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Malware Reporting

A topic by CoalFire created Mar 09, 2018 Views: 1,617 Replies: 5
Viewing posts 1 to 4
(1 edit) (+2)

It's no secret that there is some malware here and there on the site, but recently I've come across some really tricky buggers. It would be awesome if there was a "Flag This As Malware" option that would allow others to both see the flag and confirm or deny that it is such. I know moderation can take some time to catch these things so some sort of community effort to crack down on it would be really amazing. Offering some sort of "exterminator" badge on an individuals profile after verified reports or flags could incentivize the process and false accusations could carry some punishment.

Or, we could just prevent comments from being disabled/deleted. Either one works.

I know that this system could be abused so any additional feedback would be greatly appreciated.


Edit: I am aware of the general reporting options, failed to make clear that this would be in addition to the ones already present.

Moderator (2 edits) (+1)

All game pages have a tiny "report" link in the footer. Making use of it is a quick and discreet way to let the admin team know. As for possible abuses, any such reports are investigated first. But of course suggestions for improving the system are welcome.

Admin(+1)

As stated above, definitely report bad things. We check it multiple times per day and are quick to ban. I don't like the idea of having a flag for the average downloader because it can be easily abused.

Going forward we're working on adding automated scanning for new uploads so we can detect things before anyone else sees them.

From the pages that have gone up recently, it seems like it's one person stealing and re-uploading games. We've been banning their accounts as we uncover them. User reports help us with that a lot.

I'm looking forward for that admin, automated scanning on new uploads it's a good idea.

Admin(+1)

Just a little update for anyone who comes across this topic. Some accounts getting through so we're watching them closely and adding more admin review requirements for new projects added. We've deployed a system for virus scanning and are now testing it on incoming projects to put them into an additional review queue.

Thanks to everyone who has reported projects.

OK, good to know.

Will there be some kind of retroactive warning/quarantine for users who already downloaded apps now flagged as containing malware? Maybe it's hard to track the .exe I would have downloaded directly from the website, but at least for the games I installed from the itch app?

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