Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Not sure if this is the right place to post, but I keep getting messaged from my AV that it has blocked a virus called Bloodhound.Exploit.281 when I visit (some of ) the pages on this site.  It says it's in a file called "normal_post.gif".  Do you know about this??

Even on this page there is the warning, so it must be in the website itself and not what someone has posted?

The page sources of Susan's Place do contain the line
https://www.susans.org/forums/Themes/default/images/topic/normal_post.gif
but I find it hard to believe that it contains a virus, although image files can be hosts.

Perhaps it contains some data signature that your AV mistakenly flags as a virus.  I have heard of such things happening.

Someone with a technical knowledge of Susan's Place might provide more reassurance.

If something is triggering your virus detector it is something local to you. The site isn't triggering any of my programs or those of other staff members.

Macs aren't subject to this type of virus but Window systems can be. It might help to know all of the thread you have had issues with so we can review them for common links. Susan's doesn't have any virus content but linked files can contain viruses.

As Cindy and I both run Mac hardware, we won't see any issues but we can examine the threads without harm.

Please do give us more details because several of us are running Mac's instead of Windows computers. Once we know more we can try to see if we get it on a Windows based computer too. I tend to agree with them that it is likely something local to you. Hugs
Mariah

QuoteMacs aren't subject to this type of virus

Nor Linux.

Quote from: Sabrina99 on May 23, 2018, 11:18:57 AM
Not sure if this is the right place to post, but I keep getting messaged from my AV that it has blocked a virus called Bloodhound.Exploit.281 when I visit (some of ) the pages on this site.  It says it's in a file called "normal_post.gif".  Do you know about this??

They're called False Positives. You can report it to the AV software. the report option is buried in the app somewhere.
If you know the link you can submit it to https://www.virustotal.com (https://www.virustotal.com) and check it independently. It'll scan with multiple detectors. I just tested and of the 68 scans none of them reported anything.

There is always the possibility of localized infections (in this case unlikely). If you feel unsure, run a full system scan. Also, don't depend on just an AV. Run Malwarebytes as well. Use the free version and run it once a week or so.

One other, very important advise.  Most people get a computer and use the existing user to work with.  The problem with that is that user has administrator privileges, which means any malware has essentially free run of the system.  The proper thing to do is use that account to create user accounts, and use those for daily use.  As a user, malware is greatly limited in what it can do and installing software requires the admin password, so it's harder for malware to be installed.  If you haven't set up a separate user account, it's not too late.  Create a separate admin account and then change the existing account to user.  As always, Windows requires virus scans because it's security is nowhere near what Linux and Mac have.