Bonzi in Bookmarks

[Andy_P2002]

Here's a slightly odd one.

Whenever I run Spybot S+D it alerts me to a cookie from BonziBuddy
http://www.bonzi.com/netscape/voicenet.htm in my wife's Firefox bookmarks on the PC.
Spybot always says it has removed it successfully, but it is always back the next time.

Today, I went hunting for it and I found that if I look at the bookmarks.htm file in a browser window, sure enough it is there.

But if I look at the same list of bookmarks in firefox itself (either on the drop-down list or in "Organise Bookmarks") I cannot see it!

I *may* have had a full BonziBuddy infectio in the past, but thought it was long gone.

Anything I can do?
(I've checked everything in this topic:
http://forums.spybot.info/showthread.php?t=39588 and it all seems clear).

[Gopher John]

What version of Firefox are you using? Bookmarks.html was dropped when version 3 came out. See Profile folder - Firefox (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Files). It has been replaced with places.sqlite. If you are running Firefox v3 or newer, that would explain why you don't see BonziBuddy in Firefox but do in the bookmarks.html file as it isn't loaded at all.

That still doesn't explain why you are still getting the cookie. You must be visiting a site that sets it.

[Andy_P2002]

What version of Firefox are you using? Bookmarks.html was dropped when version 3 came out. See Profile folder - Firefox (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox#Files). It has been replaced with places.sqlite.
Well, I didn't know that! Thanks!

Can I just delete the whole bookmarks.html file to get rid of it then?


If you are running Firefox v3 or newer, that would explain why you don't see BonziBuddy in Firefox but do in the bookmarks.html file as it isn't loaded at all.

That still doesn't explain why you are still getting the cookie. You must be visiting a site that sets it.

More to the point, my wife is! :laugh:
I'll investigate further, because we also use the "Xmarks" bookmark backup and synchroniser, so maybe that has something to do with it's continual reappearance?
(Although 1. I had already tried forcing an overwrite of the version om the server with the local version just "cleaned" by SpybotS+D and 2. I presume XMarks is now writing to the 'places.sqlite' file instead)

[Gopher John]

Bookmarks.html can be safely deleted with Firefox 3 and newer.

Cookies aren't a security threat, but can be a privacy concern. I use Cookie Monster (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4703/) extension and only allow those cookies that I want (like the ones for this forum and others) because they serve a purpose other than tracking me from site to site. I never have to delete cookies that I don't want because they aren't set in the first place.

There's also the so called Super Cookies (Flash cookies) which can be controlled and deleted using BetterPrivacy (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623/) extension. These cookies won't appear in the browser's cookie interface. They are stored elsewhere on the hard drive.

I don't use XMarks so can't comment.