Firefox crashes on Loverslab?

[guk]

I'm not very active on this site nowadays, but i noticed that my Firefox occasionally gets a blank window and freezes while there is just one browser window with LL open. Seems to happen either while writing a post, or when it's in another tab in the background.

 

Is this a known problem? I have NoScript and ABP installed and run the relevant modules of Kasperky Internet Security.

The only allowed scripts required to navigate the site are coming from loverslab.com and ajax.googleapis.com, to further narrow this down.

 

And unless this is a HUGE coincidence, i can say with 100% certainty that LL is the cause of these crashes because this has only ever happened with the LL page open. The last time i saw a Firefox crash in other circumstances must have been years ago, while all the crashes with LL happened over the past couple of months.

[pinky6225]

Do you eventually get a message saying XYZ script is preventing something working with options stop script or wait?

 

I occasionally get that on a different site which causes the sort of issue you describe although i've had no issues with firefox and LL

[guk]

Do you eventually get a message saying XYZ script is preventing something working with options stop script or wait?

 

I occasionally get that on a different site which causes the sort of issue you describe although i've had no issues with firefox and LL

No here on LL, the browser windows becomes solid blue (my custom windows bar color i guess) and the top bar says "Mozilla Firefox (no response...)".

Shutting down the window in the taskbar takes a few seconds, receipted by the usual Windows prompt saying "Firefox stopped working... wait/close".

 

I do recall the thing you mention from Simulationcraft.org - when you tried to view the current rankings, the browser would become unresponsive for a few secs and then give you the option to stop the scripts or wait. Either way in that case you still can see the content of the loading page while it hangs, but the blank screen here on LL indicates a different problem.

 

(edit: this is still happening on SimCraft, the freezing script in question comes from a Kaspersky server though)

 

 

 

The only other irregularity here on LL is when KIS shows a certificate warning about "anony.ws", where you get the option to shut down the connection or proceed.

I think this coming from embedded user content though, and the same shows up for example on curse.com about the connection "b.scorecardresearch.com".

[ToJKa]

Never had that problem, and i always use Firefox. I have uBlock Origin instead of ABP, though.

 

And yes, i have it disabled for this site

[guk]

Never had that problem, and i always use Firefox. I have uBlock Origin instead of ABP, though.

 

And yes, i have it disabled for this site

Okay so you and others do run Firefox and use LL on a regular basis, without freezing/crashing.

For me the freezes were kind of obvious, because i have been away from the site for longer periods and now only browse it occasionally. And as mentioned the freezes were only there as long as any tab with LL was opened.

 

So this leaves other potential factors:

- ABP

- Kaspersky

- Windows 10?

- something else on my end

- coincidental, random crashing not related to anything mentioned above

[donttouchmethere]

i have the same issue with firefox, its pretty random.

right now i am sure its a firefoxbug

more ppl have the same issue: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=3030012

[27X]

Firefox recently released a memory partitioning fix, no idea whether it's part of the regular schedule or not; might wanna try it.

 

Win10 and FF also don't tend to agree on what to put where in terms of memory usage.

[guk]

i have the same issue with firefox, its pretty random.

right now i am sure its a firefoxbug

more ppl have the same issue: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=3030012

Thanks for the link, their problem seems to be a different one though - black display window, menus and sound still working. While mine just freezes up entirely with everything including the tabs and address bar being replaced by a blank screen dyed in the "active window bar" color from Windows. And instead there is a new bar labeled "Mozilla Firefox (no response)" on top which is normally not there in the default config of FF.

 

 

Firefox recently released a memory partitioning fix, no idea whether it's part of the regular schedule or not; might wanna try it.

 

Win10 and FF also don't tend to agree on what to put where in terms of memory usage.

 

Definitely looking forward to a possible fix from Mozilla's side, right now the crash is so rare though that i would rather avoid alpha/beta software unless there is a proven connection to my issue.

There was one of these crashes right before i made this thread, so if there is a fix then it's not live yet.

[ISNAN]

 

Do you eventually get a message saying XYZ script is preventing something working with options stop script or wait?

 

I occasionally get that on a different site which causes the sort of issue you describe although i've had no issues with firefox and LL

No here on LL, the browser windows becomes solid blue (my custom windows bar color i guess) and the top bar says "Mozilla Firefox (no response...)".

Shutting down the window in the taskbar takes a few seconds, receipted by the usual Windows prompt saying "Firefox stopped working... wait/close".

 

I do recall the thing you mention from Simulationcraft.org - when you tried to view the current rankings, the browser would become unresponsive for a few secs and then give you the option to stop the scripts or wait. Either way in that case you still can see the content of the loading page while it hangs, but the blank screen here on LL indicates a different problem.

 

(edit: this is still happening on SimCraft, the freezing script in question comes from a Kaspersky server though)

 

 

 

The only other irregularity here on LL is when KIS shows a certificate warning about "anony.ws", where you get the option to shut down the connection or proceed.

