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When trying log into Facebook, the message comes up:

Your computer appears to be infected with a malware

I've tried different browsers, same result with all. Apparently the session thinks my computer is infected. How can the browser know that my computer is infected? I really did not know that it was infected. It's a Mac. If that's the case it's only this user. Might be something else the browser is complaining about. I'm on OS X 10.6 with Firefox 8.

Update: It turned out that Facebook has shut my accout down without notice, NOT telling me, right. The least they could do is sending me an email telling me but I guess they don't bother. The error message is pointless.

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You seem to be confused. Sathya perfectly answered your question. This does not have anything to do with browsers at all. I removed the parts from your question that were misleading, if that's okay for you. Again: This has nothing to do with the browser or how the browser works. – slhck Dec 26 '11 at 9:45
Could you provide a screenshot? – Daniel Beck Dec 26 '11 at 9:46
@slhck I'm just wondering about the Facebook and tried different browsers parts. – Daniel Beck Dec 26 '11 at 9:48
@Jarleif Just because the browser doesn't know, it doesn't mean Google won't know. In essence: You can't be sure that your computer is not infected. It weird though because it's a Mac. – slhck Dec 26 '11 at 9:49
@Daniel, Here you go :) – Jarleif Dec 26 '11 at 9:50
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migrated from superuser.com Dec 27 '11 at 10:30

1 Answer

up vote 5 down vote accepted

Firefox uses Phishing and Malware Protection, which is a Google service. Basically, it checks the sites that you visit against lists of reported phishing and malware sites. This link explains the technical details of the Safe Browsing protocol.

Google has an support article on this notice as well.

Why does Google think my computer is infected?

Some forms of malicious software will alter your computer settings to redirect some or all of your traffic through a proxy controlled by the attacker. When you use Google, the proxy forwards your query to the real Google servers to fetch the search results. If our system detects that a search came through one of these proxies, we display the warning.

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Beat me to it. Just to be clear: There's no way on earth a browser itself would scan your computer for malware. Even more so: There's no interface that would allow websites to ask this information about your computer. (That is, without any additional plugins) – slhck Dec 26 '11 at 9:42
Good as a start but could you perhaps be more specific? Helps a lot though. – Jarleif Dec 26 '11 at 9:42
@Jarleif what specifics are you looking for? The linked articles pretty much explain your situation – Sathya♦ Dec 26 '11 at 9:49
OK. Thanks very much. I'll accept it then. – Jarleif Dec 26 '11 at 9:53
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@Jarleif For Facebook, I would look at the following help page: I am blocked or disabled – if you have specific questions about Facebook, I would rather ask them at Web Applications, because they would be off-topic here. – slhck Dec 26 '11 at 9:55
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