URL redirection attempts on General Discussion

[JonathanM]

I've just had four URL redirection attempts whilst reading General Discussion.

Attempting to redirect to luckypuppy.xyz

I've no idea whether this is serious or not but thought I should flag it up.

 

[DIYnot]

Hi Jonathan, unfortunately this sounds like something that is present on your machine that is causing browser redirects rather than from DIYnot directly. It can get installed alongside free downloads etc.

Some more info here that may be of assistance to you:

Luckypuppy.xyz Virus Removal

Luckypuppy.xyz is a suspicious domain classified as a "browser redirect virus" that has been causing issues for multiple online users.

sensorstechforum.com

 

[JonathanM]

Thank you, but this computer has no freeware, just very boring mainstream applications. Also, I use Norton and Malwarebytes and they both show it is clean. This has only ever happened on DIYnot but hasn't recurred since I posted.

A quick Google shows that, back in November, lots of users of Mumsnet had exactly the same redirection problem with luckypuppy, when viewing that forum.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/site_stuff/4672139-keep-getting-sent-to-a-different-website

In the "Similar threads" section, I found this thread about a previous issue on the forum.

https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/wierd-redirects-to-dodgy-site.514974/

This explanation from that thread sounds plausible, but I’m no expert

My suspicion is that one of the ad vendors they use has allowed a "nasty" through - not the first time it's been spotted (not with this site though AFAIK). It's a good wheeze on the part of the b***ards - buy some advertising space, let the "agency" vet the ads, then switch them for something with some malicious code in it. Et voila - malicious code served up to users in adverts on multiple websites that the user trusts.
I'd guess that there's some javascript in one of them that's triggering the redirect to another URL, then that redirects, and so on through a few sites till it hits their "drive by download" site. The redirects will be to avoid AV packages spotting the URL in the code and blocking it at source.