Virus?

[yourlilemogirl]

Either way it's an issue that's causing our reputation to suffer.

Well, i got the heads up from LiveJournal via the Pokemon Community, warning the same thing:

Just a warning....
Bulbapedia is infected with viruses again. From personal experience combined with observation of reports from others, it appears there are at least two different viruses currently circulating on the site.

The first, which attacked me, was described as "HTTP JRE RMI Deserialize Code Execution" coming from "dongelon.com" at the IP address 188.72.198.230, 80. It was blocked so I do not know what effect this virus would have caused.

The second, which I have only just learned is still circulating on Bulbapedia after at least a year and a half to two years, is a fake security system that installs itself then tries to trick you into installing more viruses by offering a security system to remove the initial infection. The reason I say "still" is because this same virus, which is Mundo/Vundo based, hit me back in 2008 from Bulbapedia. As a result of it, I had to completely wipe my OS to get rid of the virus.

These viruses attack through the Bulbapedia ad server and there does not seem to be any rhyme or reason as to which ads the attacks come through. I strongly advise that you make absolutely sure AdBlock is on if you use Bulbapedia, and if you don't have it, avoid Bulbapedia at all costs. Potentially losing your entire OS to get rid of a virus is not a worthwhile price when the information can be found nearly anywhere.

Unfortunately, judging from this link, and the history of this issue over the past two years, the response, if any, will likely be lax. This ad server has had a pattern of problems yet little has been done about it, so I'm not getting my hopes up this time. The solution "log in" doesn't exactly work when the majority of visitors to the site likely came from Googling, for example, Pikachu, where Bulbapedia's Pikachu page is the #1 result.

Though i was wondering, does this affect the Forums as well?

 

[Dawn~Berlitz]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

but seriously though Avast and i think f-secure can help take care of the ads that have a virus of some sort

 

[SnorlaxMonster]

Though i was wondering, does this affect the Forums as well?

There are no ads on the forums, so it won't affect them at all.

 

[yourlilemogirl]

There are no ads on the forums, so it won't affect them at all.

good to know, thanks.

 

[MAGNEDETH]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

i dont see how someone's LJ gives 100% accurate information.
especially when that person appears to hate BP.

we have changed our ad guidelines around a bit and are not getting any current reports.
we may have the offending material quarantined.

 

[Master Mew]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

I am not suggesting the ads be removed.

However, this conversation seems to have taken a turn in the direction of "this situation isn't as serious as it was originally made out to be." Thus, I would like to reiterate: A virus which I am 99.99999% positive originated from Bulbapedia indirectly caused the loss of over 118 GB of data off my hard-drive, as well as 50% of my music (monetary value high enough I choose not to elaborate upon it) and a good deal of time setting the machine back up after having to reinstall the Operating System.

And I have (or rather "had" - lost the verification key and obviously can't reinstall it now) very expensive anti-virus software.

I, for one, feel this is a rather serious situation.

 

[Fig]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

It is indeed very serious. It is, however, limited in scope (that is: the number of affected user), which seems to indicate only one troubled ad (if any, but we're assuming there's one) out of the very many that potentially display. (This was the primary point of contention of earlier disagreements I won't further discuss).

Which is why we would rather investigate and try to isolate the ad responsible for this than throw the bathwater, the baby, the bathtub, the soap, the towel and the sink out all at once. We feel that, given the low virulence (ie, it seems to be a very rare occurence) this is the most reasonable approach.

Without going in too many details, I've been privy to enough communication to confirm that our staff is indeed taking this very seriously and working hard to identify the troublesome ad. As Magnedeth pointed out, we believe we've quarantined the troublesome ad.

 

[Hunter Blade]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

Even so, people can't totally blame the staff for not trying anything now, or in the past. I never had any problems the two years I used the Pedia before I finally joined it in '08.

Many people don't realize that if there is one ad in however many are allowed to go up, and there is a virus in them, the staff can't just snap their fingers and it goes away. The staff, the ad system's staff, and others all have to work together to identify the problem ad. After they find it, which they think they did, then they can eliminate either the virus, or the ad, if the virus can't be removed from it. And that's the simple version.

 

[Dawn~Berlitz]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

youguys get avast or f-secure and get a screenshot of the infected ad if u have time and post it here so the staff can take care of it

 

[Gligar13]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

All the ads are only on the 'pedia, the forums removed their ads a long time ago. And they used to dissappear if you logged in anyway.

