
Ask HN: Why is Firefox installer listed as harmful file in Chrome? - romanovcode
Example: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;XMeiO4D<p>Is it only me? Is something is wrong with Firefox installer?<p>I&#x27;m trying to download Firefox from official mozilla website and Chrome says that the file is harmful. For reference it&#x27;s not the .dmg extension because if I go to Chrome and download googlechrome.dmg it gets downloaded without any problems.
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steve1977
Well, it is harmful for Google.

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gjvnq
Chrome often list executable files as harmful IFF they are downloaded via HTTP
instead of HTTPS.

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martin1b
Like the old adage : "Excel isn't done until Lotus won't run.'

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smacktoward
Nonono, you've got the saying wrong. It was " _DOS_ isn't done until Lotus
won't run."

The old Microsoft wouldn't bother competing at the app level if they could
just kneecap the competition at the platform level instead.

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proactivesvcs
US English Firefox for mac OS looks pretty clean, according to VirusTotal:
[https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/d0bd62e9b57062e3cb04ac05...](https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/d0bd62e9b57062e3cb04ac05444ba3856d2c1fc5d4f079eb4233a3053d1c1bb5/detection)

I wonder if Chrome is including the Mac sandbox, which is listed, in its
decision to label the installer as unsafe?

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Firerouge
I wouldn't be surprised if it is based on the extension, with exceptions for
some specific trusted domains/downloads

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jolmg
> For reference it's not the .dmg extension because if I go to Chrome and
> download googlechrome.dmg it gets downloaded without any problems.

That doesn't mean it's not the extension, as they may have somehow whitelisted
their own files. I would expect that warning to come up with any file format
that can carry executable code.

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oxguy3
I just tested and I got warnings for neither file. Maybe they warned you for
the first .dmg, but didn't warn you again for Chrome because they'd already
warned you about .dmg files?

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tim333
Dunno - I just tried it in Chrome on a Mac, same site and didn't get a
warning. Computers eh?

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jetti
I'm running Mojave (10.14.6) and just tried to download Firefox using Chrome
78.0.3904.108 and was not prompted at all.

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mikl
Pretty sure Chrome says that for all .dmg files, not just Firefox.

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genothomas
Yes, it is harmful to Google.

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jammygit
Isn’t this libel to some extent?

