlayer" and a pop-up window that only had an "OK" button and no cancel. Nothing worked on Safari. Could not close windows, etc.

I clicked nothing. Force Quit Safari. Restarted computer and it all reappeared. Force Quit again. Cleared History. Got into Prefs and blocked pop-ups. Opened Safari (can't remember exactly the order of this - it was very late!). Got the "updateplayer" page without the pop-up and closed the tab. Cleared History. Restarted computer and it seems to have gone away. But.....

Is there anything I can check or clear to make sure all is OK?

It seemed to happen when I was using Photobucket, but I can't be 100% sure.
 
Thanks again. Now at a different hotel and it all seems back to normal. I ran through the checks shown in the link and found nothing. If any more turns up. I will have another go.
 
As I said earlier, I suspected Photobucket. Now I'm pretty sure! There's an adlink to a Genieo download on my photobucket today. Although the ads there can follow previous things you click, so it may be an effect rather than a cause.
 
sgould said:
As I said earlier, I suspected Photobucket. Now I'm pretty sure! There's an adlink to a Genieo download on my photobucket today. Although the ads there can follow previous things you click, so it may be an effect rather than a cause.
Click to expand...
You are probably in error. There is a lot of Internet between Photobucket.com and your computer. SPAMMING is much more sophisticated now that it used to be. Google Ads has helped Google become one of the largest companies on Earth using a business model that most users don't even know exist. There are companies out there that make Google Ads look like a model of rectitude. They can intercept your connection and insert content into your stream. Neither the website that you are visiting nor your computer have any knowledge of the interception because neither the server nor your computer was penetrated.
 
sgould said:
As I said earlier, I suspected Photobucket. Now I'm pretty sure! There's an adlink to a Genieo download on my photobucket today. Although the ads there can follow previous things you click, so it may be an effect rather than a cause.
Click to expand...

I starting to think your other problem and this might be related. What ever happened in the other thread?
 
I've had no start up problems since the last reported one about a month ago. I've done all the upgrades since then too.

I had a brief panic today, and I'm now thinking that it might have been the same thing that caused the adware link to appear last time. I now think it's likely that I accidentally clicked on one of the many ad links around the photobucket page. Some are decidedly risky.

When I get home from holiday next week, I'm going to ditch photobucket, and all the other stuff, and get some webspace from my local ISP. My wife runs her website from there, and there have been no problems with that in nearly three years.
 
Or you can get the AdBlock Extension for Safari. Which probably is a good idea all by itself.
 
That was going to be my next question!! :)

Moved on to another hotel, different wifi. Let's see what happens tonight.
 
Make sure you clear the cache and cookies. Plus open System Preferences->Flash Player and delete all the Flash cookies too.
 
All done. No problems at all far. Computer works OK. No intrusions in my bank account. No spam. All seems normal.

Slight panic yesterday at a new hotel, but the owner had installed his wi-fi extender incorrectly. All fixed. :)

Just got to fix the car so that we can drive the 800 miles home. Remote locking is playing up and the fuel cap won't unlock every time. There's a loose wire somewhere. But I'm an engineer and I have a big hammer and a big long bar!! That opens most things....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top