Bugs and Suggestions

16-Dec-16 5:18

I have recently published a paper:
Simple Viewer and Semantic Parser for BPMN Diagrams[^]

This paper has attracted an attention of an editor from a reputable online journal, who wanted to add a reference to this paper into an article published on this journal.

However, the link was rejected due to alleged virus content in it. Attached is the screen of virus check for the article's link. [AVG Virus Warning]

Does anybody have an idea what is wrong with my article and why it is suspected for a virus content? How can I fix this problem? I've checked all my links and attachments in the article and found nothing wrong.

Jochen Arndt16-Dec-16 6:28

Jochen Arndt

16-Dec-16 6:28

I guess that it is a false positive.

If you search for "JS/Psyme" you will find out that it is a TrojanDownloader exploiting the Internet Explorer. This has been fixed with update MS04-025 (04 == 2004)!

Boris Zinchenko16-Dec-16 9:15

16-Dec-16 9:15

@Jochen Arndt, thank you for fast feedback. I am more than sure that it is false positive. I just wonder how to cope with it in promoting my content and actually driving traffic to your site. I cannot just tell to editors of other very respectable resources that they use improper antivirus software. After all, they judge in this situation, not me. It only remains to await until AVG will make some patch to their tool and guess who will be next to blame me on sending viruses. Sad prospect!

modified 17-Dec-16 0:43am.

Jochen Arndt16-Dec-16 21:48

Jochen Arndt

16-Dec-16 21:48

I'm sorry that I can't help you more with this.

I'm a normal user like you here and not a CP staff.

But I would tell them. If they are professional, they will understand. If not (believing in the infallability of AV products), I would not like to be in touch with them.

At least they were not professional enough to understand the AVG report or just too lazy to perform a simple research.

It is a social problem of these days. Most of the things seen on screens (net or TV) are believed without scrutinising.

But again: I'm not related to CP. But I guess that most here and the CP operators have a similar point of view.

Nelek17-Dec-16 1:39

Nelek

17-Dec-16 1:39

well... I do (another simple user, no CP Staff)

M.D.V.

If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

Chris Maunder17-Dec-16 8:03

17-Dec-16 8:03

We get these issues every so often and I've had a few reports of this I'm investigating.

I installed AVG, and of course nothing. No warning, no Psyme.

It's more than likely a false positive, unless some malware has made it into Google's remnant ad provider inventory (extremely unlikely), or one of our third party ad clients is hosting bad ads (also extremely unlikely).

Previously we tracked this down to one of our javascript files setting off the alert. If we minified the file using a different minifier then the problem went away. Once I can replicate the issue I can fix it.

Until then we can only ask for your patience, or for AVG to get their act together.

cheers
Chris Maunder

Boris Zinchenko17-Dec-16 20:44

17-Dec-16 20:44

@Chris Maunder, all, Thank you so much for quick feedback. I was thrilled with the accident and installed AVG Internet Security myself. The issue was reproduced on my end too. Moreover, it is not related to my article at all. AVG blocks any article from CodeProject site. I've tried opening around a dozen of recent articles to no avail.
Please see a screenshot[^]

As additional clarification, I've tested site in anonymous mode. The editor who pointed to me this bug is from high management level and will never care registering on developer's portal. I reproduced exactly his case. For this reason, content of downloads and other features available for registered users only cannot be the reason for the bug.

Moreover, I've installed AVG for tests on several my VPS locations in USA and abroad, including Germany and Netherlands. The issue was reproduced from all locations independently. This makes me think that the bug bears global nature and cannot be related to an accident malformed ad randomly picked up by google ads or other similar feed.

From my personal experience, AVG is quite wide spread. At least a half of my colleagues and friends use it. I don't use it though. Therefore, this looks as a significant bug, which can severely affect overall traffic to your site. I wonder, if AVG could even decide to include you into a sort of black list. I've heard even google borrows occasionally from their virus reports. I consider situation as global and quite serious.

modified 18-Dec-16 3:05am.

