http://banners.exitexchange.com/banner_js?pubid=1290383&;bsize=1&rnd=0.6183874430769498&ts=1232448350838\banner_js?pubid=1290383&bsize=1&rnd=0

The banner listed abouve is on the curse webpage and appears to have a trojan that will download into your computer and cause you allot of grief, to include having you account hacked from spyware/malware. WARNING!

There is no such thing as a banner that can infect your computer with a trojan. If you click on that link and install, hit a button in a popup, etc... that may be a different story. Your proof that that specific link contails maleware?

Actually it's quite possible that banner.exitexchange.com leads to malware. It has been reported to before.  A previous example that is described here in post 214:

http://www.bluetack.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=18064&;st=210&p=90509&

Visiting any site without "protection" these days is a very bad idea, including sites that are funded by banner advertising. There are many sources of "protection" some of the best are even free.

Arguing the semantics of what the OP was trying to say would only be appropriate if this was a graded exam dealing with english composition. ;)

Anything is possible, people were absolutely sure that the world was flat not so long ago.

Its not semantics when you are talking about security accusations. He stated "banner listed abouve is on the curse webpage and appears to have a trojan that will download into your computer". This reads to the layman as: "Curse.com contains a virus and browsing this site will get you hacked". When in reality he meant to say: "One of the banners that Curse.com displays will lead you to a site that can potentially be a security risk. It contains links to male-ware." HUGE DIFFERENCE Whether or not the site in question contains male-ware is up for debate. My virus scanners never hit on any problem areas. The only reason that I make a big deal about posts like this is that they can permanently damage a companies reputation without warrant. spam_master2000's problem probably just coincided with another event on his computer and he is just blaming the first thing that popped into his head. This happens a lot with the "addons contain keyloggers" posts that pop up every week or so.

I say don't make accusations without absolute proof.

why does everything about this curse's site is being blamed with viruses? sad...

  Quote:

Originally Posted by teek5449

There is no such thing as a banner that can infect your computer with a trojan. If you click on that link and install, hit a button in a popup, etc... that may be a different story. Your proof that that specific link contails maleware?

Not only are you completely incorrect, you act as if you know what your talking about.

For all intents and purposes *normally* you cannot get infected by just visiting a webpage, however with the proliforation of FLASH on the internet, it is now possible to get a virus - yes - SIMPLY FROM VISITING A WEBPAGE.  Unfortunately flash is basically just an executable that ties into the browser and can be buffer overrun just like any other program.  Usually these issues are fixed quickly via Adobe but those who don't update often can be left vulnerable.

There have been a slew of LEGITIMATE websites that gain a certain amount of revenue from displaying ads from a company who supplies them and "Antivirus 2009" spreading via just this method.  It's usually XP users running IE but occasionally can even happen to firefox users primarily just because FLASH is a PROGRAM.

Use firefox, download flashblock and adblock and you should be fine - however - either way, I would like to thank the OP for posting because things like this DO happen to legitimate websites and it's people that report it that keep the attack vector small.

We're actively investigating this right now.  Thank you everyone for the reports.

Hi spam_master2000,

Thanks for the feedback. Can you please tell us in what country do you live ? Also how did you find it ?

We are actively investiguating to find where could it comes from but nothing so far.

I live in the united states, I reported the issues to banner exchange and they have finally responded to me that they had fixed the issue. This verifies that clicking on the banner link (at that time) could potentially put a Trojan downloader on your system. This banner was hosted by banner exchange, not by curse, although curse does get revenue/credit from clicks.

I do apologize if any discredit was done to Curse. Do your research, banner exchange has been known to have issues of this sort in the past. The nature of the banner exchange system allows for web administrators to create their own banners, opening up the possibility for infected or malicious code.

We will ban the "banner exchange" company from our rotation.

THanks for the help on this !

I've NEVER once ran into any issues while browsing curse.com (which i do several times a day 2-3 days out of the week). However ads from myspace and other websites i've browsed my mcafee has auto quarantined many flash files and javascript files as well as other misc files downloading in my temp folder from the website or trying to execute off the website from the ads on it. (Flash is blocked be defualt in the new versions of IE if i recall and you have to enable them through the top bar or allow them through your settings however there is javascript code and work arounds to force flash stuff to still display) What can be made can be broken it's a never ending circle :]

Actually, many Ads use Flash. And flash-ads can be scripted to automatically download trojans, spyware, viruses, etc.

This is why I HIGHLY recommend using FireFox & NoScript

Resolved. Locked.