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Right now i have everytime i open safari and enter a link within google etc i come to to "Mega . viral-content.sire and it pop-up" it says congratulations you've won blabla and it popups where i can only press on "okey". What can i do?`i really wanna keep my pictures on the phone so a complete cleanse isn't on my mind atm.


Best Regards, Realtalk

iPhone 6, iOS 9.3.2

Posted on Jul 28, 2016 4:58 PM

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43 replies

Aug 1, 2016 3:07 PM in response to Mamajin

That's all true, but that not what concerns users. They're concerned when it's something that can happen easily, and with little or no intervention from them.


The one you refer requires two thing: You must first install software in Windows knowing that its purpose is to steal software. You must then connect your iPhone to that same Windows computer to make it possible to steal software from the App Store. What the Windows software doesn't tell you, of course, that the trade off is all the things it does to your iPhone behind your back you don't want it to do.


Not a thief? No need to worry. So yes, it matters a lot.

Aug 1, 2016 4:50 PM in response to Mamajin

It sure sounds like it behaves that way, but there hasn't been anything yet to point to the actual cause. Clicking a popup to accept cookies (as I ran into, but didn't go for) shouldn't be able to do anything to a non jail broken iPhone or iPad. There is no admin password to enter so you can somewhat (or fully) bypass the OS's warning. iOS and all of its installed apps are locked down.


All apps, including those from the App Store are required to be sandboxed. They aren't allowed in any way to write files anywhere other than within their own application package. They can talk to one another, such as if you click a link in an email and it opens Safari. Then at the top left in Safari, you'll see a small link you can touch for "Back to Mail". But that's all it can do as far as interaction with another app.


Has someone discovered something new to get by iOS's restrictions that no security firm or even Apple knows of yet? It would be foolish to say it can never happen. All software, especially complex software has flaws in it that haven't been discovered, or have been but not fixed yet. Right now, there's too many ifs. One person can't go to a particular site without getting redirected. I go to that same site and nothing happens. An iPhone that had no issues before upgrading turns into a headache after doing so, but only to a very small number of users. Why? That's what we don't know yet.

Aug 2, 2016 12:56 AM in response to RealTalkx

This is most likely to be a hacked ad network like adsense. This kind of attack always is.


That would explain why adblock stops it, why disabling javascript stops it, why this is happening worldwide and why clearing cookies (in this instance the ad-networks targeting cookies) stops it.


Pokemon GO and iOS 9.3.3 are two major releases that somewhat matches the timeframe of this incident, but it is very unlikely that these could inject anything into your browser.


To proceed, we need to verify that this problem does not happen on ad-free sites, testing - like Kurt Lang mentioned - sites like google.com and apple.com.


Then, we need to isolate the ad network, by finding those that the "infected" sites have in common. Unfortunately I have not been able to pick up the disease on my iPhone that have both 9.3.3 and pokemon GO installed (it's for my kid, no seriously!)

Aug 2, 2016 1:10 AM in response to Τhomas

To try and help, even though my problem appears to be solved - I received the pop up when visiting www.bold.dk - if visiting mobil.bold.dk the site worked fine. So it was only when visiting the desktop version on iphone, that the problem

persisted.

As far as I have read, others have also experienced the problem when visiting sports sites, and/or sites with betting commercials etc. which is the same case for www.bold.dk

I was afraid that my Mac would end up with the same issue, as I of course have both my iPhone and Mac linked to iCloud, but the homepage worked out fine on my Mac all the time.

Aug 2, 2016 2:14 AM in response to RealTalkx

I've been having the same problem, too, except it's not on Safari, which is acting fine. I do not have Pokemon Go, nor have I ever installed it. I keep getting the pop-up on my Facebook app. It pops up whenever I click on a link within the app itself, so it uses its internal browser. The settings for the app in the phone's settings do not allow you to block cookies or clear browser history. I've done all the other steps mentioned in here, including clearing history/data from Safari and blocking cookies, even though Safari hasn't been the problem. I've also:


-Restarted my phone every time it pops up in Facebook

-Swiped the app up to close it, then restarted it

-Deleted and reinstalled the app from my phone


None of this seems to be working, and my facebook app is pretty much useless (<- that may not be a bad thing, I have sh** I should be doing instead). My phone is not jailbroken, either.

Aug 2, 2016 3:02 AM in response to Montu

Update: So after posting this, I went into the Facebook app's settings (in the app itself) > security> active sessions. I had 12 active sessions, and 4 of them were from unknown locations including 1 unknown device, and 1 device I didn't recognize. The rest were from recognized locations and devices. I closed the 4 that were unknown in some way, and left the other 8 open (they were connected to calendar apps, etc). This seems to have fixed the problem for now. I'm able to click on links in the app without getting the pop-up.


However, that's a little scary to see that unknown devices were tapping into my app. Some of the sessions started as far back as September. The first one on the list that was unknown was started 2 days ago, though, when I first started noticing the problem.

Aug 3, 2016 6:26 AM in response to mgx0


There are many things that can cause this behaviour:

That's essentially what I said:

Right now, there's too many ifs. One person can't go to a particular site without getting redirected. I go to that same site and nothing happens. An iPhone that had no issues before upgrading turns into a headache after doing so, but only to a very small number of users. Why? That's what we don't know yet.

Per Thomas' note after yours:

It was a hacked ad network account that was used to introduce this annoying ad on multiple sites

Doesn't surprise me at all the problem was outside of iOS. Again, not saying it's literally impossible to attack iOS, but it's extremely difficult. Per the other forum where the issue seemed to happen to a lot of people all at once, not all of whom had updated their iPhones or iPads, that almost immediately tells you the problem is not the device.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

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