Thomas Daniels17-Dec-16 23:10

Thomas Daniels

17-Dec-16 23:10

On the AVG Threat Labs site, you can see the report for CodeProject.com: codeproject.com | Website Safety Report & Reviews For codeproject.com[^]
And indeed, it found JS/Psyme on many pages. I don't know if this report is really helpful to track down the cause though.

The quick brown ProgramFOX jumps right over the Lazy<Dog>.

Chris Maunder18-Dec-16 4:22

18-Dec-16 4:22

I can now reproduce this regularly, though not consistently.

It's not the ad system: disabling ads doesn't change anything
It's not our external Javascript files. Loading them up one by one doesn't trigger anything

Since we control our javascript files, and since it can't be an issue with ads, it means it's something about our inlined javascript, or overall content signature itself. Our script is clean and this is a recent issue, so AVG is causing this issue.

We've had false positive's before and they are extremely frustrating, A triumph of marketing over substance in AVG's case.

I've contacted AVG to get this sorted out. In the meantime all I can suggest is you try a different anti-virus product. There's plenty out there (and some already built in)

cheers
Chris Maunder

Nish Nishant19-Dec-16 2:52

Nish Nishant

19-Dec-16 2:52

Chris Maunder wrote:
In the meantime all I can suggest is you try a different anti-virus product.

He submitted his article to a 3rd party who rejected it due to the warning, so I don't think that's an option here - for him to convince them to change their anti-virus Smile | :)

That said, false positives are frustrating and dangerous. It pushes people into the habit of ignoring warnings on sites they think are trustable.

Regards,
Nish

Website: www.voidnish.com
Blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

Chris Maunder19-Dec-16 3:31

19-Dec-16 3:31

I know.

I've also found that different browsers work. Safari, Firefox and opera are fine. Only Chrome and Edge trigger the issue. That in itself speaks volumes.

In any case, AVG have said they'll whitelist us and have asked (and I've provided) further info.

Crossing fingers.

cheers
Chris Maunder

Nish Nishant19-Dec-16 4:20

Nish Nishant

19-Dec-16 4:20

Chris Maunder wrote:
In any case, AVG have said they'll whitelist us and have asked (and I've provided) further info.

Awesome!

Regards,
Nish

Website: www.voidnish.com
Blog: voidnish.wordpress.com

Boris Zinchenko19-Dec-16 20:34

19-Dec-16 20:34

@Nish,

Nish Nishant wrote:
He submitted his article to a 3rd party who rejected it due to the warning

Not quite. If I have submitted the article to journal as a copy, no problem would have arisen. Point is, a journal wanted to place exactly a link to my article on CodeProject as direct citation of CodeProject. And this was rejected due to virus warning for CodeProject. Therefore, I do not have a problem publishing my content on other resources but rather referring CodeProject resources on other resources.

Chris Maunder20-Dec-16 3:19

AVG have confirmed this is a false positive

20-Dec-16 3:19

Unfortunately AVG are not being responsive here. I've contacted them several times and nothing.

Their business model seems to be "make lots of noise so you feel they are doing a good job". Except it's easy to show they have false positives in some situations, and don't protect you in other situations.

I've never been particularly impressed with the FUD tactics of anti-virus companies, and this whole issue pretty much sums it up. Sigh | :sigh:

cheers
Chris Maunder

Chris Maunder21-Dec-16 4:21

Re: AVG have confirmed this is a false positive

21-Dec-16 4:21

Quote:
Hello Chris,
Thank you for contacting AVG.

The detection of your URL by AVG is incorrect. The detection will be removed from an upcoming AVG update. Please make sure that your AVG is updated with the latest virus database:

1. Open AVG.
2. Click the button Update now, or Protection is up-to-date to check for updates.
3. Once a new virus update is downloaded, AVG will not detect the file any more.
Best regards,
AVG

cheers
Chris Maunder

Boris Zinchenko22-Dec-16 2:54

We're off the naughty list!

22-Dec-16 2:54

@Chris Maunder, all, Thank you so much for fast resolution of this ridiculous issue. I was just shocked that so valuable and respectable resource as CodeProject, which I use daily for a decade, was blacklisted in so idiotic way!

Chris Maunder22-Dec-16 7:07