Comment by gkbrk
2 years ago
I tried this. I went to savefrom.net. First thing it does is ask permission to send notifications.
After that there is a popup asking me if I want to continue in the browser or download their app. If I click download, it downloads a file called download_helper_2.3.27.apk.
Instead of downloading their app, if I paste a YouTube link, it tells me I can wait or download their APK to skip waiting. The download link downloads an older version called download_helper_2.3.19.apk.
When I do the process again, instead of the older APK link it gives me a Chrome extension link. But if you look at the instructions you see that it's not a Chrome extension, but a minified userscript. And it has `@include https://*` so it can basically run on any website regardless of clicking on an extension icon like regular browser extensions.
If I try to ignore all the distractions and wait for the download link, I can click it and it downloads the MP4 file. But it also opens a popunder with the domain https://refpamjeql.top/.
Not the best experience, and seems like a high risk of getting malware, but it does get an MP4 file at some point.
Interesting! I tried again and got completely different results this time. Now there's no malware tab, and instead it tries to get me to pay for a subscription to download high-quality videos or MP3s. If I click the barely-visible "Just let me download in my browser with low quality" below the paid subscription button, I get the same error as before.
Edit: the paid subscription payment flow says I'm actually buying "Televzr Premium Max Subscription for
1 Month_mp
Televzr helps get wireless access to the media library on the computer from the mobile phone"
So it purports to be something unrelated to downloading youtube videos. I didn't pay 1400 yen for it, so I won't get to find out if it helps me download youtube videos.