
Tell HN: Ycombinator.com Blacklisted by Norton - rmdoss
Just got a warning when trying to visit ycombinator.com:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;safeweb.norton.com&#x2F;report&#x2F;show?url=ycombinator.com<p>Seems like a false positive, but might be worth to get it cleared.
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phoboslab
This happened to a site I managed a while ago. The cause was a comment a user
posted that was flagged as a "batch virus". The content of the comment was all
text, along the lines of

    
    
       @echo off
       echo "Speeding up your PC!"
       delete c:\Windows\system32\
    

Thanks Norton!

~~~
gnu8
Norton probably blacklisted HN for this comment because it infringes on their
intellectual property, not merely because it is potentially destructive code.
In other words, it duplicates the functionality of some of their products and
they don't appreciate their trade secrets being exposed this way.

~~~
hellofunk
I was going through some old patent applications from 2015 and found this
exact code snippet in Pat. #482739HG by one of Norton's subsidiary companies.

~~~
knd775
Really? I can't find this anywhere

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markwaldron
You can submit it to get whitelisted here:
[https://submit.symantec.com/false_positive/](https://submit.symantec.com/false_positive/)

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yomly
It's a gathering point for _hackers_ \- of course it would be flagged.

/s

~~~
Mz
Nefarious, evil and tricksie people who might actually get things done.

For shame.

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markwaldron
Just got an email from Norton saying they have resolved the issue.

Email: [http://imgur.com/a/2WwXf](http://imgur.com/a/2WwXf)

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philip1209
Probably a Cloudflare IP got flagged then switched to serving YC traffic

~~~
jgrahamc
ycombinator.com is not handled by Cloudflare; it appears to be on Amazon.

~~~
jonknee
Hmm...

    
    
      nslookup news.ycombinator.com
      Server:     192.168.1.1
      Address:    192.168.1.1#53
    
      Non-authoritative answer:
      news.ycombinator.com    canonical name = news.ycombinator.com.cdn.cloudflare.net.
      Name:   news.ycombinator.com.cdn.cloudflare.net

~~~
jgrahamc
That's news.ycombinator.com not ycombinator.com. I was talking about the
latter.

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dknecht
Is this still happening to anybody? I am with Cloudflare and will escalate if
still a problem.

~~~
sctb
It looks like it's OK for me, now:
[https://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=news.ycombinator....](https://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=news.ycombinator.com)

------
nikanj
This is what we get for repeatedly making fun of Symantec

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Aldo_MX
Hopefully the bureaucracy to get removed from the blacklist is not as bad as
with other vendors.

~~~
schwap
It's not really a static blacklist as such. Sites are added and fall off of it
regularly.

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sbierwagen
All the listed threats are formulaformillionaires.com links, which is odd.

~~~
AvenueIngres
And formulaformillionaires.com redirects to medium.com. Weird.

~~~
tedmiston
Also, the owner looks like a normal author [1].

    
    
        $ whois formulaformillionaires.com
    
        Updated Date: 20-sep-2013
        Creation Date: 01-feb-2008
        Expiration Date: 01-feb-2018
        ...
        Admin Name: Paul McCormick
        Admin Organization: Miracle Writers LLC
        ...
    

Google says [1]:

> Some pages on this website send visitors to the following dangerous
> websites: apollo-computers.com.

Edit: Upon further inspection it looks like a pretty questionable book:
"Become a millionaire by just following my 7 simple steps!"

[1]: [https://amzn.com/0979433835](https://amzn.com/0979433835)

[2]:
[https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/safebrowsing/diagn...](https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/safebrowsing/diagnostic/index.html?hl=en#url=http://www.formulaformillionaires.com/)

~~~
AvenueIngres
>"Become a millionaire by just following my 7 simple steps!"

Looks legit Medium.com to me

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cosmeen
How did you got this warning, what Norton product are you using?

~~~
ivan_gammel
In my case it's Norton 360.

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ivan_gammel
I've got this warning too.

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xiwaeo
got a warning notice from my antivirus (Norton). what's up?

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EddieSpeaks
Something to do with Peter Thiel?

