Chrome is blocking wired.com

[Matt_Cutts]

Often when this happens with a large site, it's because of an malware-laden ad. Typically with a smaller site, it's because the site was somehow hacked or didn't stay fully up-to-date on security patches.

Added: Looks like it was an actual hack, not just a bad ad. The Wired folks will want to make sure there's no more iframes from hxxp://zlu bob.org. Folks can use our free Fetch as Google tool to see what we see when we try to fetch a page. You can find out more about the Fetch as Google tool here: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/158587?hl=en

[dpcan]

This happens to many small business sites.

If they leave their WordPress un-patched, or have a crappy plugin installed with security holes, or their FTP info is guessed, etc, hackers drop some malicious Javascript on their sites, and the next thing you know, their site cannot be accessed in Chrome, and usually Firefox as well. Depending on what services pick-up on the bad javascript.

For me, it usually takes a day(ish) from the time we are notified of the issue, update the sites, remove the malware, install webmaster tools from Google, submit and wait for the review to be unblocked.

On one hand, this is very frustrating, but on the other hand, many small businesses would have no idea their site had been hacked without it being blocked.

The only thing I'd like to see personally is if Google were somehow able to notify the domain registrant of the block via email so they find out right away, and not after a few weeks (or longer) in some cases. Some small business owners don't check their sites very often. We like to monitor our client sites, but sometimes new clients come to us with these problems and have no idea how long they've been down.

[dannyr]

I connected my site to Google's Webmaster Tools.

I get notified via email when Google finds any issues on my site.

[jimhefferon]

Blocked for me, Ubuntu 13.10, Firefox 28.0.

The main page is not blocked but anything I click on is blocked.

Here is the Why page:

Safe Browsing Diagnostic page for wired.com/2014/04

What is the current listing status for wired.com/2014/04?

    Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this web site may harm your computer.

What happened when Google visited this site?

    Of the 135 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 0 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2014-04-05, and suspicious content was never found on this site within the past 90 days.

    This site was hosted on 12 network(s) including AS31377 (AKAMAI-BOS), AS701 (UUNET), AS12989 (HWNG).

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

    Over the past 90 days, wired.com/2014/04 did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.

Has this site hosted malware?

    No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

How did this happen?

    In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.

Next steps:

    Return to the previous page.
    If you are the owner of this web site, you can request a review of your site using Google Webmaster Tools. More information about the review process is available in Google's Webmaster Help Center.

[mef]

Chrome lists two images as "malware":

    http://www.wired.com/playbook/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/soccer_w.jpg

    http://www.wired.com/playbook/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/bike-press-w.jpg

Both return actual images, so perhaps at some point in the past when wired.com was scanned these URLs redirected to somewhere malicious?

Screenshot: http://cl.ly/image/1m3g3L2v3w3C

[tijs]

They had a 'technical issue' earlier today it seems:

"WIRED: @Freakonomicss @hoffin205 Yeah, we had a technical issue this morning, but our tech team fixed. Waiting for @googlechrome to clear us"

https://twitter.com/wired/status/452490353283588096

[lukeschlather]

Weird: http://safebrowsing.clients.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnost...

The page essentially says "We believe this page is suspicious, and we have no evidence to back up that claim."

EDIT: They must have updated it/ busted a cache. The page is now reporting some evidence.

[th3iedkid]

funny it says "Of the 20 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 0 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2014-03-25, and suspicious content was never found on this site within the past 90 days." does zero count to be blocked?

[fragmede]

I get: Malicious software is hosted on 1 domain(s), including zlubob.org/.

[marcusr]

It's blocking in Safari too so I think it's a MacOS diagnosis rather than a Chrome one perhaps? Or both browsers are detecting the same thing

[psykovsky]

Firefox 28 also detects it. On Ubuntu 14.04

[higherpurpose]

It's blocked in Windows, too.

[bunni]

This is almost always due to a malicious ad.

[jw2013]

The message I got when I proceed is:

------- The website at www.wired.com contains elements from sites which appear to host malware – software that can hurt your computer or otherwise operate without your consent. Just visiting a site that contains malware can infect your computer.

