ActiveX controls were introduced by Microsoft to help add multimedia content to the web's plain text. Unfortunately, they are notorious for containing security holes. (And as far as adding multimedia goes, Flash is a much better, more cross-platform solution.) One such hole is the "Gator pop-up." Some websites contain pop-up ads to help them raise funds. Gator buys pop-up ads on some of these sites and uses their ad space to attempt to load an ActiveX control on your computer. If this control gets onto your computer, it will install Gator onto your computer. (Gator is a notorious piece of spyware which is currently being sued for some of their actions.)

Most ActiveX controls are signed by a certificate authority. This ensures that you know who the control comes from. (It does not, however, ensure that the control is safe.) I plan to include a signed ActiveX test in the future, but due to the high cost of signing controls ($200 for the first year and $100 every additional year), that will have to wait. For now you can test unsigned ActiveX controls.

The following test will attempt to load an unsigned ActiveX control on your system. This ActiveX control will do nothing more than display a message (it's one I wrote myself), so you needn't worry about your system being comprimised by running the test. Click the button below to begin the test. If you get a prompt asking you whether you want to accept the control, answer that you don't.