Spammy auto-redirect

That is not supposed to be happening--someone figured out how to slip some malware into adsense.

Give me a sec and I'll try to block that domain from running ads on here using the adsense control panel.

Also--thanks for grabbing the URL. I can't act on these reports without urls, so it's super helpful.

 

I blocked a number of domains that a friend of mine sent me because they were doing similar redirects on his forum. A number of other forum owners I know have reported similar issues. Unfortunately there's not much else I can do.

As you said, it's likely a fairly specific combination of ad tag, browser version, java version, and OS that creates the vulnerability, so it wouldn't surprise me if Google can only play whack-a-mole on the bad domains until the underlying issue in java/os/browser gets patched.

I suspect Google will get their act together in the next few weeks. The redirect issue was first reported in Google's adsense support forum in late November, but didn't seem to affect many sites, and no action seemed to happen on Google's end. But the malware/spammers are quickly picking up steam, which is a good thing because it means the big G will pay more attention and actually do something about it. Versus if it was just an infrequent issue it'd be lower on their priority list.

It is a bit weird though--Adsense is the one network that's really being hit hard, but the other networks use relatively similar tags, so they likely have the same vulnerability. They're just not being exploited for some reason.

 

Sigh. I thought it was handled.

No, it's not just you--although it only seems to affect a small number of folks. A number of other forum owners I know are getting hit with it on their sites too. And they're reporting it's no longer just Adsense, it's now happening on other ad networks too.

I need to figure out if this is Adsense or OpenX (the other ad network I'm running right now). I've disable Adsense entirely on the site, so if it's showing up it's coming from OpenX.

@Rusty Shackleford is it still happening for you?
Are you on your phone perchance? What browser? (feel free to PM or email support@sportsjournalists.com if you'd rather keep that data private)

 

Thanks guys.

I've been away from the computer this afternoon babysitting my daughter and a friend's kid, and we've got evening plans with friends, so I won't be able to get to this until late tonight.

Just to set expectations, this may take a few days to get it all cleaned up. I've never tried to block domains with OpenX and don't know how fast they are.