Fake FF Update

Discussion of general topics about Mozilla Firefox
Post Reply
ruggb
Posts: 101
Joined: March 27th, 2004, 3:44 am

Fake FF Update

Post by ruggb »

I am trying to determine the trigger that presents this fake update screen.
I have experienced a few of them. The last one was blue and locked FF up so I had to shut it down and restart.
When I backtrack and redo my browsing I can't retrigger it.

Does anyone know how this just seems to randomly appear?
I think the only commonality is that it a appears on sites that have all those sensational junk links at the bottom.

The site itself I consider litigate - usually a "news" site.
Just trying to understand this mechanism.
User avatar
James
Moderator
Posts: 27999
Joined: June 18th, 2003, 3:07 pm
Location: Made in Canada

Re: Fake FF Update

Post by James »

A recent example of the fake "Firefox requires a manual update" page with a blue background is mentioned at https://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-big-searches/

This fake update page hosted on various sites is why there are a long list of extensions that have been blocked, usually with FF in name at addons.mozilla.org/blocked/ as some bug reports on it have a long list.

This may likely be due to some bad Ads as that was the general agreement for this Urgent Firefox Update version that occurred back in second half of 2016 and early 2017.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/i- ... fox-update
ruggb
Posts: 101
Joined: March 27th, 2004, 3:44 am

Re: Fake FF Update

Post by ruggb »

It has to be an ad since I did not click on anything, it just appeared. They apparently are also configured not to try to run more than once per IP address. That makes it difficult to determine which ad it is.
Brummelchen
Posts: 4480
Joined: March 19th, 2005, 10:51 am

Re: Fake FF Update

Post by Brummelchen »

to read:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14798261

it can happen on valid sites or on malicious sites - a hacked or fake ad server.
best method against is a decent blocker like ublock (i dont have experience with adblock plus, or noscript - which i dont like, crappy)
skuddle
Posts: 334
Joined: September 8th, 2012, 9:46 am

Re: Fake FF Update

Post by skuddle »

Please don't take this the wrong way but I'm curious...

If you don't have experience with noscript and you don't like it, why do you still post here? (Actually, I've found some of your responses to be quite helpful (to me, anyways).
* HP Pavilion Desktop 510-p114
* Windows 10 Home 22H2 19045.4046
* Firefox 124; Thunderbird 115.8
Brummelchen
Posts: 4480
Joined: March 19th, 2005, 10:51 am

Re: Fake FF Update

Post by Brummelchen »

and how much helps your comment out now?
User avatar
trolly
Moderator
Posts: 39851
Joined: August 22nd, 2005, 7:25 am

Re: Fake FF Update

Post by trolly »

Stop. Otherwise your posts will go to Locked.
Think for yourself. Otherwise you have to believe what other people tell you.
A society based on individualism is an oxymoron. || Freedom is at first the freedom to starve.
Constitution says: One man, one vote. Supreme court says: One dollar, one vote.
Post Reply