MBAM blocking salon.com for riskware

[ronzie009]

MBAM blocking salon.com for riskware, program claims to be up to date, results from MBAM support tool attached.

mbst-grab-results.zip

[Malwarebytes]

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[dcollins]

This looks to be a valid block due to Trojan.CoinMiner.

[ronzie009]

Wow, just found this article about it: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/02/salon-to-ad-blockers-can-we-use-your-browser-to-mine-cryptocurrency/

 

They never gave me the option to turn off my adblocker, though, as the linked article above claimed they would.  MBAM just started blocking it in the last day or so, as far as I can tell, but I don't go there regularly so I can't say for sure when it started.

 

Thanks for the swift reply!

[Frank_]

 

How interesting.

This may be a harbinger... a foretelling of the future with adblockers.  

First, Salon.com is legit.  And the writing at salon.com is very good. 

That's not persistent malware they are serving, it's a transaction.  You block ads and want to read our site, we use some of your computing power. 

I understand it.... but I don't like it.

Hopefully, MBAM and others will dissuade them and others from this type of "offer."

At Salon.com, I'll just allow ads -- which I don't like.... especially since a very few ads can serve up malware.  And since I have to deactivate like three different things to let ads through..

Very interesting.  This is a manifestation of the effectiveness of adblockers.  

[Brad_B]

@dcollins, I do not believe they have that program/option anymore.  I know at one point the user would be asked to turn off ad blocker or opt-in to mining but it appears that has not been the case for a few months now.  Can the team please double check so we don't get these alerts anymore?

[dcollins]

Our researchers just reviewed the block and are removing it since it seems the mining stuff has been removed

[Unicore]

Firefox blocks salon.com as well.