edge.quantserve

[DBenjamin85]

Hi,

I noticed that in my script shield this site popped up in it and I was rather curious as to what it is, the script shield didn't seem to do anything about it, am I to presume that it's nothing to be bothered about?

I noticed on one of the sites that you use for checking urls it came up as blacklisted but the script shield didn't seem to do anything... I think it appeared when I was on this forum or rather during the time I was on this forum, though I do have a few other tabs open.

[DBenjamin85]

I never got a reply to this thread, just wondering if it's anything to be bothered about, there is definately an edge.quantserve mentioned in the script shield but avast seems happy to just scan it and let it lie.  I tried looking up for stuff on it and got a variety of answers including things such as it being "Part of avast!" or "Like google analytics" as well as mention of it linked to malware of viruses.

Does anyone actually know what it is?

[DavidR]

Where in the avast! Script Shield did you notice this ?

Sites that you visit may have scripts run on them, some scripts can also be from 3rd party sites. The script Shield scans all scripts to ensure that they aren't malicious. The only ones that would concern you are if avast alerts, otherwise this is showing that a script from that site has been scanned.

You don't mention what that other URL checking site is or the detailed information contained there. Avast is working in real time and many analysis sites can contain historic data.

Personally I wouldn't be digging too deep into this because not only is the script shield scanning scripts, but the network and web shields are checking if the site is malicious of any content is malicious.

[DBenjamin85]

Yes it was the script shield where I noticed it, script shield has been more active since updates this year (remember one time last year where script shield didn't show anything in chrome).  Avast doesn't seem to have a problem with the script, but it was basically edge.quantserve and it ended in quant.js I do believe.

I can't remember exactly which url checker I used back then but it was one that one of the avast member people suggested to someone to check a url.

[DavidR]

This may be cookie related as the edge.quantserve (includes quantcast.com) can/is monitor/ing what your browsing activity is and this information can be used to improve site adverts, etc. Whilst these might well be benign and won't be detected as malicious by an AV, it can give valuable anonymous marketing information to the site owners and obviously Quantcast. WOT doesn't like Quantserve or Quantcast.

Some information on them dug up by Pondus http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/gaia-guides-and-resources/quantserve-removal-tutorial-v-1/t.26821991/

Quantcast is a team of web analytics experts building powerful statistical technology to understand internet audiences. Quantcast helps web publishers of all sizes understand the composition of their audiences and attract higher advertising rates, and helps advertisers and agencies find elusive online audiences wherever they might be. This web site allows anyone to view audience reports on hundreds of thousands of websites.

Never allow 3rd party cookies, this can be set in your browser settings.

[DBenjamin85]

I have and always have had 3rd party cookies disallowed as long as I can remember when using chrome which is many years now.  So should I not be bothered about this?  If it's a pain of a 3rd party cookie why would avast! script shield not be doing anything about it? especially if WOT etc doesn't like it?

[DavidR]

There is a difference in a script being 'malicious' or not and the script isn't contained in the cookie, but there is likely to be something on the page, etc. that accesses/runs the quant.js file.

WOT is a user based reputational tool, it isn't scanning anything in real time as the avast shields are.

[DBenjamin85]

So is this a normal occurance in the script shield? would avast be doing something about it if it were malicious?

[DavidR]

I don't know what you mean by normal, the script shield scans scripts on the page or 3rd party scripts if they are run from that page.  Like all shields if it finds anything malicious avast alerts.