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Spyware Floods in Through BitTorrent
solareagle writes "Public peer-to-peer networks have always been associated with adware program distributions, but BitTorrent, the program created by Bram Cohen to offer a new approach to sharing digital files, has managed to avoid the stigma. Not any more, anti-spyware advocates warn. According to Chris Boyd, a renowned security researcher who runs the VitalSecurity.org nonprofit resource center, the warm and fuzzy world of BitTorrent has been invaded by a massive software distribution campaign linked to New York-based adware purveyor Direct Revenue LLC."
The MPAA cartel have been more than public about their conspiracy to poison p2p networks.
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Yes, that was my mistake, I mis-scanned the article. This is actually an even more retarded article about running unknown software you downloaded from a semi-anonymous source... Great guys, keep running those executables you get through the e-mail.
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
All that does is block bad IPs. That won't do squat if you're downloading and running an application with malware inside. The real solution is to use something like bitzi which lets you check if a given file/app you are downoading is known to have "issues."
You bring up a real issue, not from an end-user standpoint, but from major corporations. Shouldn't these companies get into serious legal trouble? I can think of two ways right off the top of my head.
First, if they're sticking adware on an illegal file and uploading it, don't the same laws apply to them uploading the illegal file? Is the **AA suing these companies along with 12-year-old kids? After all, it's adware-infested, but it's still an illegal file, right?
Second, if they are modifying warez software, not only does the previous apply, but doesn't it fall under the protection of software that outlaws modifying binary code and distributing it without the publisher's consent? I mean think about it, this kind of thing not only supposedly denies companies revenue, but it can give them a serious black eye. What if people get the incorrect impression that an adware-infested version of a respectable piece of software is the real thing? All of a sudden, you have a really bad--and undeserved--reputation for distributing spyware on everyone's computers.
Aurora is the most prevalant form of crap out there today. I help at www.geekstogo.com and almost 10% of our google hits (we generally have about 800 users on at any given moment) come from searches on how to get rid of aurora popups. ALL their uninstaller does is trigger a hidden "/fullremove" switch inside the executable file, and to do that, they insist you lower your browser settings and firewall so that they can phone home with loads of fun information about you and your computer. These are the same people that brought the infamous Look2Me, which rivals CoolWebSearch in tenacity and obnoxious difficulty of removal. Its good to know this stuff is coming in through bittorrent, although they offer file samples as direct downloads from their website (making it easy to diagnose and write up cures). At least now we can spread the word on how not to get infected
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That was until my brother showed me a ligitimate site (forget which) that required their own "player" to view a trailer or something. As far as I could tell (verified by ad/spyware checks afterwards) it didn't leave anything. So I guess there are companies stupid enough to make those things, and people stupid enough to use them, but at least now I have a connection.
The cool thing about bittorrent is that although it doesn't have a built in moderation system per se (although the trackers often do), you can generally tell if a file is the correct version or not based on how many people are downloading/seeding. Yeah, its not always accurate, but if you see several releases of a movie, and there's one or two seeds on one link, and over 500 on another, you'll pick the latter because you're going to get higher speeds, and presumably it is the correct file.
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The scary bad thing here, that the article doesn't mention, is if the SpyWare community can pull this off, it should be just as easy for a Virus writer to do it.
My thought is, if it's illegal for a Virus writer to pull this off, it should also be illegal for the SpyWare community to do it.
We should stop acting like spyware deserves some kind of special, dignified status, different from "viruses", just because they're created by companies and not by some guy in his basement. They aren't different. They're trojan horses. Proscecute them like they are.
Either these people are stuffing their trojan horses into legitimate, legal-to-distribute programs and releasing them on bittorrent misleadingly, and should be hit under whatever law you'd get hit under if you were doing exactly that with a virus, or they're stuffing their trojan horses into warez, and they should be hit for the above plus copyright infringement.
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BZZZT.
It just as easily be a reverse connect trojan that modifies ~/.profile or other login startup files, no admin privileges needed.
