Wednesday, February 06, 2013

No, this blog is not hosting malware

Sometimes googles malware detection gets a little stupid; and they flag completely benign sites as hosting or distributing malware.

In this case goggle malware detection is reporting that I am hosting or distributing content from "cooking issues" "a known malware distributor".

Well, first of all I'm not hosting or distributing content from them; they are (or were, I just removed it) a link in my blogroll nothing more.

Second, they aren't a known malware distributor, they're the blog of a few instructors at a cooking school who like to mess around with unusual and interesting techniques for producing food. Very good site, I just wish they'd update more often.

It appears they haven't updated since August... and it's entirely possible that in that time someone has snuck some malware onto their site... But much more likely is that they also have a link to a site, which has a link to a site etc... etc...

This is the weakness of automated malware detection, automated intrusion detection etc... In fact, this can even be used as a deliberate denial of service attack, getting "content protection" services to block a site (it can be VERY difficult and annoying to get unblocked).

Anyway, I've pulled the link off my blogroll and everything seems to be fine now, with no more false alarms.