Ads Are Evil, But I'm Worse
Queens JSI have never learned more about JavaScript and the web than when I've reverse engineered malicious advertisements.
This presentation describes a mysterious ad which I discovered after it tried to cover its tracks a little too conspicuously.
As the titles of my original blog post and presentation suggest, I first describe how JavaScript can be used to conclusively determine if a browser's JS console is open. And then I describe the terrible things I do with JS in an attempt to vaccinate pages against the technique.
I don't recommend the procedure to anyone, but then I also don't recommend running dozens of video ads ten-at-a-time hidden behind a static image to rack up fraudulent video ad impressions until the user's browser tab crashes. What? I'm not mad. 🙃
- Original article: Ads are Evil but also Genius
- Presenation slides: Ads are Evil, But I'm Worse
- Followups threads on Twitter: a breakdown of the JS code, what they were doing behind the scenes