viglink virus/spamware redirecting on all our links

[Former Member]

So just recently we noticed any links posted on our forums get replaced with some weird redirect.

Instead of:
example.com/

We get:
redirect.viglink.freeviruses &u=http://example.com/

We only noticed it starting today, and it's setting off warnings for a lot of users that have adblockers.

[Brian]

Hi, @sollace.

Can you link to a post containing a link that shows an example of this?

[Former Member]

Well it seems to be happening here too.


http://redirect.viglink.com/?key=bbb516d91daee20498798694a42dd559%20&u=http%3A//redirect.viglink.freeviruses/


I don't know, it seems really shifty.

[Brian]

I'd still be interested in seeing a live example on your forum as that will give me a better idea of whether or not it's actually happening to every link on the forum or just specific links.

[SuperSupermario24]

Also, some time after this started happening and I tried clicking one of the links in Firefox, Avast popped up about something suspicious that Firefox tried to do, or something like that. No idea if it's related, but it's worth mentioning.

The redirect thing isn't happening here, though...

[Former Member]

Ooh, yeah.

By every think I just mean ones inside comments.

Here's one: post

[Brian]

The VigLink Convert script in your header has been there since the forum's creation. It's not a virus redirect.

There's also a section of your admin area dedicated to the service, which you can find in Marketing > VigLink.

[Michael]

Also just to note that you will get a viglink embed even using an ad-blocker. This (by design) is unavoidable.

I would also like to ask that you and users do not use ad-blockers. Advertisements are how we pay for your free forum.

[Former Member]

Ok, I must have missed it the first time.

Strangely we've only seen it start doing stuff now, and VigLink is set to disabled for my forum.

[Brian]

The dropdown disables VigLink Insert (the second service mentioned on that page), but VigLink Convert is always running on every forum on our service.

[Former Member]

Really?

Very strange. How long has this been around?

I have legitimately never seen any viglink in a proboards forum in the last ~2 years I've been using them.

May 25, 2016 13:45:35 GMT -8 Michael said:

Also just to note that you will get a viglink embed even using an ad-blocker. This (by design) is unavoidable.

I would also like to ask that you and users do not use ad-blockers. Advertisements are how we pay for your free forum.

Understandable. I whitelist websites I'd like to support, and that don't use underhanded methods.

And thanks for your speedy replies.

[Brian]

I don't know the exact date, but it's been around since at least late 2014 since that's the first mention I can find of it in the Development Blog board.

[Michael]

Much appreciated.

[Former Member]

Hm... ok.

Must have been something keeping it from rolling out to our forum then.

[Former Member]

May 25, 2016 13:45:35 GMT -8 Michael said:

Also just to note that you will get a viglink embed even using an ad-blocker. This (by design) is unavoidable.

I would also like to ask that you and users do not use ad-blockers. Advertisements are how we pay for your free forum.

Links posted in this tread are giving me this issue, and my ad blocker is never enabled on any ProBoards forum.

Found the issue.
Some installs of Windows 10, come with it's hosts file filled with some default ad services blocked.
Viglink, is among them. It's in the file 3-4 times, and have to copy the file out of the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc folder in order to edit it. Then, copy back, and overwrite and click continue as administrator.