# iOS redirects



## S3 Power (Nov 16, 2013)

This happened probably 10-20 times per hour, if not more.

Browser closes and redirects to some dragon game on the App Store.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/23413459#23413459 for more info.

Here's an example


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## Ikon66 (Sep 12, 2003)

Hmmmm, just happened once to me. Was a problem on AV forums a while ago. Took them a while to sort out :?


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## shshivji (Nov 25, 2009)

Happened to me a few times too

Shak


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## burns (Jun 2, 2009)

Same redirect has just happened to me. It took me to "Dragon City mobile" on the App Store.

I've also had two members PM me since the locking of my thread, to say that they've had the porn problem too. One has already PM'd Hoggy and I've advised the other to do the same.


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## TTFAdmin (Feb 1, 2012)

Thanks for reporting the issue guys. We noticed this issue on a few other forums already and our testing out our different Ad networks to find the source of the problem. Sorry about any inconvenience that this is causing. If you're having an issue or getting a different game that redirects you,post it here.

Thanks

- dm, community support


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## John-H (Jul 13, 2005)

Can anyone getting re-directs to products on the App store please also report the products to the App store? This would appear to be a rogue advertiser operating either through Google ads or a free app a user has on their device working in conjunction with the browser and most frequently visited sites. Not sure at the moment and site support are aware since this problem first appeared on Android devices but seems to have been sorted since reporting to the Android Play store. Maybe a coincidence but worth trying.


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## TTFAdmin (Feb 1, 2012)

Hi everyone,

We have made some adjustments that should help with this issue. Please log-in again and let me know if it continues to happen now.

Thanks,
Community Support


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## Hoggy (May 8, 2002)

Hi, Recenty had this PM from Sevy. Hopefully it may cure the Porn Diversion, when using Safari etc on the Iphone/Pad etc. that some have had probs with.

*One of the possible solutions is to enable Debug mode on your iPhone/iPad, which I have done and not had the problem occur since.

Hope that helps...
Cheers,
Simon*

Hoggy.


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## Nem (Feb 14, 2005)

I'm sorry, what? You now accept there is possibly an issue with users being sent to a porn site but it's up to the users to try and prevent it?

It's inexcusable for this site to know or even believe there is/might be a problem and not have already fixed it. If it's possibly part of a rouge advert being displayed then ALL adverts should be immediately disabled to make sure this cannot happen.


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## Hoggy (May 8, 2002)

Hi, I'm only passing on Info from another member, who has found a solution if using Safari on IPod etc. 
I probably spend more time here than anyone else & it's never happened to me using Windows & Chrome, perhaps it's just a Safari problem. 
Perhaps I shouldn't have even bothered to try & help. :? 
Hoggy.


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## Nem (Feb 14, 2005)

Totally understand that Hoggy, but surely you can see my point.

Can you escalate this up to forum admin that more than one person has had this issue now as when Sara first posted about it people seemed to just shrug it off and take no notice.

I've not had it happen to me either, but on the PC I've got all adverts blocked hence why I'm thinking it might be advert related.


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## Hoggy (May 8, 2002)

Hi Nick, TTF Admin have/are looking into prob, but can't find a prob, from the last info.
I will move my post to "Off Topic" as it's not really a TTF announcement, just thought it would be read more here.
Hoggy.


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## Lollypop86 (Oct 26, 2013)

if its decent porn whats the problem  if its rubbish then yes rarrrr complain away 

J
xx


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## Skeee (Jun 9, 2009)

Lollypop86 said:


> if its decent porn what's the problem  if its rubbish then yes rarrrr complain away
> 
> J
> xx


 Come on Jess, spill! is there something you're not telling us? :roll:


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## Nem (Feb 14, 2005)

The problem is the person sat at work just innocently browsing the forum when they get diverted to some dodgy site and loose their job.


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## Lollypop86 (Oct 26, 2013)

oh yea thats not so good 

And erm.....nothing *innocent*

J
xx


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## brian1978 (Jul 10, 2013)

Nem said:


> The problem is the person sat at work just innocently browsing the forum when they get diverted to some dodgy site and *loose * their job.


I prefer a firm job.


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## Skeee (Jun 9, 2009)

brian1978 said:


> Nem said:
> 
> 
> > The problem is the person sat at work just innocently browsing the forum when they get diverted to some dodgy site and *loose * their job.
> ...


 That's a completely different type of porn.


