Annoying web page won't close

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sirabc
Posts: 5
Joined: November 19th, 2006, 9:26 am

Annoying web page won't close

Post by sirabc »

http://ww2.degr eeusa.com/?crid=edu8c&OID=6505&wjap=1&xid=0&CID=115895
Link broken by moderator SKopischke. Reassemble at your own risk.

The above is a link to a popup ad.

This annoying popup won't close unless firefox is turned off through the windows task manager or you hit the ok button that pops up. I'm always cautious about hitting any buttons on popups, perferring to close the tab/window---that is why I find this type of popup very troublesome.

Since the popup can't be shut down unless the ok button is clicked; could this be a way to make a user execute malicious code?
Anonymosity
Posts: 8779
Joined: May 7th, 2007, 12:07 pm

Post by Anonymosity »

Do you mean that the popup has no titlebar with a close window button at the end? I tried that link. It is about getting a university degree. It was a normal web page which caused no popups. It is possible to make popup windows have whatever components of normal windows you want to have. These settings will give popups the same parts that a normal window has.
user_pref("dom.disable_window_move_resize", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.close", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.location", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.menubar", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.resizable", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.status", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.titlebar", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.toolbar", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_status_change", true);
sirabc
Posts: 5
Joined: November 19th, 2006, 9:26 am

Post by sirabc »

Okay. Originally, I got the popup at Boxtorrent.com. It did have a titlebar and when I tried closing the window by hitting the close button, another window would popup---it has the word "confirm" in the titlebar and two buttons( ok and cancel). Since I didn't want to click either button, I used the escape key to close this window and tried alt+F4 to close the popup, but that "confirm" window would popup again. I tried right clicking on the taskbar and closing firefox, but that didn't work. I finally used the task manager to close it.

I even tried loading another page on top of it, but that "confirm" window would popup. Also there is a window on top of the webpage that would load another ad every time I tried closing it.

Below is a screencap of firefox with the popup.

http://www.geocities.com/nikmabc/damnpopup.jpg
sirabc
Posts: 5
Joined: November 19th, 2006, 9:26 am

Post by sirabc »

I did more testing and found out that it is a javascript. Disabling javascript will prevent it from running. If the page was loaded with javascipts enabled, disabling it will not stop the popups.

I tried the link on another computer and got the same page with popup. My guess is that you might have javascipts off and so avoided the annoyance.
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Gingerbread Man
Posts: 7735
Joined: January 30th, 2007, 10:55 am

Post by Gingerbread Man »

If I go to http://boxtorrent.com, I get the information toolbar that says, "Firefox prevented this site from opening a popup window". Make sure you're blocking pop-ups under Tools > Options > Content > Block popup windows.

If that doesn't help, see this knowledgebase article:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked

Also, Adblock Plus with Filterset.G will get rid of a lot of pop-ups that might get by the pop-up blocker.
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scratch
Posts: 4942
Joined: November 6th, 2002, 1:27 am
Location: Massachusetts

Post by scratch »

sirabc wrote:Okay. Originally, I got the popup at Boxtorrent.com. It did have a titlebar and when I tried closing the window by hitting the close button, another window would popup---it has the word "confirm" in the titlebar and two buttons( ok and cancel). Since I didn't want to click either button, I used the escape key to close this window and tried alt+F4 to close the popup, but that "confirm" window would popup again. I tried right clicking on the taskbar and closing firefox, but that didn't work. I finally used the task manager to close it.

I even tried loading another page on top of it, but that "confirm" window would popup. Also there is a window on top of the webpage that would load another ad every time I tried closing it.

Below is a screencap of firefox with the popup.

http://www.geocities.com/nikmabc/damnpopup.jpg


clicking either "OK" or "Cancel" on a javascript confirm dialog like that shouldn't be much of a risk. the only dialogs you really need to worry about clicking in firefox are extension install dialogs, as those can potentially do some nasty things.
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scratch
Posts: 4942
Joined: November 6th, 2002, 1:27 am
Location: Massachusetts

Post by scratch »

Gingerbread Guy wrote:If I go to http://boxtorrent.com, I get the information toolbar that says, "Firefox prevented this site from opening a popup window". Make sure you're blocking pop-ups under Tools > Options > Content > Block popup windows.


a lot of popups sneak by the popup blocker these days by piggybacking in onclick event handlers. to combat this, i've removed all events from dom.popup_allowed_events. the downside of this is you will need to whitelist any sites you visit that use javascript popups. i find that much less annoying than random popups and popunders, though.
Anonymosity
Posts: 8779
Joined: May 7th, 2007, 12:07 pm

Post by Anonymosity »

One other thing I have blocked is onunload and onbeforeunload. Those commands are frequently used to popup windows on closing a page. I blocked those with these settings:
user_pref("dom.disable_window_onbeforeunload", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_onunload", true);
sirabc
Posts: 5
Joined: November 19th, 2006, 9:26 am

Post by sirabc »

Thanks for the replies. I tolerate popups because I know some of these sites use it to pay for some of their cost. After my initial panic, I concluded that boxtorrent.com is a site I could trust and any popups from there wouldn't carry anything harmful.

I worried more about links to other less trustworthy sites that might use the same javascript trick. As I mentioned before, I try not to click on anything that looks suspicious and usually use alt-f4, ctrl-w, or the "x" to close those windows. Using the task manager to completely shutdown firefox was the only method against this trick, but this was a minor pain because I would have to restart and reload pages that I was browsing.

Just knowing if this trick is harmless or not, is good information. Thanks.
Anonymosity
Posts: 8779
Joined: May 7th, 2007, 12:07 pm

Post by Anonymosity »

I do not put up with nuisances. Popups are nuisances, and there are better ways to advertise besides annoying people. A modest ad banner which is not served by a web advertising company that is trying to track me all over the place is something I will tolerate. I also do not try to block ad links because they are unable to snoop.
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