Spam Bookmarks Found in "Other Folders". Help.
Hello Mozilla Support. A list of porn video, chat, webcam and sex-hook-up bookmarks have been found in "Other Folders" on my PC which I have never put there. This has caused a great deal of distress and although difficult, I desperately would like help to confirm/prove that these were placed there by some type malicious source like Adware or Malware and not by me. This has happened on a Windows XP OS using Mozilla Firefox. The PC was erased and reformatted in approx 2012-13, and these links were found in this folder around 12 months ago in 2016. (Please see attachment) I never use or even look in that folder, so I had no idea that they were there, or from when. All of the link URLs are a mile long, which is unlike all the other bookmarks that I have saved everywhere else on this PC. Most/all of which simply end after the ".com", or ".com/forum" etc and that includes those that I am automatically logged in to. Has this been seen before? Is anyone aware of this? Is anyone aware of the possible cause? As much information as possible is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and help. Steve.
Επιλεγμένη λύση
Do you have any backups of your bookmarks from before you deleted the unwanted ones? Here's one place to check:
Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using either
- "3-bar" menu button > "?" button > Troubleshooting Information
- (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
- type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter
In the first table on the page, click the "Open Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.
Find the bookmarkbackups folder and double-click into that. Backup files have the date coded into the file name.
If anything looks promising, you can restore the file to a NEW PROFILE, not your current profile, because that would overwrite your existing bookmarks. Keep this folder open so you can easily copy the path from the address bar.
New Profile
This takes about 3 minutes, plus the time to restore the backup.
Inside Firefox, type or paste about:profiles in the address bar and press Enter/Return to load it.
Click the Create a New Profile button, then click Next. Assign a name like Aug2017, ignore the option to relocate the profile folder, and click the Finish button.
After creating the profile, scroll down to it and click the Set as default profile button below that profile, then scroll back up and click the Restart normally button. (There are some other buttons, but I think those are still "under construction" so please ignore them.)
Firefox should exit and then start up using the new profile, which will just look brand new.
This article describes the Restore feature. You can use "Choose File" to apply one of the bookmark backups from your old profile to the new one. This is where you'll need to refer to (or copy/paste from) the address bar of the other window.
When you are done with the experiment, open the about:profiles page again, click the Set as default profile button for your normal profile, then click the Restart normally button to get back to it.
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SK70 said
(having trouble uploading image)
Just noting that the upforit and shagaholic links are not directed to those sites. Proves again Malware as i was accused of being on either of those, but they don't go there.
Note that you are running Windows XP, which is an unsupported and version insecure Operating system.
The possibility of malware is high.
Are there any Firefox related issues that remain in this thread? If not please choose one of the comments that you felt helped you with a solution.
Yes, I am aware that the WinXP is old and vulnerable. The Firefox issue is here is that Malware was able to place bookmarks into the "Other Folders" bookmark folder and I want users to be aware of it. I know it sounds a little extreme to those casually browsing this thread, but those links in that folder directly led to the destruction of my relationship with FP73. I was not able to prove that I never put the sex hook-up links there until now, but it's all too late. It is my sincere request that this thread remains available for viewing. Thanks.
I'm sorry to hear about your relationship, keep in mind that if malware was the cause there is nothing Mozilla or Firefox could have done. Once malware is in your computer (especially an older OS like XP, modern ones have more protection in place) there is no limit to what the malware can do. It can turn your computer into a bot that attacks other networks anywhere in the world. Placing bookmarks in Firefox is trivial compared to that.
I'm going to choose a solution, this thread will always be visible in the future but the question you asked has been answered
OK. Thanks for your help Tyler. Thanks everyone.
Τροποποιήθηκε στις από το χρήστη SK70
Just a suggestion, I'd start saving for a new computer. Your Windows XP computer will just keep getting infected, this time it hurt a relationship, next time it may cost you your bank information, your email, or your identity. Get a new machine running either Windows 10 or the newest version of MacOS (depending on what you want). Then keep it up to date, run regular malware scans (if you buy a Windows machine use the built in Windows defender anti-virus, don't waste your money on others, and then run the free Malwarebytes we suggested earlier). Obviously keep using Firefox ;)
And keep it up to date!!!
I since have done and it has Windows 10. Thanks