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Ran "no-remote" instead of "-no-remote" and homepage was hijacked

  • 2 replies
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  • Last reply by kobe

jspet
jspet
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I'm running Firefox 26.0 on Ubuntu. I've been messing with profiles and this morning I ran 'firefox -p "default" no-remote' instead of 'firefox -p "default" -no-remote' When I ran the browser with "no-remote", instead of going to my homepage (reuters) I was redirected through a number of nasty spam pages. I panicked and reinstalled a few things, but on running with "-no-remote" my browser loads fine while running "no-remote" continues to send me to spam pages.

I'm still learning with the terminal, what exactly did I do when I ran the command "no-remote"? Is my browser still safe to use?

I'm running Firefox 26.0 on Ubuntu. I've been messing with profiles and this morning I ran 'firefox -p "default" no-remote' instead of 'firefox -p "default" -no-remote' When I ran the browser with "no-remote", instead of going to my homepage (reuters) I was redirected through a number of nasty spam pages. I panicked and reinstalled a few things, but on running with "-no-remote" my browser loads fine while running "no-remote" continues to send me to spam pages. I'm still learning with the terminal, what exactly did I do when I ran the command "no-remote"? Is my browser still safe to use?

Modified by jspet

All Replies (2)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
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You probably have domain fix-up enabled and the keyword service disabled.

When you start Firefox with something that isn't a startup switch and looks like it could be a web address (e.g., intranet), it will go through the standard name resolution process. If the DNS service returns site not found (404) then either Firefox will submit the query to your current search provider (typically Google) or try the text with www before and com after. In this case, your browser must have requested http://www.no-remote.com/ and gotten a redirect from the server to the site you mentioned.

By design, the search function will take priority, but if it is disabled, then domain guessing will happen. These are the preferences to check in about:config:

  • keyword.enabled (defaults to true)
  • browser.fixup.alternate.enabled (defaults to true)

Does that make sense?

kobe
kobe
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Be VERY careful when doing things in the terminal, it gives you a lot of power.