As for those fake security ads, the best way to escape from them is to kill the process from task manager.

 

[Politoed666]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

Just a thought... the virus in the OP is probably the best virus I've ever heard of.

 

[MAGNEDETH]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

after having to reinstall the Operating System.

im not questioning you per-se, but are you sure that was the most necessary precaution? ive had to deal with my fair share of nasty viruses (be it my own computer or someone elses) and have never lost massive amounts of data (no more than 50mb i suppose), nor had to even reload Windows.

 

[Every Breaking Wave]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

Vundo is nasty; I had one earlier this year, and no amount of scans from numerous different virus protection programs could rid my computer of it. It didn't even show up on any them, except for Ad-Aware. Vundo definitely necessitates a reinstall; it's hard to detect, even harder to eliminate, and destroys the computer's internals.

 

[AiedailEclipsed]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

I got the antivirus virus, and I didn't need to reinstall my OS. Sure, there's probably more than that one virus out there, but this sounds EXACTLY like what I had. It was called AvTain or Antivirus Action. If this was the virus you had, it was your own fault. You overreacted and did something rashly before researching, certainly not our fault. The fact that you got the virus, sure, but our fault for you wiping the system? No.

 

[Falconwing]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

I think I picked it up a couple days ago. Avast caught it and I got rid of it. From the looks of things, there was no damage.

 

[Azure Butterfly]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

I've had the antivirus thing try to install itself before, but I managed to close the window and it couldn't download. Alt+F4 or Ctrl+Atl+Del should be enough to avoid this one in the case that it pops up, but the other might be more trouble...

 

[Frenzy Plant]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

I've had the antivirus thing try to install itself before, but I managed to close the window and it couldn't download. Alt+F4 or Ctrl+Atl+Del should be enough to avoid this one in the case that it pops up, but the other might be more trouble...

But the infection is still present, and will eventually get worse and worse to the point where you can't ignore it and your computer becomes extremely awkward to use. Try installing programs like CCleaner and Malwarebyte's Anti-Malware, they should get rid of it. Vundo is one of the most common infections I deal with at in my work (computer tech), and is fairly easy to deal with.

CCleaner is actually a great defense against it, as the infection itself sits in temporary files that CCleaner can delete before it spreads. Recent versions of CCleaner have added the capacity to "intelligently" ignore certain cookies when you clean your computer; you could delete the malware all together with CCleaner before it spreads throughout your system, without having to go through the (admittedly minor) inconvenience of logging into everything online again.

Although it's always best to run your anti-virus / anti-malware programs as a precaution.

PS. If you're using McAfee, it's been shit for detecting Vundo in my experience.

Hope this info is helpful to anyone infected.

 

[Buzz]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

I have McAfee. It's not so great with viruses and stuff =/

 

[Frenzy Plant]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

I have McAfee. It's not so great with viruses and stuff =/

McAfee is honestly very bad. If I see it on someone's computer I remove it. It's usually the cause of a lot of problems and often the only problem with my customers' computers.

It's very resource hungry, slows computers right down and interferes with their operation.

My recommendation, as an honest professional, would be to remove it and install something that's not as demanding on a computer but is also excellent at picking up virus and malware infections.

For example:
Microsoft Security Essentials - A genuinely good piece of software, from Microsoft of all people. For obvious reasons it works well on Windows and is very very efficient. It is also free.

Comodo - An alternative when installing MSE isn't viable, it's just as good and also free.

 

[Dawn~Berlitz]

Re: Virus? (Updated with Another Virus)

McAfee is honestly very bad. If I see it on someone's computer I remove it. It's usually the cause of a lot of problems and often the only problem with my customers' computers.

It's very resource hungry, slows computers right down and interferes with their operation.

My recommendation, as an honest professional, would be to remove it and install something that's not as demanding on a computer but is also excellent at picking up virus and malware infections.

For example:
Microsoft Security Essentials - A genuinely good piece of software, from Microsoft of all people. For obvious reasons it works well on Windows and is very very efficient. It is also free.

Comodo - An alternative when installing MSE isn't viable, it's just as good and also free.

Captain Kipper MSE uses stuff from mcafee cause Microsoft bought mcafee