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03-27-10, 10:41 PM   #1
Shinjite
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Thumbs down More Ad Problems With Minion

It would seem that some ads inside the Minion updater are causing some problems. I hypothesized this a bit in a past thread here: http://wowinterface.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31003

Below are two screenshots of what happened when I opened Minion this evening:





I'm concerned that some ads are trying to run exploits when loaded in Minion. Since my last post in the above thread, I've noticed that recurring ads load when the UAC prompt is triggered. Ads for Progressive Car Insurance, and music videos, for example were always in Minion when I've had the UAC prompt appear. In the above two photos, this is the first time I've had an ad actually OPEN a browser window. The ad was not clicked, therefore user input was not the cause of opening this window in the first screenshot.

The fact that an ad opened a browser displaying more info on the content advertised definitely makes me wonder about the security of using the Minion updater. I'm currently thinking of dumping the Curse updater, add that to the loss of Minion, and it's going to be very annoying. However, I would rather sacrifice the ease of updating addons for the sake of keeping my computer clean.

Is there any way to police the ads being displayed in Minion? If this isn't being done, I'd simply like to suggest doing so.
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03-27-10, 11:01 PM   #2
Bluspacecow
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I notice you have the Curse Client open in the background on both shots.

Can you reproduce this without anything else open other then Minion ?

You might want to submit this as a bug at their bug tracker site.
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03-27-10, 11:54 PM   #3
Dolby
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Hi Shinjite,

I'll forward your ad issue on to our ad manager. Every ad that is shown here is approved by our sales and manager team. However no ad system is fool proof. I'll have to confirm with Shirik but the ad window that pop'd open was the built in java web browser and I don't think any harm other than being annoying as heck can come from it.

The UAC prompts if enabled should happen any time it has to access a file in a protected area. So if your WoW Install is using the default install path any time it needs to write in the program folder directory its going to trigger UAC. Again shirik would know more about this.

I'm sorry your having these issues and if my ad team can't give me a good answer I'll be disabling the ads until they can.

Last edited by Dolby : 03-28-10 at 12:07 AM.
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03-28-10, 12:23 AM   #4
Shirik
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The browser is completely disjoint from Minion, so there won't be any communication between the Minion application and the ad, if that's what you're worried about.

Basically the way the ad window works is by opening up your default browser in an extremely small form with no UI and sticking it in the application. Anything your browser can do can be done with Minion's ad browser, so the question becomes more of "is your browser secure enough?" I'm not sure what's causing UAC to pop up though. If you see it again, can you please record the detailed information it gives you so I know what it's trying to run?

That being said, I'll look into ways of applying appropriate restrictions if possible. However, like I said, this runs on your default browser's platform, so any such restrictions would be in addition to what should be an already-secure setup on your browser for typical internet browsing.

-- Shirik

EDIT: P.S. I don't in any way endorse the automatic popup advertisements and will do everything I can to get this stopped.

EDIT2: P.P.S. The unfamiliar popup window that appears to be running an application is in fact Minion's browser (well, the UI that goes along with your browser embedded) so it's not like it's executing arbitrary code. That's the same window you would get if you were to click on an ad in many cases (though this is partially dependent upon the type of ad).
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Last edited by Shirik : 03-28-10 at 12:26 AM.
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03-29-10, 07:47 AM   #5
forty2j
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What kind of ads to plan to allow in that space?

I'm thinking it may be better to simply render the ad in Java, and pop up a browser only when clicked. This will limit the ad's capabilities to only what you allow them to be. Of course, this solution is much easier with a static image (or even an animated gif) than with embedded flash, or worse, some complex DHTML that wants to be rendered.
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03-29-10, 06:44 PM   #6
Shinjite
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Thanks for looking into this Dolby and Shirik.

To answer a couple things in case the info is relevant:

WoW is currently installed in my Public Folder, Vista 32-bit. The UAC pops up randomly on application loads. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't. Most of the time it pops up on a Progressive Insurance ad, and an ad for Carrie Underwood music videos, but a couple others have triggered it as well. I don't remember what they were off the top of my head. I cancel it out every time, so I don't know what it tries to run.

My default browser is Chrome. I switched to it about two weeks ago, after using Firefox for about three years. I hardly touch IE with a ten foot pole.

As for recording the detailed info from the UAC prompt, how would I go about that? Do I need to let it run? If the ad is trying to run an exploit, I'm a little hesitant to allow it.
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03-30-10, 05:33 PM   #7
Shirik
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No don't let it run, just when it pops up it should tell you details like what is trying to run, publisher, etc. That's the kind of information I need.
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ぼくはこのめでみたよ
だけどつぎがじぶんおばんだってことわ
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It's my turn next.

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/(bb|[^b]{2})/
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04-05-10, 06:47 PM   #8
Shinjite
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Originally Posted by Shirik View Post
No don't let it run, just when it pops up it should tell you details like what is trying to run, publisher, etc. That's the kind of information I need.
Thanks, Shirik. I was a bit confused on how to get any details from the UAC.

To give a quick update, since I'd last replied here, I haven't had any trouble with a pop-up browser, or UAC prompt. I've opened, closed, and re-opened Minion several times on random occasions to test for any similar problems, but nothing has happened. It seems to be running alright for me now.

Also, if memory serves me correctly, the UAC prompt screenshot I linked in post six (http://wowinterface.com/forums/showp...85&postcount=6) in the other thread was the exact UAC I was getting previously. Even the registry key number(?) in brackets matched the one I wrote down prior to linking that screenshot. Hope this helps, and thanks for the hard work determining any ad problems. I'll update if I come across anything else.
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04-18-10, 03:42 AM   #9
Tymesink
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Would it be possible if we are a paid subscriber, that an ad free version of minion would be available? If so, I'd gladly subscribe. Some of those ads prompt me wanting to install adobe flash when I have it already installed on IE8. Very annoying.
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04-18-10, 04:16 AM   #10
MidgetMage55
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Originally Posted by Stabler View Post
Would it be possible if we are a paid subscriber, that an ad free version of minion would be available? If so, I'd gladly subscribe. Some of those ads prompt me wanting to install adobe flash when I have it already installed on IE8. Very annoying.
From the Minion FAQ:

# Is there a “Premium” version?
Sort of. There is one version of Minion for everyone. The only difference that users will see right now is that if you are a Premium Member on our sites, then whenever you are on one of our modules (more about those down further) you won’t see ads on the updater. If you aren’t a Premium Member on our sites, there will be one 300x250 ad block in the lower right corner that you will see.
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