Virus/Malware Warnings

[GarryP]

When browsing some threads this morning, I received a warning in a Trend Micro pop up screen that gravatar.com was found in the page and represented a high risk of infection. Now I don't know what to do as I like to visit while at work but the warning will also be picked up by our IT Department . I assume that perhaps some users have obtained their avatars from the said site and this is the cause of the problem. But until the said site is blocked or the problem resolved, I shall have to limit my visist to home.

Bye bye.

[lopburi3]

Below is Google position that gravator is not risky site to visit.

Safe Browsing

Diagnostic page for gravatar.com

What is the current listing status for gravatar.com?

This site is not currently listed as suspicious.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 610 pages that we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 0 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time that Google visited this site was on 2011-03-02, and suspicious content was never found on this site within the past 90 days.

This site was hosted on 3 network(s) including AS15133 (EDGECAST), AS22576 (LAYER3), AS6623 (CNET).

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

Over the past 90 days, gravatar.com did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.

Has this site hosted malware?

No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

[GarryP]

Oh well, I will just visit from home in the future then. Trend Micro recognizes gravator.com as a highly risky site and when I open many threads the warning window pops up. It only started today and has never been an issue in the past. The last thing I want is a red flag against my name when our office IT Dept runs their reports.

[lopburi3]

Could you give an example of the page(s) doing this? Your first post did not specify any.

[GarryP]

Is just one of many.

[lopburi3]

You mention avatars so would like you to try turning them off and see if you still have the problems.

Click on your name to get to profile

Click on 'edit my profile'

Click on Forums

Uncheck 'view members' avatars when reading topics?'

[GarryP]

I just followed your instructions and followed the link I posted above. I am happy to report that there was no pop up warning from Trend Micro this time. So it would appear to be an avatar issue as I originally thought.

Thanks for your help on this. I don't know what I would have done without my daily dose of TV.

[dantilley]

It appears that the Gravatar site is referenced to show the image "blank_avatar.gif", i.e. when a member doesn't have any avatar loaded for their profile. This is a simple 1x1 pixel blank gif image. Wouldn't it make more sense just to source this image from elsewhere if Gravatar is causing people to get anti-malware messages?

[lopburi3]

This seems to be a rare report and specific software so may be easier for member to fix if as it appears the site is considered to be safe.