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Need help: My browser sometimes redirects to other websites

temporary101

temporary101

Newbie
Phone: Galaxy Nexus International version
Carrier: Dutch T-mobile
OS: Stock Jellybean
Unrooted, Bootloader remains locked down
Affected browsers so far: Chrome and stock android browser

Sometimes when I am browsing the web on my phone I get redirected to porn websites. This can happen when clicking a bookmark, refreshing the page or clicking the next page button on XDA forums and mmo-champion forums.

I have tried around 5 anti-virus apps in the market since it happened. None of them found anything.
I had this issue before and I then Factory reset my phone. Now it is starting to come back. This time I have been even more careful of what apps I install.
I only install apps from the amazon appstore or google play store (or the occasional direct download for official updates when posted in a phandroid article or from a popular XDA forum, such as an update for Play store that includes Giftcards, or Google music updates) All of the apps are the free versions as I do not have a credit card to buy paid apps yet.

List of currently installed apps:

From Google playstore or phandroid articles:
-Adobe reader
-Airdroid
-Astro file manager/ browser
-battery indicator
-Chrome
-Desktop VisualizeR
-Draw Something free
-Dropbox
-Gesture search (google)
-Gmail
-Gmote 2.0
-Google Chrome to phone
-Google currents
-Google drive
-Google Earth
-Google goggles
-Google translate
-Google+
-ING Bankieren (dutch official bank app)
-Light Grid live wallpaper
-Maps
-NFC task launcher
-Path
 
It's not necessarily the apps that are causing you to visit porn sites - it's possible that one or two of the web sites you are visiting are redirecting you when you click away from their content.

Is it always the same site(s) that give you this problem, or is it random?
 
OhioFlyer said:
It's not necessarily the apps that are causing you to visit porn sites - it's possible that one or two of the web sites you are visiting are redirecting you when you click away from their content.

Is it always the same site(s) that give you this problem, or is it random?
Click to expand...

Well as far as I can remember it happened only on three websites.

-phandroid.com
-xda-developers.com
-mmo-champion.com

Then again those are the websites (along with engadget.com and facebook) that I visit most often on my phone, so that could also be the reason it doesn't happen with other websites.

It can happen when I click the bookmark for any of those websites or when I click an article on phandroid/xda or when visiting the xda/mmo-champion forums and clicking next page on a topic.
 
I've just done a Google search for "android browser redirecting to porn sites" and got more than 325,000 results back - not all were Android problems, but many were - so you aren't the only one having this problem.

The consensus seems to be that flushing the cache and deleting the browser's history stops the problem - for a while, at least. In the results I looked in, no one had discovered the source of the problem.

Try a Market search for Malware and find one that checks your installed apps. I use Lookout Security & Antivirus, which seems to do the job. It will run a scan when you install it and it does look for malware and spyware.
 
OhioFlyer said:
I've just done a Google search for "android browser redirecting to porn sites" and got more than 325,000 results back - not all were Android problems, but many were - so you aren't the only one having this problem.

The consensus seems to be that flushing the cache and deleting the browser's history stops the problem - for a while, at least. In the results I looked in, no one had discovered the source of the problem.

Try a Market search for Malware and find one that checks your installed apps. I use Lookout Security & Antivirus, which seems to do the job. It will run a scan when you install it and it does look for malware and spyware.
Click to expand...

I tried both among others and neither of them found anything :(
 
Do you Tweet?

Over The Rainbow

The main features of this malware attack includes:

Hackers embed some malicious JavaScript codes in Twitter messages that come with retweeting capability

This malware activated pop-ups

It redirected the users to various porn websites

The malicious links also spread to other followers of the social networking site as well

Many users exploited the loophole of this malware for creating tweets, which contained color blocks. This is the reason why it was known as rainbow tweets. The messages also had the ability to hide the main content and lured the users to click on the malicious links.
Click to expand...

More here: List of malware attacks on the social networking sites
 
Run Addons Detector or Airpush Detector to check whether any of your apps use push advertising. People have reported that redirecting browsers, though this sounds a bit different to me.
 
Hadron said:
Run Addons Detector or Airpush Detector to check whether any of your apps use push advertising. People have reported that redirecting browsers, though this sounds a bit different to me.
Click to expand...

They found nothing either :S

Never thought it would be this hard to get rid of it.
Is there any way to sort apps based on their permissions? To see which apps have network permissions?
 
Addons Detector can do that - one of the functions is "permissions explorer", which lets you view all of your apps with a given permission.

Network permissions are pretty common though.
 
Hadron said:
Addons Detector can do that - one of the functions is "permissions explorer", which lets you view all of your apps with a given permission.

Network permissions are pretty common though.
Click to expand...


I'll keep that in mind for next time.
I think the problem for me was with Wave Control.
I did delete some other apps too, but Wave control was the only one I didn't come from the Play store I think. Got it from XDA, but it might have been a modified re-uploaded apk causing the problem.
Anyway I do not seem to have the issue anymore.

Thanks for all the advice and will definitely use it if it ever starts again. :D
 
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