The "w i d g e t s e r v e r" Abandoned Domain Is Now Malicious

We've been dealing with a minor recent deluge of reports, from blog owners reporting mysterious redirection of their blogs.

The original typical report, which started like any report involving a respected Internet service going out of business, was annoying - yet benign.

Today, the status changed to malicious.

Right now, "w i d g e t s e r v e r . c o m" is redirecting to "l i b o s t u d i o s . com".

Please enter your email address to continue.

Many gadgets, long known for redirecting, are again redirecting - recently to "w i d g e t s e r v e r . c o m" - and now to "l i b o s t u d i o s . c o m". As some were diagnosed, a few owners advised that the misbehaving gadget had been installed long ago.

We've seen, so far, a few old (not!) friends. M a u k i e , N e o C o u n t e r, and "S u n a n d M o o n P h a s e" can be seen, in some topics.

A brief sample of forum topics involving "w i d g e t s e r v e r . c o m" mention gadgets previously installed by Blogger, using the "Add a Gadget" wizard. Recently, Blogger cleared out the third party gadgets from "Add a Gadget" - and the gadgets rejected by Blogger are now hosted by ""w i d g e t s e r v e r . c o m". And they are malicious.

We will not sell, rent, or share, your email address. Your privacy is important to us!

Yeah, right.

And what will you do, with my email address?



What more should be said?

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For a week, we've been dealing with #Blogger blog owners reporting mysterious redirecting by their blogs. Many helpers have dismissed the issue, as another popular third party gadget publisher gone out of business.

Today, the redirection changed - to an email mining op.