Hey, guys, I've never had any trouble on aff.net before. I haven't been on there for a month or more, and when I tried this morning, I had all kinds of trouble. It seemed like my computer was getting hijacked to some other site, then it froze all up. Eventually firefox just dumped me right off the internet. I tried again, and same-same. I was just wondering, am I the only one? Should I try again, or just be grateful my computer is still up and running?

Okay, I just went there, and am having no issues. (I have a Mac though, which is why I checked even if I felt it wasn't safe)

Explain what you mean when you say "it seemed like my computer was getting hijacked by some other site"-- did a pop up show up warning you it found viruses then try to install an .exe on your computer? What that sounds like is a possible trojan (sneaking through an ad, or something) might have installed itself on your computer. Especially if the browser closed on it's own. This happens on dA a LOT because they are not as careful with screening what is part of the flash ads that are given to them.

Make sure your anti-virus is updated and run it ASAP. Any time a website fritzes and kicks you to another website means either spyware, malware or some kind of virus is possibly attacking.

Thanks, Terri! I'm on it!

Not to repeat Terri, but I tried too and have no probs. But I too have a MAC so that could be the difference. Good luck, and let us know what you discover. I REALLY hope its just a FF.net glitch and not a trojan, but what Terry suggested sounds pretty accurate in her summation of the situation.

I don't have a Mac... PC all the way, with Win7 (which I HATE). I just tried it by typing in adultfanfiction.net - and my Norton popped up saying that "Blackhole Toolkit" was blocked - although it DID connect me to the site.

knifethrower, I would strongly suggest downloading MalwareBytes and running it ASAP. You have, most likely, been infected by a trojan.

~~Wiccan~~

And as an added precaution after you deal with the trojan (assuming it is there) be sure to change all your passwords. I looked this one up, and it sounds like it is a tricky bugger to get rid of because it hides itself well.

Someone should probably let the aff.net admins know as well so they can find it.

AFF is well aware that there's a problem and they are working HARD to find it. It's hiding itself really well, though, and it will take a little more time to identify it conclusively and fix it (if, indeed, there IS a fix).

Right now, they have scanned their database and site to the nth degree and their scans (with multiple tools) come up with nothing. They are researching whether or not it might be something hiding on a toolbar - these things are notorious for attaching themselves to toolbars that we download to make our lives "easier."

I am confident that they will find the root of the problem and, because we have such terrific communication between our sites, they will let us know when they've found it and what is causing it. Right now, I've noticed that using bookmarked links to AFF does not trigger the problem. Clicking on a link in an IM also does not trigger it... those are two ways you can access the site without running into it.

I hope we hear from knifethrower, though, and that she was able to successfully either clean her machine, or that it didn't have a chance to bury itself!!
:?
~~Wiccan~~

I ran AVG after reading Terri's recommendation, and it said it found one threat. My memory is only good for an hour or two, so I don't remember what exactly AVG said the threat was, I think a "broken" something or other. I've got Malwarebytes on my computer, so now I'm taking Wiccan's advice and running that. Hopefully, if there is something bad lurking on my pc, at least I will know for sure! Thanks, guys...

OK, going to do this quickly cause I'm at work right now so I can't do too much...

We know some of our users on AFF are having issues. It was brought to our attention earlier in the week and we have one clear screenshot of the problem. However, after running all kinds of scans including of the physical hardware itself by our server, we've come up with nothing! Below you can find our link to what was done including screenshots of results....

www2.adultfanfiction.net/forum/index.php/topic/22801-virus-issues/page__pid__235548#entry235548

Right now we know there are issues with the site and IE-the active X in IE doesn't like to play nice with us. It also appears there are issues with the new version of Firefox (4.0) Beyond that, we don't know what is doing what. We also know Norton's anti-virus isn't being nice about it. HOWEVER, one of the scans performed is using their virus definitions and is coming up with nothing either.

Our head admin is saying this... uninstall toolbars. Yes, we know they are nice but nasty things LOVE to piggyback in them. That might be causing part of it, we don't know.

When we know something, I promise I'll update but right now we have no clue what the issue is with what. We're doing what we can because we spend tons of time in that archive working and we don't want nasties anymore than any of you do. For now, as Wiccan said Knifethrower, run malwarebytes. It'll take it out and if anything crops up today and I can update, i'll let everyone know.

everytime i try to go on adultfanfic my antivirus says that a trojan horse was blocked so if anyones comp is infected and their antivirus didnt block it, download malwarebytes or avast to clean ur comp

OK, as of right now, Google and Firefox are listing AFF as an ‘attack site’. The issue is we were hacked. Someone went after the advertising module on the site. Our head admin is hard at it, and has been since 6 AM, to fix the damage done. This isn’t the first time this has happened so she knows what to do. The site is safe, we’ve all been scanned, those that have been on it and are currently, with nothing nasty coming up. Our hosting company has been contacted and they are doing what they do. Once DG hears back from them she’s going to start submitting what she needs to for Google and Firefox to get the ‘attack site’ warning off. As of right now, a large chunk of the java has been disabled on Firefox, their doing, not ours, so we have no drop down menus on Firefox, just links, and parts of the forum aren’t working for users of that browser. It is functional on Chrome and others. When I know more, I’ll post but for right now, this is all I have.

thanks for the update!

After working all day, from before 6 AM this morning, our head admin has everything up and functional.

What happened was someone hacked into our advertising module, what runs the banners you see on the site, in the very early AM hours yesterday and was able to drop something in. If you want more details as to what, when, where and why, you gotta ask her ‘cause when it comes to that stuff it’s as foreign to me as someone speaking Russian. The program was uninstalled, things cleaned then reinstalled. Some tables were deleted then replaced and all kinds of other very evil, time consuming things that took her from when she got up this morning to about an hour and a half ago. Everything has been rescanned from the server end, online and other places. She’s working to get us off the blacklists and listed as normal. As of now, from what we know, everything is clean.

Chrome is no longer chucking up warnings for us and nor is Firefox from my and several others ends though it might still be for a few of them. After some research, she found that it can, sometimes, take a couple weeks for Google to remove a site, even if it’s clean, from their blacklist so it might take some time for some to not get the warning.

Needless to say, if you have ANY issues with it, let us know either on site or through an e-mail. We will check them out ASAP.

For more information and a more detailed account of what was done, go to the following URL. Adults only, of course…

www2.adultfanfiction.net/forum/index.php/topic/22801-virus-issues/page__pid__235878#entry235878

I feel a great deal of gratitude toward the administrators of the fan fiction sites I visit. How the people at aff.net handled this attack is a testament to how dedicated they are. When expressing my gratitude to the writers of fan fiction, I know I have failed in the past to include thanks to the people who created these sites, and keep them running smoothly and safely.