Suspected web forgery

[John Smith]

I'm getting a suspected web forgery page coming up on Firefox for
Android when I visit a website, also every time I view a different page
in that domain.

How can I stop it, and more important stop every page I visit from being
sent to Firefox and Google?


Do not track is on and tracking protection is turned off.

[Wolf K.]

DuckDuckGo


--
Best,
Wolf K.
kirkwood40.blogspot.ca

[Mayayana]

|
| How can I stop it, and more important stop every page I visit from being
| sent to Firefox and Google?
|
|
| Do not track is on and tracking protection is turned off.

Turn off Do Not Track. It's a useless scam instituted
to prevent legislation. The ad companies that respect
it will only do so as long as it defaults to being disabled.
Most people don't know about it, so it's usually disabled, so
they don't have to worry. If it worked they wouldn't
agree to go along with it.
It may stop some tracking, but there's no reason to
trust the people doing the tracking, just as you always
take a risk when unsubscribing from spam that the spammer
may only be using the unsubscribe to verify your email.
Better to use a HOSTS file and other methods to prevent
tracking in the first place.

Other things to do:

Go into Tools -> Options - Security. Uncheck "Block
Reported Attack Sites" and "Block Reported Web
Forgeries". Another tracking scam that preys on
peoples' fears. (If you don't bother to practice
good security online then those "services" may be of
some limited value, but attacks these days are often
coming through corrupt ads on mainstream sites, so
a site's "reputation" doesn't mean much.)

I like to also disable *all* update options, all built-in
search, and strip the URL strings from prefs.js.
(about:config)

If you still think or find that your browser is reporting
your activity, you can also add Mozilla and Google to
your HOSTS file. (I block about a dozen Google properties,
including Doubleclick, allowing only www.google.com
and the maps API. It shouldn't be hard to figure out
exactly what URL the data is being sent to.)

[»Q«]

In
<news:mailman.210.1460529557...@lists.mozilla.org>,

John Smith <s@s.s> wrote:

> I'm getting a suspected web forgery page coming up on Firefox for
> Android when I visit a website, also every time I view a different
> page in that domain.

You can disable "Block reported web forgeries" in the Security section
of Options/Preferences. If there's no real problem with the site, you
might notify its admins so they can get it removed from the bad list.
(Probably they've already noticed, since this blocks Chrome and Firefox
users.)

> How can I stop it, and more important stop every page I visit from
> being sent to Firefox and Google?

Not every page you visit is being sent, but the URLs of sites on the
bad list are sent to Google for double-checking. I don't know how to
disable the double-check short of disabling blocking in prefs.

[John Smith]

On 13/04/2016 15:45, Mayayana wrote:
> |
> | How can I stop it, and more important stop every page I visit from being
> | sent to Firefox and Google?
> |
> |
> | Do not track is on and tracking protection is turned off.
>
> Turn off Do Not Track. It's a useless scam instituted
> to prevent legislation. The ad companies that respect
> it will only do so as long as it defaults to being disabled.
> Most people don't know about it, so it's usually disabled, so
> they don't have to worry. If it worked they wouldn't
> agree to go along with it.
> It may stop some tracking, but there's no reason to
> trust the people doing the tracking, just as you always
> take a risk when unsubscribing from spam that the spammer
> may only be using the unsubscribe to verify your email.
> Better to use a HOSTS file and other methods to prevent
> tracking in the first place.
>
> Other things to do:
>
> Go into Tools -> Options - Security. Uncheck "Block
> Reported Attack Sites" and "Block Reported Web
> Forgeries". Another tracking scam that preys on
> peoples' fears.

No such setting in the Android version.

>
> I like to also disable *all* update options, all built-in
> search, and strip the URL strings from prefs.js.
> (about:config)



>
> If you still think or find that your browser is reporting
> your activity, you can also add Mozilla and Google to
> your HOSTS file.

Cant root the phone so no access to the host file.

[John Smith]

On 13/04/2016 17:02, »Q« wrote:
> In
> <news:mailman.210.1460529557...@lists.mozilla.org>,
> John Smith <s@s.s> wrote:
>
>> I'm getting a suspected web forgery page coming up on Firefox for
>> Android when I visit a website, also every time I view a different
>> page in that domain.
>
> You can disable "Block reported web forgeries" in the Security section
> of Options/Preferences. If there's no real problem with the site, you
> might notify its admins so they can get it removed from the bad list.
> (Probably they've already noticed, since this blocks Chrome and Firefox
> users.)
>

Site is OK using the Android version of Chrome, but as they like getting
their revenue from adverts they wont allow users to install any ad
blocking add-ons.

