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Peter Knaggs [peter.knaggs at gmail.com]
Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:23:23 -0700
Hi All,
Has anyone else come across this gmail "spyware" page when trying to log into gmail using Firefox?
[ Snipped image ]
As you can imagine, it plays havoc with the gmail notifier extension, as well as making me doubt my ability to read, each time I try to log in. (Trying to type in the contents of the squiggly message displayed in the box seems to be a task my brain is almost incapable of handling early in the morning). So I'm wondering, is this something Firefox is doing to annoy gmail? Or just something gmail has started doing to annoy all their users?
Another question: I've come across this after updating Debian testing: I seem to be loosing fonts, or at least the helvetica font I need for vncviewer and imagemagic:
For example, "display image.jpg" gives me:
display: unable to load font `-*-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1'. display: unable to load font `-*-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1'.And vncviewer gives me this:
$ vncviewer wherever:2 VNC server supports protocol version 3.7 (viewer 3.3) Password: VNC authentication succeeded Desktop name "wherever:2 (myusername)" Connected to VNC server, using protocol version 3.3 VNC server default format: 16 bits per pixel. Least significant byte first in each pixel. True colour: max red 31 green 63 blue 31, shift red 11 green 5 blue 0 Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-helvetica-bold-r-*-*-16-*-*-*-*-*-*-*" to type FontStruct Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font Warning: Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion Warning: Unable to load any usable fontset Error: Aborting: no font foundI tried searching for explanations, and as far as I can tell I've got all the font packages installed. I attach the output from running
dpkg --get-selections > /tmp/dpkg--get-selections
in case it could be helpful.
[ snipped ]
I have a machine running Debian stable, and both "display" and "vncviewer" are working fine, but comparing the strace hasn't gotten me very far. I was wondering if anyone would have any hints, I've not much experience / understanding of X11 fonts.
Thanks, Peter.
Rick Moen [rick at linuxmafia.com]
Thu, 31 Aug 2006 13:17:49 -0700
Quoting Peter Knaggs (peter.knaggs at gmail.com):
> Has anyone else come across this gmail "spyware" > page when trying to log into gmail using Firefox? > Image attached: gmail_spyware.jpg
(For the record, the referenced Google-issued error message was: "We're sorry... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now. We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software. We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope well see you again on Google.")
> As you can imagine, it plays havoc with the gmail > notifier extension, as well as making me doubt > my ability to read, each time I try to log in. > (Trying to type in the contents of the squiggly > message displayed in the box seems to be a task > my brain is almost incapable of handling early > in the morning). > So I'm wondering, is this something Firefox is > doing to annoy gmail? Or just something > gmail has started doing to annoy all their users?
Might it have actually been the frequency of queries from that IP? Searching on the error text turns up a bunch of discussion of the error message in various Google contexts. Apparently, it used to say "We're sorry... but we can't process your request right now. A computer virus or spyware application is sending us automated requests, and it appears that your computer network has been infected. We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, you might want to run a virus checker [link] or spyware remover [link] to make sure that your computer is free of viruses and other spurious software. We apologise for the inconvenience, and hope we'd see you later on Google."
Posters talking about this error condition say the IP block lapses automatically after 30 - 60 minutes.
The real mystery is what specific heuristics Google is using to spot activity patterns that it considers "similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application". Understandably, this isn't the sort of information any such firm is likely to be talkative about -- and Google, Inc. is not exactly the most publicly transparent of firms at the best of times.
-- Cheers, Founding member of the Hyphenation Society, a grassroots-based, Rick Moen not-for-profit, locally-owned-and-operated, cooperatively-managed, rick at linuxmafia.com modern-American-English-usage-improvement association.
Peter Knaggs [peter.knaggs at gmail.com]
Thu, 31 Aug 2006 14:45:35 -0700
(Sorry, I changed the subject of the thread as otherwise it tends to trigger the TAG list's filters, as explained earlier by Rick.)
Changed back to maintain thread continuity in Mailbag 
-- Ben
It turned out that the missing fonts problem with "display" and "vncviewer" giving messages like:
display: unable to load font
`-*-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1'.
was cured by restarting the entire X11 session.
Apparently something must have gotten fairly
mixed up during the dist-upgrade. I actually ended up
doing a full reboot, as the display went completely black
after exiting the X11 session.
On the topic of the gmail login issue (the additional requirement to retype some of the squiggly letters before being allowed to proceed to the login page) thanks to Rick for typing in all of the content of the message for me, I should have done that myself.
When composing my email, I tried to refer back to the message
so that I could "cut-n-paste" it (I know, I should not be so lazy ,
but it no longer occurred for a while.
So I ended up logging in and out of gmail for a while, trying
to get the message again so that I could describe it.
After all that, I was so flustered that I completely forgot
to describe the message in plain english. Which would
probably have been sufficient and better than attaching
the image in the first place like I did.
It just goes to show how disconcerting it can be to try to use the communication program you're having trouble with, to actually communicate about it.
Anyways, the gmail login troubles seem to indeed go away after a certain timeout, but in my experiments it seems that by using the "gmail notifier" extension it brings them back again. Perhaps they're somehow misinterpreting the actions of the gmail notifier extension.
Peter.