Below is a list of all the unsafe elements for the page. Click on the Diagnostic link for more information on the thread for a specific element.

Malware http://www.wired.com/playbook/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/soc... Safe Browsing diagnostic page

Malware http://www.wired.com/playbook/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/bik... Safe Browsing diagnostic page -------

I wonder what's wrong with these two pictures?

[JohnTHaller]

The wired homepage itself is fine for me, but Firefox 28.0 is blocking both of those images in your post along with any links I try to click from the Wired homepage.

[Stormcaller]

http://www.checkpoint.com/defense/advisories/public/2004/cpa... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7537719 maybe chrome can detect these even if they aren't using same dlls?

[jcrites]

I can reproduce on Chrome 33.0.1750.154 m on Windows 8. Screenshot: http://imgur.com/cUEZJYe

The safe browsing diagnostic page shows no negative current or previous reports for wired.com despite describing it as suspicious:

http://safebrowsing.clients.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnost...

> What is the current listing status for www.wired.com? This site is not currently listed as suspicious.

> Has this site hosted malware? No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

[aslewofmice]

Any chance it's related to this?

http://www.incapsula.com/blog/world-largest-site-xss-ddos-zo...

Security company found a vulnerable Alexa Top 50 site where someone was able to inject XSS code in the comments section creating "DDoS Zombies" of the visitors.

[btian]

Safari and Firefox are also blocking Wired.

[danielweber]

(I think I accidentally downvoted you, I'm sorry.)

[leephillips]

I just tried to go there using Chrome on Ubuntu and I got a malware warning: "Content from www.wired.com, a known malware distributor, has been inserted into this web page. Visiting this page now is very likely to infect your computer with malware."

[podperson]

Safari also -- not the home page but the articles. Showing up as phishing attack.

[JohnTHaller]

Sucuri shows wired.com as clean on all lists and not blocked by anyone: http://sitecheck3.sucuri.net/results/wired.com

[bingofuel]

Not on OSX (33.0.1750.152)

[tensenki]

Blocks on OSX for me (33.0.1750.152) Does not block on Safari Version 7.0.3 (9537.75.14)

[ghaff]

Yes on OSX 34.0.1847.11 beta

[kanche]

In my laptop (Win 7, Dell 1555):

Blocked in Chrome Version 33.0.1750.154 m

Not blocked in ie11, Firefox 20

In my Mobile (HTC One M7 4.4.2):

Neither blocked in Chrome(33.1) nor in the stock browser

Doesn't Android Chrome support malware detection?

[sgy]

They had some technical issue this morning, but it's supposedly fixed now. And they're just waiting for Chrome to unflag them.

[AzAngel]

The "more about" link shows that there are no malicious codes detected, etc. Maybe someone is sending false warnings?

[Jamie452]

I'm a little confused how a webpage can infect a machine with malware?

Is this typically through Java Applets/other plugins?

[zurn]

Exploiting programming errors in the browser is one way.

Because browsers are written in very unsafe programming languages (C++), bugs are regularly exploitable so that by specially crafting the bug-triggering input data they can be fooled to scribble content-controlled data inside the browser's memory space. For example, a memory handling bug might let the page overwrite some of the browser's code with data coming from the web page.

This lets the web page break into your computer, running arbitrary code of its choosing on your box.

Browser plugins can be similarly targeted instead of the browser itself.

[barkingcat]

having hacked websites serve infected or specially crafted files that exploit 0 day bugs is a very common vector actually. like 0 day PDF reader bugs - they spread by being linked to in phishing emails for example. people click on them and boom they load a bad PDF and are drive by infected.

specially crafted jpgs and gifs have also been used to exploit overflows in image handling code.

[yaur]

On a mainstream site like wired its almost always flash ads. It can also be jpegs (see http://www.checkpoint.com/defense/advisories/public/2004/cpa...) but this is rare/patched.

[emeraldd]

Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drive-by_download

There are in number of ways for nasty things to happen just by visiting a page.