Games Page download causing Chrome warning

cat · Mon 29/02/2016 17:37:36

When downloading a game in Chrome where there is a direct zip download behind it (no mediafire hosting etc), there is a warning shown for the download:

xxx is not commonly downloaded and could be dangerous.

There is an option to still keep the download, but it is very scary for players. The warning does not show up in Firefox.

Peder 🚀 · Mon 29/02/2016 17:47:17

I can't replicate this in Chrome.. Could you link some of the games you've gotten this with?

cat · Mon 29/02/2016 17:52:00

This game for example: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2010/

A player reported the issue in another forum and I could reproduce it with Chrome 48.0.x

arj0n · Mon 29/02/2016 18:46:59

Using Chrome v48.0.2564.116m, I do not get that warning message when downloading the game cat mentioned.

Danvzare · Mon 29/02/2016 18:55:16

I'm using version 48.0.2564.116 m.
And I'm definitely getting it. I usually just ignore those types of messages though, mostly because I actually know how they work.
I'm not sure why others aren't getting it though.

Cassiebsg · Mon 29/02/2016 18:59:32

Does it come as a surprise that downloading files from the internet is potentially dangerous in general? Even surfing on web sites...

AGA · Mon 29/02/2016 19:03:03

I would guess it's probably downloads from a certain host that are being tagged. The one cat linked is cat.agser.me, but we'd need to see more 'bad' links to work out a pattern...

morganw · Mon 29/02/2016 19:11:17

I can replicate this with Chrome 48.0.2564.116 on Windows, but not with Chrome 48.0.2564.116 on Linux.

I imagine this is getting triggered because the file is brand new and there is no code-signing, but it also seems that newer version of Chrome are too keen to show this warning even when code-signing is used:
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=498136

Quote from: AGA on Mon 29/02/2016 19:03:03
I would guess it's probably downloads from a certain host that are being tagged. The one cat linked is cat.agser.me, but we'd need to see more 'bad' links to work out a pattern...

It shows as clear of malware and I'm still seeing the warning:
https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/safebrowsing/diagnostic/#url=cat.agser.me

I think all you can do is wait for the file to be downloaded enough times that Google SafeBrowsing scans it and doesn't find a problem. I believe the file was just updated as the game had extra translations added? If the file changes and there is no code-signing for the binaries inside the zip file then I imagine the "safe" rating of the previous download isn't worth anything.

cat · Mon 29/02/2016 20:16:18

Yes, I updated the file yesterday. I guess I can just wait and see...

morganw · Mon 29/02/2016 21:50:57

A work-around in the short term might be to host the file on Google Drive. I don't know for sure, but it's likely they will scan content on their own storage more regularly than content on other web sites.