>> How can I stop it, and more important stop every page I visit from
>> being sent to Firefox and Google?
>
> Not every page you visit is being sent, but the URLs of sites on the
> bad list are sent to Google for double-checking. I don't know how to
> disable the double-check short of disabling blocking in prefs.
>

I may have to try Palemoon for Android if it keeps up.

[Mayayana]

| > Go into Tools -> Options - Security. Uncheck "Block
| > Reported Attack Sites" and "Block Reported Web
| > Forgeries". Another tracking scam that preys on
| > peoples' fears.
|
| No such setting in the Android version.
|

That's not what the Mozilla people say. Maybe they
don't give you options on phones? I don't have a computer
phone, so I haven't seen what it looks like. Do you
have about:config access? If so, disable these:

browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled
browser.safebrowsing.enabled

If you do a search for "safebrowsing" you'll see
a number of options. you can also strip the reporting
URLs for good measure. I'm not sure exactly which
one applies to forgery/phishing "protection".

Here's the basic info:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-does-phishing-and-malware-protection-work

[»Q«]

In
<news:mailman.265.1460599062...@lists.mozilla.org>,

"Mayayana" <maya...@invalid.nospam> wrote:

> | > Go into Tools -> Options - Security. Uncheck "Block
> | > Reported Attack Sites" and "Block Reported Web
> | > Forgeries". Another tracking scam that preys on
> | > peoples' fears.
> |
> | No such setting in the Android version.
>
> That's not what the Mozilla people say. Maybe they
> don't give you options on phones? I don't have a computer
> phone, so I haven't seen what it looks like.

I don't have Fx for Android either, but I couldn't find Mozilla people
saying it has those options in the UI. Do you have a link?

> Do you have about:config access? If so, disable these:
>
> browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled
> browser.safebrowsing.enabled

Disabling that second one should be enough to solve the issue in the OP.

[John Smith]

Disabling browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled and obfuscating the URLs
did the trick, thanks.


Seems I wasn't the only one affected.

https://torrentfreak.com/chrome-and-firefox-block-kickasstorrents-as-phishing-site-160412/

[Mayayana]

| I don't have Fx for Android either, but I couldn't find Mozilla people
| saying it has those options in the UI. Do you have a link?
|

I didn't come across anything specifically about
Android. I was just looking up the about:config
versions of the settings. The link I provided was
to the page explaining how to adjust those settings
in the UI. So it seems to be standard UI functionality.
I've never seen a browser on a computer phone, but
I'm guessing that's the difference. Apparently phone
versions of FF have little or no settings UI.

Firefox is becoming a lot like Windows: A very
handy and adaptable tool, but don't try to use it
without help from someone who's technically proficient
and well-versed in arcane tweaks. :)

[Wolf K.]

On 2016-04-13 18:11, John Smith wrote:
[...]

> Site is OK using the Android version of Chrome, but as they like getting
> their revenue from adverts they wont allow users to install any ad
> blocking add-ons.

[...]

Yup, the damn things take up the whole screen, and lately they've put
the X for closing in the upper left instead of upper right, where most
of us expect it. I cost some advertisers useless coin until I changed my
habits.

Basically, I just ignore them. I can't tell you much about who's
advertising what. I have vague recollections of dominant colours, pink,
blue, green, grey.... Products? Nope.

Every now and then I write to an advertiser telling them I dislike their
ads stealing bandwidth and battery power that I pay for, and that I will
not consider their products in future. I don't pay by the GB, but if I
did, I'd send them a bill for their use of my data allowance. H'm, maybe
there's a class-action lawsuit there....

Probably makes no diff, but makes me feel better. OTOH, if a significant
number (ie, several thousand) people did that, advertisers might
reconsider their media buying habits. FWIW, I saw a brief report in the
business pages recently that advertising growth on "digital platforms"
stalled. Probably just a blip, though. :-(

Have a good day.

[»Q«]

In
<news:mailman.283.1460642359...@lists.mozilla.org>,

"Mayayana" <maya...@invalid.nospam> wrote:

> | I don't have Fx for Android either, but I couldn't find Mozilla
> people | saying it has those options in the UI. Do you have a link?
> |
>
> I didn't come across anything specifically about
> Android. I was just looking up the about:config
> versions of the settings. The link I provided was
> to the page explaining how to adjust those settings
> in the UI. So it seems to be standard UI functionality.

UI varies by platform. SUMO articles adapt themselves according to
what software you use to visit them. You can change which version of
Firefox and which OS the help is for by expanding the 'editing tools'
menu to the left of the article (at least on desktops -- I don't know
how the pages look on little phone screens).

A lot of the articles are like the one you linked -- they don't have
any help for Android Fx. Here's an example of one (unrelated to the OP
in this thread) that has Android info:
<https://support.mozilla.org/kb/im-having-problems-confirming-my-firefox-account>.