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Safari having spam loaded by "back" button

smithrh

smithrh

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Feb 28, 2009
2,830
1,971
OK, title is a bit odd...

I saw some links to photobucket; they opened in a new window.

So far so good.

Then I noticed the "back" button (left-facing triangle) was going from grey to black.

Huh. It's a new window, so this should remain grey - I haven't gone forwards, so I shouldn't be able to go back.

Sure enough, clicking on the bucket takes you to spam. Note, I did check history, nothing amiss there.

Anyone seen this before? Maybe I've just never run into this until today.

I don't like it; I'll admit it's clever but I don't like the idea that someone can manipulate the contents of the sites visited (not history).
 
No one?

Actually expected that, I think this spam approach is either very new or pretty rare. I'll file a bug against Apple, Safari shouldn't allow this behavior.
 
smithrh said:
No one?

Actually expected that, I think this spam approach is either very new or pretty rare. I'll file a bug against Apple, Safari shouldn't allow this behavior.
Click to expand...

I've never seen the phenomenon you described on any of the Macs I've seen running Mavericks. Do you have any ad blocking extensions installed? Also, you may want to check to see what other apps you have installed that may be a factor.
 
I think that's very similar to some sites that open, then give you a "circle-back" (no idea what the technical term might be for that) when you try to back out of that site. I have heard (never actually experienced this, of course :D ) that it's a common occurrence on porn gateway sites, giving you the delightful "second look/Are you sure?/etc." when you first hit back or close. I think that kind of technique has been around, even when Netscape was the main browser, way back in 'net history.
 
What DeltaMac said.

Certain "type" of images on Photobucket have spam ad Javascript embedded in the webpage.

Was easily able to find a bunch with the usual suspect keywords. Do a "View Source" and you see the gobs of code to show ads. So, not a Safari issue per-se.

Can stop the behavior by installing the Ad Block Plus extension. That seems to do a good job of stopping these (have not tested to see if 99-100% success rate). Do not get Ad Block Plus confused with Ad Block: two different blockers and Ad Block seems to let the Photobucket spam through (that was how I was able to find this behavior: Firefox and Chrome had Ad Block Plus, Safari Ad Block, other two blocked, Safari did not).
 
Just to be clear, there is Adblock Plus for Safari, but you generally need to use the Extensions Search to find it.
 
jbarley said:
You can find it here
Click to expand...

To clarify, if you go to the Safari -> Safari Extension... menu item, the very first extension you'll see in the extensions list is AdBlock. In order to find Adblock Plus through the same menu item, you'll have to use the "Search Extensions" text box.
 
Just to be clear, these weren't "those" types of photos! It was pictures of a radio for sale. Hardly sexy...

I have AdBlock but not ABP installed, thanks for the pointer!

I still think this is a bug and should be disallowed at the application level.

Edited to add: hmmm, ABP doesn't block all ads, and there aren't settings to fix that. For the time being, letting both run at the same time.
 
Last edited:
Followup, ABP was causing issues here on the forums, had to disable it and go back to AdBlock.

Anyone know why ABP doesn't block ads on certain websites, have the devs made side agreements with those websites (Reddit et al)?
 
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