AVSim Library problems

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

This was just reported by a credible user at the Alpha India Group forums. I just checked myself and it appears that the servers either have a problem or possibly have been compromised.

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

I sent a message to Jim Young, but also checked the library (did one download, seemed to work).  What exactly is the issue?

 

[Jim Young 2,356]

Sent a message to AVSIM Tech to shutdown the Library immediately!  When you try to download a file you get ransomware.  NO ONE should use the Library until the problem is fixed.  Thanks for reporting.

[Brian Sperduto 7]

1 hour ago, jabloomf1230 said:

This was just reported by a credible user at the Alpha India Group forums. I just checked myself and it appears that the servers either have a problem or possibly have been compromised.

What are you seeing? There doesn't appear to be anything wrong on our end

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

it looks to me like a site that feeds advertising to the AVSim library was compromised and anti-malware apps are blocking it. If your AM app didn't block it, you might not have seen anything out of the ordinary.

[jmdriskell 178]

I'm the Library manager and I have just uploaded a number of new files to the library.  I didn't see any problems on that end but I use an ad blocker so if the problem was outside of the library structure, I wouldn't have seen it

Jim,

Please advise and please notify Brian.

Thanks,

James M Driskell

AVSIM Library Manager

[Jim Young 2,356]

12 minutes ago, jmdriskell said:

Please advise and please notify Brian.

Brian responded above.  Thanks Jim for the info.  I do know we use an anti-virus program but, based on OP, I thought ransomware had somehow penetrated the Library.  Obviously not.  Do not know why I got the ransomware virus msg as I had no problems downloading files yesterday and today until after I saw this topic.  Thought it was better to be safe than sorry as I did want any of our members getting a similar message.  BTW, I was able to shutdown my computer, restart, and when I got to the desktop, did a Ctrl+Shift+Del and closed Firefox (after loading every startup items, the system will restart the last program open which was Firefox so it is important that Firefox or the browser you are using is not restarted).  I then went on the Internet using Microsoft Edge and saw no indications of the virus.  I restarted Firefox and all is working well again.

[Jim Young 2,356]

29 minutes ago, jabloomf1230 said:

a site that feeds advertising to the AVSim library was compromised

Seems to me, our anti-virus program was doing the right thing and blocking the advertisements.  The people who feed the advertisements to AVSIM need to fix the issue on their site.  Meanwhile our Anti-virus program was doing its thing.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

The moral of the story to all AVSim users... Make sure that you have an effective anti-malware app installed and that you keep both its database and your version of Windows up to date.

[Brian Sperduto 7]

All, the issue has been addressed. A security issue was found in the software used to display advertising. This unfortunately was able to inject code into users browsers for a few hours today. My deepest apologies to anyone impacted by this. Please be assured the AVSIM servers were not compromised and no user data was ever available. While this obviously unacceptable the software was completely isolated and nothing outside it was impacted. 

Thanks

Brian