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Google Is Now Listing SourceForge as a Malicious Site

235 points| irl_zebra | 10 years ago |i.imgur.com | reply

56 comments

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[+] dkns|10 years ago|reply
I'm guessing OP took this from reddit thread. If you read that thread you'll see that it's not sourceforge but this one project. So this title is misleading.

Edit: Thread: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/3a9h9x/soureforg...

Response from one user that sourceforge is actually whitelisted by google: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/3a9h9x/soureforg...

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

[+] k_roy|10 years ago|reply
UBlock is actually blocking all of SF
[+] davidgerard|10 years ago|reply
Looks like the malware-bearing projects need some reporting, then!
[+] derekp7|10 years ago|reply
I've seen a few differing reports on what SourceForge is doing. From what I gather so far:

1) Originally (a couple years back or so), they started (as an opt in from the project owners) bundling adware with the Windows versions of installers on selected projects.

2) Recently, SourceForge editors have taken over abandoned projects (i.e., projects that no longer use SourceForge as their primary distribution page, and haven't updated the project pages), and have replaced the installers for some of them with their adware-bundled installers.

3) A firestorm erupted over this, SF stated that they would back away from the adware (on taken-over pages -- it would still be present on projects with an agreement from the project owners).

4) They are still taking over abandoned projects and updating them.

Now my question -- for point (4), are they just updating the project download pages with the current versions, or are they still bundling their adware with the projects? Everything I've seen so far (after their "apology" post), it appears that they haven't done any new adware bundling, just taking over the projects. Is this the case? And if so, is the concern that they will slip in the adware in the future?

[+] phkahler|10 years ago|reply
Let us keep SourceForge in mind as GitHub goes public.
[+] api|10 years ago|reply
GitHub has a paid business model, so I think they're less likely to be tempted by the dark side. SourceForge is another cautionary tale about how "free is a lie" -- how free leads directly to scummy business models.
[+] davidgerard|10 years ago|reply
Not happening for me when I go to that link from Google in Firefox. Can anyone else reproduce this?

edit: Now happening for me in Chromium. (Both of these on Xubuntu 14.04, versions from the repos.)

[+] s_dev|10 years ago|reply
No warning for me either on Chrome Version 43.0.2357.124 (64-bit) on a Mac running Yosemite and I'm based in Dublin, Ireland.

I can reproduce it if I visit exactly: http://sourceforge.net/projects/camstudio/

but not http://sourceforge.net/ on it's own. Perhaps they only apply the warning to malicious projects rather than the site as a whole.

[+] m3Lith|10 years ago|reply
Nope, can freely access the site on both latest versions of Chrome and Chromium. Though the project seems to have moved from that page already.
[+] runarb|10 years ago|reply
Blocked for me when using Chrome Versjon 42.0.2311.90 on Windows 7.
[+] dantudor|10 years ago|reply
Yes happens for me in Chrome. Welcome news!
[+] solomatov|10 years ago|reply
I love google for this and many other ways the fight abuse of browser users. First, they removed CA, which produced a bad certificate, and now sf with their bundles.
[+] unknown|10 years ago|reply

[deleted]

[+] Jgrubb|10 years ago|reply
I find it hard to believe that SF's monthly uniques were growing at 150% YoY until just 2 months ago.
[+] manigandham|10 years ago|reply
Compete just guesses at data based off of small panel surveys, that's far from accurate.
[+] longsleep|10 years ago|reply
U-Block origin is blocking SourceForge as well (||sourceforge.net^$other)
[+] k-mcgrady|10 years ago|reply
I was just looking into U-Block. What's better to use: U-Block or U-Block Origin?
[+] andor|10 years ago|reply
[+] AndrewOMartin|10 years ago|reply
Interestingly (to me) this link is blocked by my ad blocker, rather than Google.

> uBlock₀ has prevented the following page from loading: > http://sourceforge.net/projects/lame/ > Because of the following filter > ||sourceforge.net^

[+] istvan__|10 years ago|reply
Damn machine learning software. :) Google needs to tune some of the parameters.
[+] lectrick|10 years ago|reply
Oh how the mighty have fallen
[+] api|10 years ago|reply
Because it is.
[+] tzgur8|10 years ago|reply
People always complain about the power that countries hold. Tech superpowers hold a lot more, and yet nobody elects or really regulates them.
[+] zevyoura|10 years ago|reply
Which "tech super power" has a military and nukes?
[+] ra1n85|10 years ago|reply
Terrible analogy.

Tech superpowers cannot coerce me through (direct) regulation or force.

[+] unknown|10 years ago|reply

[deleted]

[+] upofadown|10 years ago|reply
Not unless Google is bricking the phones on purpose. That is after all the very definition of the word "malicious".

In terms of security/privacy a bricked smart phone is much improved...