[Warning] CyberSitter is causing filter download corruption

rick752 · Post by **rick752** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 9:33 pm

It seems that CyberSitter is parsing and removing parts of strings in filter lists during subscription downloads, leaving only things like *.* and *//* in lines.

It seems that CyberSitter parses their blacklisted text from the subscriptions during filter downloads, leaving only what remains of that string, which causes HUGE false-positives with just about anything.
eg:

Code: Select all

*adultfriendfinder.*

..now becomes

Code: Select all

*.*

This will block EVERYTHING!!!!!!!

This might explain most things that we have all read about ... "ABP blocks everything!"

This was found by Dirk in my forum (thanks immensely Dirk ... you have no idea what this means to us). Dirk's proof is here:
http://www.richsterling.com/forum/viewt ... 44&start=0

Is there a way for CyberSitter to not parse a text file (or OUR text files)? I know it can 'allow' sites .. what about files?

@ Wladimir:
you might want to make this a sticky or write your own post about it.

rick752 · Post by **rick752** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:10 pm

The only way I know of to keep filters from doing that would be to:

1) Make the filter EXACT to CyberSitter's blacklist so NOTHING remains in that line.

2) Remove the 'blacklisted' filters entirely.

EDIT:
3) CyberSitter users can 'Always allow' easylist.adblockplus.org (or whoever else's subscription domain you use)

Ironic that 2 programs that are both trying to stop bad things on the internet are actually working AGAINST each other.

IceDogg · Post by **IceDogg** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 12:48 am

IMO Cybersitter is being to aggressive here. Like a false positive for AV program would be. So, it should be up to them to fix this issue. Now that it's been discovered why this is happening I think it should be included in the FAQ's somewhere. Maybe even sticky. Maybe here?

Dirk · Post by **Dirk** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 2:06 am

The block all images when using cybersitter and the easylist can be fixed by white listing easylist in cybersitter.

To set cybersitter to white list open the cybersitter control panel, select "user files" tab, then paste [easylist.adblockplus.org] under always allowable sites and all the issues go away. You will need to delete your current filters, close firefox, open again and then reload the easylist filters. Note that mine is an old version of cybersitter(2003) so others may find the steps different.

rick752 · Post by **rick752** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 2:16 am

Unfortunately there are other filters out there besides mine ... and other programs that use this type of download.

My email to CyberSitter will not be the only one once other authors find out what the problem is. Waiting for an answer (probably not until Monday).

ps: The number of 'corrupted' filter strings in the EasyList downloaded through CyberSitter is around 20. According to the info that Dirk has supplied, false-positives are immense!

rick752 · Post by **rick752** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 3:14 am

Thanx for posting the whitelist info Dirk. I re-edited my post to reflect that.

rick752 · Post by **rick752** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 10:26 pm

Well, it seems that in the 6 paragraphs of explanation I received from CyberSitter, They basicly said to just have users of Cybersitter "whitelist" the filter sites.

I figured that would be all I would get out of them. Oh well.

Wladimir Palant · Post by **Wladimir Palant** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:43 pm

That's pretty bad. I added the info to http://adblockplus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=925 but most people won't care to read. I almost feel like distributing checksums with the filter lists but that's unrealistic. Maybe it is somehow possible to detect CyberSitter so we can issue a warning...

Wladimir Palant · Post by **Wladimir Palant** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:08 pm

Wow, this software is sooooo stupid. It is enough to request http://easylist.adblockplus.org/adblock_rick752.txt?png and it will let everything through. But this is not really a solution...

PS: http://easylist.adblockplus.org/adblock ... sitter.com works as well - lol.

rick752 · Post by **rick752** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:17 pm

No it's not really a solutuion. But at least we have some answers that we didn't have before about why "Adblock Plus blocks everything".

Unfortunately, it still looks like it must be implemented on the user end.

You can just whitelist:

Code: Select all

adblockplus.org

.. that would take care of anything served from here (including my filters), but all the domains from the other filters would also have to be added if they are used.

chewey · Post by **chewey** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:20 pm

Pathetic. Does it filter on "sex" too?

.oO(Middlesex, Wessex, sextuples, misexposition, ...)

Wladimir Palant · Post by **Wladimir Palant** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:37 pm

My suspicion is that it cannot even filter in gzipped data - gzip encoding on adblockplus.org has been broken a few days ago, that's why this issue came up now.

Edit: Ok, it can filter gzipped data. Its filtering is buggy however so that it tends to replace the wrong part of the page and cut off the end of the page.