I think this coming from embedded user content though, and the same shows up for example on curse.com about the connection "b.scorecardresearch.com".

 

 

 

It sounds like you have a malware infection in the form of a browser redirect. Especially when you look at b.scorecardresearch.com and anony.ws. The last one sounds very shady. Basically when you try to access LL, the maleware is either trying to send data to those sites or redirect you to them. Since you have noscriipt running, it is preventing their scripts from executing, hence he blue screen and weird behavior in Firefox.

 

 

I would do the usual malware cleaning while also going to this site and pick up some more useful tools like Rootkit Revealer and ProcessXP. It's a Microsoft site so you are safe there. Most of these tools are free and there are a crap ton of them. 

 

Rootkit Revealer will reveal any rootkits on your system whether it's a system file that has been hijacked, or a registry entry that Anti-viruses can't pick up because it thinks it's a legit. How Rootkit revealer works is pretty amazing tbh. It scans everything and then makes comparisons based on the results. Then it weighs the possibility of the entry or file being suspect by the way it was installed, used, and if that makes any sense in to how the system file is supposed to be used. It won't fix the problem but gives you the smoking gun in a sense.

 

 

Process Explorer (ProcessXP) is a beefed up task manager. It will reveal what is actually inside a svchost exe. or any process that your system is running. A lot of maleware will pack themselves inside a svchost to hide themselves, since svchost is an actual system exe.You can even bring up the properties of a process or program to see what permissions it has access to. A lot of information. Everyone should have ProcessXP tbh. Once you have it, you will see what I mean.

 

___________________

 

For further protection...

 

I would look into a browser extension called Disconnect. It will block data going to 3rd party advertising or data mining sites.  

Right now sitting here at LL, I see 6 that are being blocked. Juicyads.com, doubleclick.net, google-analytics.com, gstatic.com, youtube.com and google.com. These are what are defined in the browser to send data back to wherever site you go to, so it's NOT a LL thing just to clear that up. You can set Disconnect up on the fly to block or allow certain ones access if it ever posses a problem. 

 

 

I hope this helps.

[guk]

It sounds like you have a malware infection in the form of a browser redirect. Especially when you look at b.scorecardresearch.com and anony.ws. The last one sounds very shady. Basically when you try to access LL, the maleware is either trying to send data to those sites or redirect you to them. Since you have noscriipt running, it is preventing their scripts from executing, hence he blue screen and weird behavior in Firefox.

 

 

I would do the usual malware cleaning while also going to this site and pick up some more useful tools like Rootkit Revealer and ProcessXP. It's a Microsoft site so you are safe there. Most of these tools are free and there are a crap ton of them. 

 

Rootkit Revealer will reveal any rootkits on your system whether it's a system file that has been hijacked, or a registry entry that Anti-viruses can't pick up because it thinks it's a legit. How Rootkit revealer works is pretty amazing tbh. It scans everything and then makes comparisons based on the results. Then it weighs the possibility of the entry or file being suspect by the way it was installed, used, and if that makes any sense in to how the system file is supposed to be used. It won't fix the problem but gives you the smoking gun in a sense.

 

 

Process Explorer (ProcessXP) is a beefed up task manager. It will reveal what is actually inside a svchost exe. or any process that your system is running. A lot of maleware will pack themselves inside a svchost to hide themselves, since svchost is an actual system exe.You can even bring up the properties of a process or program to see what permissions it has access to. A lot of information. Everyone should have ProcessXP tbh. Once you have it, you will see what I mean.

 

___________________

 

For further protection...

 

I would look into a browser extension called Disconnect. It will block data going to 3rd party advertising or data mining sites.  

Right now sitting here at LL, I see 6 that are being blocked. Juicyads.com, doubleclick.net, google-analytics.com, gstatic.com, youtube.com and google.com. These are what are defined in the browser to send data back to wherever site you go to, so it's NOT a LL thing just to clear that up. You can set Disconnect up on the fly to block or allow certain ones access if it ever posses a problem. 

 

 

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the pointers, certainly won't hurt to run the Rootkit Revealer over night. Although KIS also runs a rootkit scan every day, which IIRC you couldn't even disable in the settings if you wanted to.

 

Now i had a look at the two sites anony.ws and scorecardresearch:

- anony.ws seems to be an image hosting service, which would make sense when the KIS alert shows up only when browsing certain pages on LL where a user has his signature or pics embedded from that site. Apparently the domain was sold and/or shut down, not much else to see on first glance.

- scorecardresearch is a hijacker that comes bundled with software installers, however if you have this on your system it is easy to find and remove. You would clearly notice your browser start page being changed to begin with. This alert only shows up in the addon section of the curse network (https://mods.curse.com/) so i assume that they make use of the hijacker "service".

 

And about the KIS alert itself, the original description of the alert is here and in this case it mentions that the SSL certificate is invalid or is on a blacklist.

 

 

Well i'm gonna report back if there is anything new on the topic.