Where is the message coming from? Firefox? Something else?

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Thank you!

the problem appears to be with Firefox. Apparently Firefox maintains a database with the names of sites that frequently have malicious files on them. Apparently Easynews has made that list. See the attached photo of the message that is generated by Firefox. I was unable to get a screenshot of it since the window would close when the screenshot app opened.

This alert is not received in Edge and a scan of the "suspect" files by Norton and Malwarebytes does not find any problem.

One more thing, I have downloaded other Zip files via Firefox without issue but no matter what the zip file is coming out of Easynews, it is flagged.

Firefox uses download reputation data from Google's SafeBrowsing project. If a site has been flagged as distributing one bad file, that directory on the site, or possibly the entire site, could be flagged as a source of malware until it tests clean again. So it may be some time before Firefox stops marking those downloads, and checking them yourself is a good idea.

More info: How does built-in Phishing and Malware Protection work?

For non-confidential files, you also can use this site for scanning: https://www.virustotal.com/

Please provide a public link (no password) that we can check out. No Personal Information Please !

FredMcD said

Please provide a public link (no password) that we can check out. No Personal Information Please !

A public link to Easynews?? You need an account with them in order to log in and download. If you contact their tech support people, perhaps they can grant you temporary access to investigate this.

support@easynews.com

Rich

Message sent; support@easynews.com

Good day. I help out on the Mozilla Firefox support website.

One of the questions posted here says;

'Getting Malware/Virus message on downloads'

from your website.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1278489

User;

"When downloading MP3s from Easynews, I'm getting a message that the file contains Malware/Virus. I have been getting this with various MP3 files regardless of source. I finally proceeded with downloading one. I scanned with Malwarebytes and Norton and neither detected a problem. Any ideas?"

Responce;

Thank you for contacting support! The content on Usenet is wholly user-contributed. Unfortunately, due to the open nature of how content is shared, we do not have any control (quality or otherwise) over what is posted. Content is only removed from our servers in accordance with our abuse policies (for example, upon receipt of a notice). Those policies are available for review on our website.

The user who is using Easynews may better yet want to check their settings to better help wave out potential viruses.

They also sent this picture.

It looks like we've basically hit the end of the road without actually getting them removed from the VIRUS/MALWARE database. I've been using Easynews with Firefox for years without an issue.

I will just scan all downloads manually with Norton and Malwarebytes.

Thanks to all

Rich