Bogus critical error popup - why can't I close the window? Technical
Using firefox, we have all experienced the application modal popup declaring the end of the world, your bank, and all of your information, if you don't call this 877 number and pay $$, etc. I know this is bogus, and most of it is injected from ad servers. I can be on a legitimate site and get nailed. What I do not understand is this only occurs on firefox. It never happens when I'm using chrome or <shudder> IE/Edge.
This leads me to believe that there is a weakness in firefox of some type. Comments?
The second part of my question involves what I presume to be a script taking over firefox completely, firefox allowing code to post an application modal and completely blocking the ability to terminate a tab or the application. How could this even be possible? FWIW, I've read many of the support gripes from other users and suggested corrections. This is NOT malware running on my PC - this is code running in firefox being allowed to f'up firefox. It's been around long enough that the hole should have been closed long ago.
All Replies (9)
Have you tried using ALT+F4 to close the popup (or CMD/Q with Mac)? Sometimes, popups are coded in a way that clicking the close button doesn't actually close them.
Matt - ha! hadn't thought of that. I think the click on the X button should be handled the same, but maybe not. Next time I blunder into this annoying thing I'll give it a shot.
I tell you what, this tip is in my Security+ study guide, so...
You can also try to close the tab with a middle-click on the tab on the Tab bar. If this is a modal pop-up then this should work.
What's hilarious here is the very simple solutions to making this go away. I hope they work. Off surfing nasty sites to test ;). Not really. Last time I got it, I clicked on a news link that apparently had a lot of ad feeds...
I hope that, too, buddy...
If you have a URL you want to share, feel free (but insert a space somewhere so innocent people don't go there accidentally).
With JavaScript dialogs, the pop-up window blocker doesn't apply -- because they are not windows. Usually the Esc key will dismiss an alert and hitting that key rapidly numerous times can break the cycle of pages that keep refreshing to a new alert. In other cases, you may notice a checkbox to stop the page from showing more dialogs (example: https://support.cdn.mozilla.net/media.../2017-07-18-23-20-59-db997a.png). On those, you can check the box and click OK to stop the cycle.
The checkbox I mentioned was added to address abusive scripts. It is difficult to think of a way to completely stop bad pages from using JavaScript dialogs without good pages being affected, too.
Jeff - just the information I was looking for. I haven't done any web development in - jeeze - 15 years? so I'm just skimming the surface of my ignorance here.
I'll try your suggestion as well as others. I knew the blocker didn't apply.
Here's something weird - I would expect this "page" to show up in the history, but it clearly is not a page at all - it's a pure popup dialog - nothing in the history.
If it's like the fake FBI/Interpol browser lock page, This add-on can stop such pages; https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/disallow-script-button/ disallow Script Button
The Disallow Script button looks like a letter "M" and the title is the Minus Script, drag and drop the button on a toolbar. If the button is not displayed then nothing operates, except rules for plugins.
Another way out of the trap is to (force it if needed) Close Firefox. Wait about 20 seconds for Firefox to finish closing. Right-click on the Firefox icon and select Open New Window.
Sometimes this works. If it opens, close it by Menu > File > Exit. This will flush out that web page from the Session Store.