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Where does Firefox store files that have been blocked due to false positives on Google's Safe Browsing API?

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Robbers
Robbers
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Within the past week Firefox has been blocking my downloads due to false positives on Google's Safe Browsing API. This happens on Chrome and Firefox, but other browsers that don't use Google's Safe Browsing API work fine. Unlike Chrome which simply won't let me download files at all, Firefox will start the download and once it's complete it gives me an error message of "Blocked: May contain virus". What did FIrefox do with the downloaded files? Have they been automatically deleted or just renamed and relocated to another folder? If the files hasn't been deleted I need to know where they are stored.

Within the past week Firefox has been blocking my downloads due to false positives on Google's Safe Browsing API. This happens on Chrome and Firefox, but other browsers that don't use Google's Safe Browsing API work fine. Unlike Chrome which simply won't let me download files at all, Firefox will start the download and once it's complete it gives me an error message of "Blocked: May contain virus". What did FIrefox do with the downloaded files? Have they been automatically deleted or just renamed and relocated to another folder? If the files hasn't been deleted I need to know where they are stored.

Novain'i Robbers t@

All Replies (3)

guigs
guigs
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Hi Robbers, I went to about:cache and searched for the safebrowsing uri however this did not reveal any history:

The safe browsing tool can be used to look up uris. http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/di.../searchengineland.com/ More info on how to use: https://developers.google.com/safe-br.../lookup_guide

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Firefox generally uses the Windows TEMP folder for downloads. If the files are not there (in whole or in part), they probably were deleted.

I'm not sure what's going on with the Safe Browsing data, but several others users are reporting false positives as well. It could be that large hosting sites are tagged for hosting malware and this affects the reputations of other files on those sites which are not malware, but that's just a guess.

For the future, the developers are considering an option to override the block and get the file anyway. It probably will be at least a few months before that appears because security-sensitive changes take time to design.

For now, if you think these files actually are safe, you could do one of the following when you discover a blocked download:

(1) Download the file using a different browser (yikes)

(2) Download the file using a downloader add-on that bypasses this security check. I heard about this in another thread but haven't tried it myself (and also, I don't know which add-ons to trust for this!).

(3) Disable the Safe Browsing feature temporarily to get the file, then turn it back on. There is a checkbox in the Options dialog:

"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced

On the Security tab, it's the "Block reported attack sites" checkbox. The other checkbox relates to phishing sites and I don't think it affects downloads.

Sorry I don't have a better suggestion at the moment.

cor-el
cor-el
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  • Top 10 Contributor
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See also:

  • bug 1066133 - Provide a way to override application reputation checks on a per-download basis
  • bug 1068656 - Implement new Downloads Panel item state for items that can be unblocked

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