Second Life not safe (Virus/Malware/Something else)

[Niuania]

Hello everyone.

I startet on second life three days ago and have allready experianced alot of worrying things in the game and all of this leads me to uninstalling the game on my third day. This makes me very sad, because i allready meet new people wich i have talket with all the time, when i have been online in the game and it hurts to quit the contact with them allready.

 

Now i tell what i experianced and why i had to uninstall the game from Start to finish.

On my first day i was exploring the world and somehow ended up in a place callt ''Canine Cove'' (mature place) explored thoses clubs/bars and walket out and wondered what was down the road from there, at the end of the road there was a house (This is the first time i see  one of these black square's/boxes) When i get near this house i noticee a [black box/square]  pupup for a mili scound up in the left conor of my screen. Inside the house i found a in-game computer wich i clicked on, when i cliked on it i noticed one of these black square boxes again and at this point i tought it was somepart of the secound life game and it was completely normal.

On my secound day i was shoping in a mall named something like Alienmarket i cant remember the exact name, the reason i mention this is because my game crashed two times when i was inside one of these shopping malls

 

The Third day is the Scary one.

On the third day i'm together with one of my new in-game friends and we had to teleport to some place because i forgot to buy a thing for my dress the day before, i tell her to go to the place and send me a teleport because i dont know how to get to that place myself.

I click on the teleport and exactly the same time as when i land there one of these black Square Boxes shows up in the left conor of my screen! and my anti-virus goes in full alarm mode telling me my computer is under Attack! and i look into it and see all red colors because its rated as a High Risk/major attempt at intrusion into my computer!

 

I'm telling my in-game friend whats going on and logging off as fast as possible, shut down my  computer and took a break.

I dont know what to think of it, maybe it was just a freak accident i'm thinking. Maybe it was not related to Second Life i'm thinking. I'm wrong!.

I come back online later and the same friend sends me a teleport to the exact same place as last time and BoOom [Black Square/Box] pupup in the left conor of my screen and my anti-virus program goes Warning your computer is under attack! all over again!

 

I want to hear if you guys playing Second Life has had simmilar experiences, hope the people from Second Life will look into this

I will try to download the game one more time and if something like this happens again i will quit the game for good

[Lindal Kidd]

Yes yes, what Parhelion said!  (And LittleMe).  You see, Niuania, SL has a capability commonly referred to as "Media on a Prim", or "Shared Media".  This functionality lets anyone place a texture onto the face of a prim (short for a "geometric primitive shape"...the basic building blocks of SL.)  But this texture is not a static image, like most textures...it's actually a sort of web browser that can play media from pretty much any site on the internet.  Think of the whole thing as a form of Second Life Television...in fact, this is exactly how many "TVs" work, in SL.

The file SLPLUGIN.EXE is not the culprit, it's merely the file that's trying its best to display an internet media stream on your screen...but the media stream in question is being detected by Norton as malware (and, in this case, it probably is.)

If you turn off the options to automatically play music and media streams, as Parhelion and Lil suggested, Norton should be happy.  And, you can still listen to music or view media in other places...just click the music note or the movie camera icons in the upper right of your viewer.

[Klytyna]

3 hours ago, Niuania said:

I want to belive that the problem simply is my anti-virus thinking SLPLUGIN.EXE is a virus. But my problem comes when i look at:

BMI Warning Name: Web Attack Malvertisement Website Redirect 10

Network traffic from: onclickprediction.com respond to the signature from a known attack, The attack is due to \Device\Hardiskvolume5\Program Files (86)\SECONDLIFEVIEWER\SLPLUGIN.EXE.

To me it seems like this something is trying to use this SLPLUGIN.EXE and redirect me into something else and attack me that way.

Would calm me down if someone from Second Life could tell me if this onclickprediction.com is somehow related to the Second Life game, but i'm afraid its not.

 

It also rates the attack to be High Risk. What does SLPLUGIN.EXE do since Norton has to rate it that High, it dosnt seem right

1. Norton is crap, ditch it. Get a better AV suite (not mcafee).

2. The place you are visiting has a PRIM being used as an in-world web browser, like a TV screen to show web pages

3. The web page being shown is nothing to do with SecondLife but does have links in it to some pay-per-click advert site that Norton objects to.

4. Norton, being STUPID, blames the SLPLUGIN.EXE file, that is completely harmless and blameless

5. Did I mention that Norton is completely and utterly crap and that you should ditch it ASAP?
 

[Corpselz]

I just recently uninstalled SL all together because I did catch a virus from the viewer. It was hard to get rid of too. after it stole all of my bank info and paypal signin and other personal stuff. I suggest you do not use firestorm ever. 

[LittleMe Jewell]

45 minutes ago, Corpselz said:

I just recently uninstalled SL all together because I did catch a virus from the viewer. It was hard to get rid of too. after it stole all of my bank info and paypal signin and other personal stuff. I suggest you do not use firestorm ever. 

I really doubt that you got a virus from the viewer itself.  If the viewer itself contained a virus, you can bet that a whole lot more people would be screaming.

More likely you clicked on some link that ended up allowing your account and/or computer to be compromised. 

[Love Zhaoying]

I’ve had my antivirus think a new version of SL viewer was a virus, but it never was. 

[Madelaine McMasters]

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I’ve had my antivirus think a new version of SL viewer was a virus, but it never was. 

SL is a virus, but it infects the user, not the computer.

[Love Zhaoying]

Just now, Madelaine McMasters said:

SL is a virus, but it infects the user, not the computer.

Been missing your posts on here. If you’re a virus, I dun want a cure!

[Madelaine McMasters]

40 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Been missing your posts on here. If you’re a virus, I dun want a cure!

Awww. Thank you, Love. I was away attending the wedding of a friend's son.

As this involved none of my relatives, I was neither hit on, nor subjected to bragging about concealed carry.

[Love Zhaoying]

2 minutes ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

As this involved none of my relatives, I was neither hit on, nor subjected to bragging about concealed carry.

I am hearing “Dueling Banjos”!

[Lindal Kidd]

6 hours ago, Corpselz said:

I just recently uninstalled SL all together because I did catch a virus from the viewer. It was hard to get rid of too. after it stole all of my bank info and paypal signin and other personal stuff. I suggest you do not use firestorm ever. 

I seriously doubt that was what happened.  Although I don't doubt your computer became infected, it was almost certainly NOT from the viewer, or indeed from Second Life itself.