What is the Mysterious Text in the Reply Box on PF?

[gmax137]

I was reading PF (without being logged in). I noticed strange text in the reply box. I didnt type any of this in:

scrolling down there's a lot in there.

 

[jedishrfu]

It looks like a Windows Clipboard attack:

https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/clipboard-hijack-attack

https://blog.malwarebytes.com/threat-analysis/2016/05/clipboard-poisoning-attacks-on-the-mac/

 

[Mark44]

It looks like a Windows Clipboard attack:

Or it might not be so nefarious. If you (@gmax137) quoted some text somewhere, but never did anything with it, the quoted text will still be around in the Reply window. The same is true if you reply to a post, but don't add anything to what is quoted.

 

[berkeman]

Or it might not be so nefarious. If you (@gmax137) quoted some text somewhere, but never did anything with it, the quoted text will still be around in the Reply window. The same is true if you reply to a post, but don't add anything to what is quoted.

Yeah, this has actually saved me several times when I was writing a reply, and accidentally closed out my browser. I was able to re-start the browser, go back to the thread, and find my text still in the Reply window. It's a feature!

(Except as a Mentor, I have to be careful about not cross-pollinating my replies and warnings...)

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I would do a malware and virus scan ASAP if you don’t recognize that text.

 

[gmax137]

Well, if you look at the text in the images I showed in the OP you can see it is gibberish, not something I had already in my clipboard.

The computer is my employer's and it has pretty good malware / virus scanning; nothing shows there.

Thanks for your input, everyone! I will be watching to see if anything weird happens.

I did start a few replies in the past couple of days, and then closed the browser without Posting the reply. Part of my new "think twice before speaking" policy :).

 

[hmmm27]

That happened to me last week on this site. Only the once (but I haven't been very active) : a different thread, and the gibberish was maybe 10-12 lines - definitely not something I wrote or copied from other text. I commonly leave my browser open for days/weeks, and tabs of anything I'm interested in.

Windows Defender quick scan found nothing (but the machine had been power cycled by then). I'll leave this tab open for a week or so to see if it attracts flies, but worry-about-it level is zero.

 

[OCR]

That happened to me last week on this site.

Happened to me just now... I wasn't logged in. .

Screen shot.

.

 

[OCR]

It's gone now...

Screen shot.

.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

There seems to be virus problems in the server, @Greg Bernhardt. Hope that everything is backed up on the server side.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I've made an alteration, let me know if it happens again.

 

[gmax137]

Thanks Greg!