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Consumer Products => Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security (legacy Pro Antivirus, Internet Security, Premier) => Topic started by: dmark88 on April 04, 2013, 08:32:16 PM

Title: Warning Message for "about:blank"
Post by: dmark88 on April 04, 2013, 08:32:16 PM

I'm running Avast 8:free version  130404-0.  My Internet Explorer default web page is "about:blank".  When I opened up Internet Explorer I go a warning message from Avast saying "This site has been marked as a phishing site".  I had 3 options for a response:
 "Get Me Out of This", "Trust This Domain", Ignore the Warning" .  Is this a problem with Avast, or should I be concerned about the web site "about:blank" ?

Title: Re: Warning Message for "about:blank"
Post by: Para-Noid on April 04, 2013, 09:28:12 PM

Here is a link that may or may not help http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/About:blank#Common_about:_URIs 

about:blank is "not" a website per se.  :)

Title: Re: Warning Message for "about:blank"
Post by: DavidR on April 04, 2013, 10:02:56 PM

Strange I don't get any alert for about:blank in IE8, nor do I get it on my win7 netbook with IE10. Not sure what your settings might be in regard to phishing - AvastUI > Settings > WebRep & Antiphishing.

I think I know why, in my IE versions I don't have the webrep enabled and the anti-phishing is tied to that. In XP I have the latest beta of avast and have disabled the webrep in firefox 20.0 as it messes with the layout.

That leaves firefox 20.0 in the win7 netbook with the 8.0.1483 version of avast. When I type about:blank and enter, that is changed to about:newtab, but I don't get any anti-phishing alert.

Given that this is a pretty common non-internet address I don't really know why it might be considered a phishing address.

Title: Re: Warning Message for "about:blank"
Post by: Para-Noid on April 04, 2013, 10:20:37 PM

It's my understanding that you do "not" need WebRep enabled for anti-phishing to work.
They are not interdependent upon each other. According to the built-in help file.  :)

Title: Re: Warning Message for "about:blank"
Post by: DavidR on April 05, 2013, 12:50:34 AM

Well as far as I'm aware the phishing notice page is compiled by the same function, but I could be wrong, it could be done by the web shield.

Though if it were done by the web shield it would mean that my previous statement is somewhat invalidated as it doesn't require the webrep. So it should also have alerted on my XP system with the avast beta version without the webrep.

Title: Re: Warning Message for "about:blank"
Post by: Para-Noid on April 05, 2013, 03:43:56 AM

What would really help is if the OP could provide a screenshot of the pop-up message.  ???