Has iModeler got hijacked or something?

Started by Ralph Clements · 18 · 7 years ago
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    Ralph Clements said 7 years, 8 months ago:

    Several times in the past week or so when trying to go to iModeler.com, or picking a link on the site, I have been sent to some spammy type site, usually offering some too good to be true offer or trying to sell me something. I hope I am the only one having this problem, but thought I'd let you know in case it is something other may be affected by but not yet reported.

    thanks for the great website.

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    neil foster said 7 years, 8 months ago:

    Me too, I try to open a page and just go to the same thing as Ralph describes, if you come out of iModeller completely and go back in the problem clears up but will return again later.
    N.

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    Site Administrator said 7 years, 8 months ago:

    Thanks for letting us know, @roclem and @neil-foster. I'll have a look at it immediately. I'd have three additional questions to round up the problem:

    1. Did you notice it occurring once, or repeatedly, and if so, how often?
    2. Did it happen today?
    3. Are you using PC, tablet or mobile phone? And which browser if I may ask.
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    Craig Abrahamson said 7 years, 8 months ago:

    I experienced a similar occurrence, but that was some weeks ago, and only a couple of times as I recall - no problems since. I use Firefox on my Win 7 PC.

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    Simon Whitney said 7 years, 8 months ago:

    I am getting similar, a re-direction to some site.
    Regularly?
    It seems to happen when I click on a pic in someones build/ and or, toggling between "Headlines" and "whats New"

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    Site Administrator said 7 years, 8 months ago:

    Thanks. We'll be looking into this.. Meanwhile, any more hints will be greatly appreciated

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    Robert Royes said 7 years, 8 months ago:

    Ditto to what Simon said, thought it was my computer

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    Richard Mcstay said 7 years, 8 months ago:

    Hi guys, it has been happening to me as well. It's been happening over the course of a few weeks.
    It seems to be on different occasions where you cannot use the site at all as you get re-directed to adverts. It seems to be fine after five minutes though. I thought it was just my computer!

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    Chuck A. Villanueva said 7 years, 8 months ago:

    I have experienced the same issue as well. Clicking on the set images is when it occurs. I will be directed to another site. On occasion, not every time. Running on a PC, win 7, Chrome.

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    Seamus Boughe said 7 years, 8 months ago:

    Been happening to me for months now. I figured it was helping to pay for imodeler expenses. Of course if this advertisers aren't helping to pay the bills, then dump them.

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    Site Administrator said 7 years, 8 months ago:

    Thanks everyone. After a period of testing, we were able to replicate the problem on our end. We subsequently went looking for any vulnerabilities of the site that could have opened up for this kind of exploits.

    I'd like to stress that iModeler is an ad-free service at this point. Although we might change it in the future, we would most certainly not introduce ads without telling it to the users.

    I have asked the knowledgeable people from our tech support to take a deeper look, and they eventually reported that they were able to locate the source of the problem, patched it and secured the offending server component.

    The impact of the exploit seems to have been moderate and limited to ocassional redirecting of user clicks to ad sites. It is at this point unclear how many users were affected (apparently several).

    Please accept my apologies for all the inconvenience. We are taking the security of this site very seriously, and will follow-up with a thorough expert review for any other problems.

    I'm also sincerely grateful for bringing the issue to our attention.
    Please remain vigilant and let me know if there are any remaining signs of trouble. Your cooperation and understanding is very appreciated.

    /Martin

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    Ralph Clements said 7 years, 8 months ago:

    Martin your prompt response and diligent efforts to resolve this are just one of many examples of why iModeler is such a great website. No apology needed, the gratitude is the users.

    To answer your questions above though, this was happening on both my phone (iPhone/Safari) and at home using Firefox.

    I am sorry so many others had this problem, but a little relieved to know it was not 'just me', as so often is the case...

    Thanks very much -

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    Simon Whitney said 7 years, 8 months ago:

    Hi Martin,. its back again. Re-directed to an investment site. That was I clicked from Whats new back to Headlines.

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    Editor said 7 years, 8 months ago:

    I don't seem to be able to replicate this in over 30 min of continuous surfing around the site.
    Any more sightings?

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    Simon Whitney said 7 years, 8 months ago:

    Not yet Martin but will keep you informed if and when it happens.
    Will take pic (if I remember LOL.