serve-west.acuityplatform.com

Bayswater, did you block it with Little Snitch?

If all of Safari stopped working, then you probably clicked "any connection." If only some of Safari stopped working then you may have blocked port 443. Sounds like you’re unfamiliar with LS.

I added serve-west.acuityplatform.com to my hosts file, and I’m still able to use Safari, but that address will no longer load.

There were already 3 acuityplatform address in my hosts file, (acuityplatform.com, click-west.acuityplatform.com, serve-east.acuityplatform.com) but that must be a new one the scumbags are using that wasn’t included yet, so I added it myself.

That address appeared a few minutes ago in Little Snitch, right before a malware window appeared with an address of https://calohallthesextube.com/188404105709/7a38e3fb4aaf978a7ad641f90a9f8e2d/

and an IP address of 162.219.26.83.

After closing the window I couldn’t get that address to load again - just a blank page.

The window was was for an "emergency" Firefox update, and it immediately downloaded a file named firefox-patch.js to my computer. Of course I deleted it, but first it was scanned by VirusTotal.com.

It actually snuck by most of the malware detectors on that site, with only 2 of 53 labeling it as dangerous.

Very strange because I was posting an ad on Craigslist when the window opened, and I’ve never known Craigslist to have ads, popups or any sort of malware before, so I’m guessing it’s unrelated to that site. And I had emptied the Safari cache just an hour before, so I wouldn’t think anything there caused it to open.

In any case, THANKS LITTLE SNITCH for alerting me!

Bayswater, in case you didn’t know, Linc regards Little Snitch as a useless POS, so I’d disregard most of what he says. I think I just proved how useful it really is.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.

The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is localized to your user account. Enable guest logins and log in as Guest. For instructions, launch the System Preferences application, select Help from the menu bar, and enter “Set up a guest account” (without the quotes) in the search box.

While logged in as Guest, you won’t have access to any of your personal files or settings. Applications will behave as if you were running them for the first time. Don’t be alarmed by this; it’s normal. If you need any passwords or other personal data in order to complete the test, memorize, print, or write them down before you begin.

Test while logged in as Guest. Same problem(s)?

After testing, log out of the guest account and, in your own account, disable it if you wish. Any files you created in the guest account will be deleted automatically when you log out of it.

Note: If you’ve activated FileVault in Mac OS X 10.7 or later, then you can’t enable the Guest account. Create a new account in which to test, and delete it, including its home folder, after testing.

I don't know, and without more information, I'm not going to know.

My hobby is resurrecting the dead.

Actually, I saw Mar 16 as the date in your reply, and thought it was from this year.

Still would’ve been dead, but not so old it was decomposing.