Google Malware issue

Webmaster Discussion
,
#1

I just got this, sent to all my emails

Dear site owner or webmaster of boycocktube.com,
We recently discovered that some of your pages can cause users to be infected with malicious software. We have begun showing a warning page to users who visit these pages by clicking a search result on Google.com.

Below are some example URLs on your site which can cause users to be infected (space inserted to prevent accidental clicking in case your mail client auto-links URLs):

http://boycocktube .com/
http://www.boycocktube .com/

Here is a link to a sample warning page:
http://www.google.com/interstitial?url=http%3A//boycocktube.com/

We strongly encourage you to investigate this immediately to protect your visitors. Although some sites intentionally distribute malicious software, in many cases the webmaster is unaware because:

  1. the site was compromised
  2. the site doesn’t monitor for malicious user-contributed content
  3. the site displays content from an ad network that has a malicious advertiser
    If your site was compromised, it’s important to not only remove the malicious (and usually hidden) content from your pages, but to also identify and fix the vulnerability. We suggest contacting your hosting provider if you are unsure of how to proceed. StopBadware also has a resource page for securing compromised sites:
    http://www.stopbadware.org/home/security

Once you’ve secured your site, you can request that the warning be removed by visiting
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=45432
and requesting a review. If your site is no longer harmful to users, we will remove the warning.

Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team

Note: if you have an account in Google’s Webmaster Tools, you can verify the authenticity of this message by logging into https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/siteoverview and going to the Message Center, where a warning will appear shortly.

Anyone got any ideas? :grrr:

#2

Re: Google Malware issue

Yeah, it likely has to do with your openx installation. There was some kind of security exploit reported last month. Upgrading it to the latest version should fix the problem.

You can then go into your Google Webmaster Tools area and have them review your site(s). They’re pretty quick about removing the malware warning once corrected and submitted to them.

#3

Re: Google Malware issue

I’d say it’s Openx as well. Not only do you have to upgrade it you’ll also have to look for malicious code in your database as well as bogus users.

#4

Re: Google Malware issue

Hey Richard, I had Google fistfuck me on my social networks yesterday for that same problem with openx installation. Step 1, upgrade it. Step 2, run these queries on your database:

UPDATE ox_banners SET append = null, prepend = null
WHERE append LIKE ‘%ifra%’ OR prepend LIKE ‘%ifra%’;

UPDATE ox_zones SET append = null, prepend = null
WHERE append LIKE ‘%ifra%’ OR prepend LIKE ‘%ifra%’;

That will clean it. Then you can login to google webmaster tools, click Diagnostics, and Malware, then click Request Review.

People will need to close their browser and reload it to get an updated blacklist after you’re off of it.

:slight_smile: