HTM file download when opening Proboards forum

[mark42823]

A member has informed me of this (below).

Any ideas on what this could be / why this has happened - and what the file is? He is using a Windows 10 laptop.

"I just opened (forum name) and noticed an unexpected download, filename gmdoQDx0.htm"

[Kami]

Feb 24, 2024 6:08:42 GMT -8 mark42823 said:

A member has informed me of this (below).

Any ideas on what this could be / why this has happened - and what the file is? He is using a Windows 10 laptop.

"I just opened (forum name) and noticed an unexpected download, filename gmdoQDx0.htm"

Without a URL there is no way to diagnose. Broadly, there should be no "downloads" when you open PB, ever. Potential causes may be on the forum due to third party scripts, content that has been hotlinked from a third party site, a rogue ad, or even that the user has inadvertently acquired some sort of virus that is impacting their session.

What would be beneficial in diagnosing is the following information:



- A URL to the forum in question; if you do not wish to post it publicly, you have the option of marking it as private by adding it to your opening post so that only PB admins can view it.

- A step by step, comprehensive list of actions taken and their result. In other words, instead of "I opened the site and saw the download", something like "I loaded the site by [clicking a bookmark / manually typing the address / clicking the home button on my browser]. When the forum loaded, a popup appeared prompting me to download a file" ... etc. This can be delivered in a paragraph or a list, as long as it really breaks down the actions and results in minute detail, from the time they attempt to access the forum all the way to the part where the file itself is downloaded.

- Screenshots of anything pertinent to the above, like the file or the dialogue prompt being opened, and/or screenshots of any popups, error messages, etc.

- How often they can reproduce the issue successfully. If it's one and done, that's valuable information too. If it's intermittent, that's also valuable info.

- Additional information about any changes made to the forum between the last time that user logged into the forum and now, such as new images, plugins, coding, etc.

As a note, being the weekend, the PB Admins will likely not be able to address any issues until business hours resume (Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm Pacific/-8 GMT, barring US holidays). In the meantime, providing the above info may help a volunteer diagnose the issue.

[mark42823]

In answer to your questions...

* This appears to have only happened once.

* The forum in question, and the page where he alerted that this to hve happened is here : ukpollingreport2.proboards.com/thread/80/feb-2024-lab-con-ref?page=70

* In the post, he said it had "just" happened. The timestamp on the post is : Feb 22, 2024 19:10:44 GMT

He is a regular, so, guessing he opened the forum via a bookmark, or by typing the first couple of letters into the URL bar. (This works in Firefox, I assume it's the same for other browsers).

* There was no popup/error message etc., simly a download of said file.

* There were no changes made to the forum.

[Scott]

mark42823 - can you confirm if the member was using Firefox at the time?

[mark42823]

I don't know what browser the member was using.

My comment regarding Firefox refers to what I use and how I often get to web pages. I assume it's the same on other browsers, but don't know that it is, hence y comment.

[Scott]

mark42823 -

I'm not seeing anything on the forum that would trigger a download. I asked about what browser the member was using at the time only because online there was some talk a couple years ago about FF downloading a random htm file. The situation appears similar. (Nothing malicious)

I doubt it was ad related, not ruled out 100%, but have not had any reports as such with any of our services. Possibly related to a browser extension? But overall I'm still leaning towards it being an FF thing (assuming the member was using FF).

Whichever browser they were using, I would recommend the member clear out their browser's cache/cookies. Also, for all browsers, just as a best practice, I recommend enabling the "ask where to save each file before downloading" in the browser settings.