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Thread: Ofline links in Flash Player take Firefox to howstuffworks.com ?

  1. #1
    Harry Tuttle phantomflanflinger's Avatar
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    Ofline links in Flash Player take Firefox to howstuffworks.com ?

    I was previewing a movie offline in Flash Player 6 and I clicked a link to a .jpg file stored in the same folder as the swf. At this point no browser was open.

    Firefox 1.06 (my default browser) opened, with two tabs: one blank (active) and one behind it with http://www.howstuffworks.com/ in it.

    It always works- if Firefox isn't already running when the links is clicked. Once it is running, links work as normal.

    Has anyone else seen anything like this? Can't find anything on the Net about it. Weirdest thing I've ever seen Firefox do.
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  2. #2
    associate admedia's Avatar
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    spyware?

  3. #3
    Chaos silverx2's Avatar
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    homepage?

    where did you get the image? maby its built in to goto the origin.
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  4. #4
    Harry Tuttle phantomflanflinger's Avatar
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    No, no, I made the image. And it happens when opening links to all offline jpgs. Flash Player 7 does the same thing. howstuffworks.com isn't a harmful site either - it's pretty good!

    Not actually a threat, but very odd!
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  5. #5
    associate admedia's Avatar
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    what happens when you type the address to the jpeg directly in FireFox?

    I have a feeling your link is broken.

  6. #6
    Chaos silverx2's Avatar
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    what is your homepage?
    GhooooostGIrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl
    https://signup.leagueoflegends.com?ref=4b5493e6c7342
    use the link above if you download league of legends.

  7. #7
    Harry Tuttle phantomflanflinger's Avatar
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    Just done more tests. A link to any-filename.anyextension (whether the file exists or not) produces the same result (as long as Firefox is NOT running when I click the link): two tabs open up, active tab shows {Untitled} (which is my homepage - about:blank) , inactive tab shows howstuffworks.com.

    Tried modifying my home page to a web site, makes no difference. Not caused by malicious Firefox Extension either; tried disabling them. In fact, this doesn't seem malicious, it seems like someone somewhere likes howstuffworks.com too much, perhaps at Macromedia ? If not, it does seem like this is a Flash Player thing. Scanned all the player .exe files for viruses, they're all clean.
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  8. #8
    associate admedia's Avatar
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    Take Flash out of the equation and run some more tests...

    Try making a http://shortcut to something on your desktop and see what happens when you click it.

  9. #9
    Harry Tuttle phantomflanflinger's Avatar
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    Nothing that severe: links beginning with http all work fine from Flash Player, from desktop and everywhere else.

    It's only local links (in swf files stored on my HDD that are playing in standalone Flash Player) when Firefox is not running - and even then it only happens the first time. Once Firefox is open, all local links are fine.

    Not a big threat, but interesting and I thought if anyone knows what's causing it, they'll be at Flashkit.
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  10. #10
    Self-portrait mark_my_words's Avatar
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    disconnect your internet and then try it.
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  11. #11
    Moonlight shadow asheep_uk's Avatar
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    If you type a word into Firefox, it will do a "I'm feeling lucky" Google search.

    Try it. Type in http, for example.

    Chances are the link it's trying is just a word, which when Googled, produces HowStuffWorks as the first page.

  12. #12
    Self-portrait mark_my_words's Avatar
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    much like a AOL keyword search.
    Artificial Memories v0.9.2b
    "Preserving life's precious moments and making new ones"
    © 2009 MemoryCorp - A Walmart company

  13. #13
    Harry Tuttle phantomflanflinger's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by asheep_uk
    If you type a word into Firefox, it will do a "I'm feeling lucky" Google search.
    OK - I think this is what it's doing. But no matter what filename the link leads to, howstuffworks.com always comes up. So what's Flash Player sending it?

    If you key a filename into the address bar, e.g.: anything.jpg, it goes to www.anything.jpg.
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  14. #14
    associate admedia's Avatar
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    I sure it has nothing to do with FlashPlayer.

  15. #15
    Harry Tuttle phantomflanflinger's Avatar
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    It appears not.

    I would like to know what line Flash Player is sending Firefox to make it go to the same site every time. Apparently there's no way of finding out.
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  16. #16
    associate admedia's Avatar
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    what is the address in the address bar?

    you need to start testing without flash player....
    you are running a local host?
    http://localhost/somejpeg.jpg?

  17. #17
    Harry Tuttle phantomflanflinger's Avatar
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    Hmm... either Flash Player sends Firefox this
    http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I%...e=UTF-8&q=work
    or this is how Firefox interprets what Flash Player is saying.
    Got the url from a cache map file
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  18. #18
    associate admedia's Avatar
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    what is the URL in your
    getURL("URL"); in Flash?

  19. #19
    poet and narcisist argonauta's Avatar
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    i just discovered what it is
    wait, i'm posting the explanation
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  20. #20
    poet and narcisist argonauta's Avatar
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    I tried on a new fla, created a button and added this code:
    Code:
    on (release) {
    	getURL('this.jpg');
    }
    as a result,when i clicked on the button it opened firefox, two tabs, one empty and untitled, and one showing some page about alzheimer?!?!?!?! (http://www.nm-alzheimers.org/handout...lzheimers.htm).

    Now, if i save the fla, and i click on it, and firefox is closed, then it opens with two tabs, one untitled, the other trying to go to www.this.jpg. On the other side, if i have firefox already opened it just says the file at that filepath can't be found....


    Now, it seems to work this way:

    why it opened a page with info of alzheimer in the first case? i noticed the title in that page is C:\DOCUME~1\Owner\Desktop\STAGES~1.HTM, and also, noticed that untitled documents, when previewed, are published in c:\documents and setting\username\temp or something like that. So it has to do with the path where your swf is stored.

    Why doesn't this happen when i saved the fla in c:\? because it has no path, it's in the root itself


    so i also did this: same fla, publishing to c:\flashkit\myname.swf, when i clicked on the button, it opened firefox with two tabs, one untitled, one displaying flashkit.com
    my blog: blog.innocuo
    Sponsored by your mom.

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