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## k19rks (Nov 18, 2013)

i reckon the site would just be blocked by the internal server when at work anyway. But still


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## Lollypop86 (Oct 26, 2013)

lol (facepalm)

J
xx


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## YoungOldUn (Apr 12, 2011)

I have accessed the forum from a PC running Windows 7 and IE 11, an iPad using Tapatalk, Safari and Google plus a MacBook Pro running Safari and Chrome without ever having the problem of being diverted to another site.


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## BaueruTc (Aug 21, 2011)

For a while this site would redirect me to twitter just after loading which was pretty annoying. A few others were having issues around the same time being directed to porn sites. Would have rather ended up on there than twitter lol :lol:


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## sevy (Sep 14, 2011)

Nem said:


> Totally understand that Hoggy, but surely you can see my point.
> 
> Can you escalate this up to forum admin that more than one person has had this issue now as when Sara first posted about it people seemed to just shrug it off and take no notice.
> 
> I've not had it happen to me either, but on the PC I've got all adverts blocked hence why I'm thinking it might be advert related.


Thanks Nick for taking this seriously (and thanks to Hoggy for posting)...in my case I was more concerned about this problem happening if my young son happened to be using my iPad, which he does whilst supervised. Appreciate that it's a potential problem for people browsing at work too.

In case anyone is interested, I found this thread which seems to describe the symptoms and possible workarounds...but as you suspected it does seem to be advert related:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1381277

Hopefully something can be done by forum admin to stop this happening, even if it is a rare occurrence...

Cheers...Sevy


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## k19rks (Nov 18, 2013)

BaueruTc said:


> For a while this site would redirect me to twitter just after loading which was pretty annoying. A few others were having issues around the same time being directed to porn sites. Would have rather ended up on there than twitter lol :lol:


Can't stand blooming twitter so a dodgy porn site would be much preferred!!


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## Lollypop86 (Oct 26, 2013)

sevy said:


> Appreciate that it's a potential problem for people browsing at work too.


Thankfully my work has a good pop up blocker lol but I did notice that my laptop blocked a pop up whilst i was on last night hmmmm i wonder lol

J
xx


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## muz1990 (May 12, 2013)

Lollypop86 said:


> oh yea thats not so good
> 
> And erm.....nothing *innocent*
> 
> ...


I love your banter chick :lol:

I've also never had this problem, for a few days I kept being diverted to some random monkey game on the App Store but that's it!

Also, I've only had that on my iPhone 5, my iMac's never had an issue


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## muz1990 (May 12, 2013)

Lollypop86 said:


> sevy said:
> 
> 
> > Appreciate that it's a potential problem for people browsing at work too.
> ...


By the sounds of things you have this issue from Searching for porn rather than other things! :lol:


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## John-H (Jul 13, 2005)

It's unclear how this exploit works but from what I can see it's actually a browser problem and not a direct forum problem. It's being triggered by a rogue advertiser either through Google ads or through a free advertising supported app on a user's device that only runs the Java based exploit when the user uses their browser. There are lots of reports about various websites being involved but this could just be a result of a user spending most of their time on a particular site when the exploit happens to run.

So it might be nothing at all to do with this forum. Trouble is, we don't have enough information to go on. What adverts you get served depends on your browsing history which explains why some don't see any problem as they happen to get served normal ads and those that do see the problem don't see the same thing - some have reported re-directs to games etc. Also, as often is the case with these low level random things, they are difficult to reproduce when testing.

Users with the problem could help by reporting any play/app store products, to which they get re-directed, to the store - that puts pressure on the store to clamp down on advertisers using this exploit. Meanwhile, hopefully the browser/Java developers will close the loophole. Users could turn off Java but that will stop a lot of websites functioning properly. The problem seems to have been reported on and off for over a year on other websites, both on Android and Apple devices, so it suggests the Java exploit is not fixed but the advertisers are being regularly cleaned up and new ones occasionally join in again and need to be removed.

I've already suggested to site support that they could turn off Google ads to see if it's reaching people that way but it wasn't clear if this was the route and the problem seemed to have gone away at the time so it wouldn't have shown anything. If anyone is experiencing the problem now this could still be tried but it's not the root cause and you could still get the problem when browsing other websites. Please report re-directs here if they are still happening now so we get a clear current picture.


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## sevy (Sep 14, 2011)

Thanks for investigating this John, and for the detailed explanation.

As you suggest, if anything of this nature happens again I'll report it on this thread with as much detail/info as possible, in the hope that it provides more clues as to the cause & potential resolution.

Cheers...Sevy


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