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Weird occurrences.

tommo47

On Yer Bike, In Yer Chair
Two strange things have happened over the last week or so :-

1) While browsing the 'Android Questions' forum I've had a number of random, unrequested downloads of a file called 'Pixel.txt'. It was not related to a specific thread and would happen when simply scrolling through the threads. It has not happened when viewing any of my other usual forums eg. Android Applications, HTC M9, Android Lounge, Forum Games and up to now has only happened when using my HTC stock browser - no occurrence when using Chrome or Dolphin. It has not happened on any other website. Over a two or three day period I would estimate it has happened about twelve times and each time I have immediately deleted the file. The last occurrence was two to three days ago.

2) Yesterday I happened to copy two of my bookmarks to the Homescreen, both had a 'Xenforo' icon instead of the usual generic icon or website specific icon as shown in the attached image. This has never happened before.

Screenshot_20160303-061705.png

A Google search for 'Pixel.txt' didn't produce anything but there are some results showing for random downloads of other .txt files.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

Can anyone shed any light on either of the two occurrences?
 
Never had a request to download "pixel.txt" and checking the source code for threads in Android Questions shows no results for "pixel.txt"

Maybe related to an ad?
 
I do see that our site is not using favicon to save to homepage, its the xf logo. Looking around at other xf sites out there I know of theirs does it too. I've found the fix, will roll out in a bit.

But, no explanation on why other bookmarked sites did it..
 
Me either. I get the XF icon when i save AF to home, but not others. Not sure about that download I'll see if I can recreate!

@Phases I'm doubtful whether you will be able to recreate the download - I can't recreate it because I have absolutely no idea what triggered it and it hasn't happened for 3 to 4 days now, with me following my usual pattern of browsing the AQ forum. That said I hope you do manage to recreate it and find a cause.

@kate - there was no request to download, I would just get the 'Download started' pop-up and the usual download arrow in the notification bar. There was no pattern to it - it has happened within seconds of opening the AQ forum or sometimes when viewing a thread but I would delete the downloaded file - go back into the same thread but it wouldn't happen, then at some random point in time would happen again either while scrolling or reading another thread - totally random and completely unprompted, and only when in the Android Questions forum, and to add to the weirdness, only when using my HTC browser - I've deliberately gone back into the AQ forum using Chrome and Dolphin browsers immediately after getting the download in the HTC browser and nothing happened.

@norb I have no idea whether anyone wants to hack me, but it seems an odd way to go about it by using the Android Questions forum and apparently only when I'm using my HTC browser. ;)
 
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I do see that our site is not using favicon to save to homepage, its the xf logo. Looking around at other xf sites out there I know of theirs does it too. I've found the fix, will roll out in a bit.

But, no explanation on why other bookmarked sites did it..

As a matter of interest I have copied to home bookmarks for four websites from HTC, Chrome and Dolphin browsers.

Dolphin uses a generic icon for all four, Chrome uses favicons for three and the xf logo for Android Forums which is in line with what you've found and HTC for some reason uses the xf logo for two completely unrelated websites as well as Android Forums - puzzling to say the least.

Screenshot_20160304-083300.png
 
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