If a user runs something bad, they can be screwed no matter what OS.
Excuse me, but porn sites mostly don't need spyware - they know what you're there to get - they don't need marketing of any kind - the marketing is between your legs.
Most of my clients are picking up spyware from going to SPORTS sites. I got a client whose kids keep checking out Nike shoes at sleazy commercial sites and going to sports sites. It's sleazy commercial sites that are using spyware and spam software to hawk their products and sell marketing info.
And why would a warez site install spyware? What's in it for them (unless they're big enough to make deals with sleazy marketing operations)? They're distributing FREE illegal stuff to begin with! Again, they KNOW what you're there for. Sure, some of them are probably crackers who are looking to spread viruses and the like, but a lot of people using warez will spot that in a hurry and spread the word and then they're out of business (on that site at least.)
Even this BitTorrent thing - it's not the "legitimate" sharers doing this - it's COMPANIES seeding the torrents with crap. It's the companies that need to be targeted and shut down, regardless of their legal excuses.
Ultimately I think that since the law can't work - because it's mostly unenforceable - it will have to be hackers who start finding and (illegally) targeting these companies for DoS attacks and the like that will have to solve this.
And of course, better tools and better user education is needed to stop people from clicking on spam and installing crap.
Even so, a certain level of crime is a given and security is an issue that won't go away (until humans do, which fortunately is a given as well.)
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
On one hand, it really irritated me to discover that the app I downloaded (for testing purposes only!) would also install spyware.
It's not just apps - I downloaded a family guy episode, unrared it, and it was an executable. 170 megs of executable, so it was probably the spyware piggybacked onto the data that was the video, but still.
I mean, I know better, and I almost clicked it. Since the only thing I download anymore is video files, I'm used to them being clean, and I'm used to sites not posting contaminated video files. If the icon hadn't been different, I may have clicked.
~Wil
sig?
Or is it the new "trackerless" BT that has opened this door?
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WTF!!!!! Invisible Registry Value?????????
Who designed this crap that allows such rubbish to exist in the first place?
Why would there ever be a need for invisible values in the registry?
Is this a joke?
Rick B.
AVI/WMV/MPEG/MP3
Can we please stop including WMV in the list of difficult to exploit media files. It has already been pointed out that a WMV file is completely unsafe. Once I foolishly downloaded one and it opened a website in my browser when I tried to open it. After that I deleted every single WMV file on my computer and will never download one again. They are quite scary.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
Many users of BT are still quite unaffected by this simply because they use membership-based trackers.
I don't see that changing - as long as someone's accountable for the content (and can lose tracker privileges for bad content), I don't think it will.
Not just that, but 13-26 year olds who have *proven* that they'd rather steal stuff than buy it...
Of course, how does that explain Coldplay selling 740,000 copies of their new album in the first week. Who is buying these, all the damn 40 year olds? Wonder if my grandma's picked up her copy yet?
Maybe X&Y isn't out on the torrent sites yet.... nope, there it is. My favorite torrent search engine has at least 5 very active trackers. Strange, why would ANYONE purchase it, especially those evil 13-26 year olds???
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Please read my entire post before modding me Troll....
I recently installed Linux on my computer.
The final trigger for installing it was the stupid Aurora adware mentioned in TFA. As an IT guy by profession, I found it insanely difficult to get rid of that one. I am very diligent with my computer (firewall, adware scanning and virus scanning, Firefox etc..) when it comes to anything I download, and I am almost usually completely ad/spy/vrius-ware free. But in the end, some do slip through my defenses.
About a year ago I did run Linux and then went back to Windows because I just wanted to have a computer that runs common software and apps that you run into instead of the ones to have to look for, and also having software install itself painlessly more often than not, which is usally the case for me on Linux since I am just mediocore with it.
But why do I not want Linux to be used more and become a new standard? Because right now I like my Linux system. The fact that it is COMPLETELY adware free (other than www) is why I love it so much. If Linux became more standardized, the Adware/Spyware creating bastards would then consider it a new target market and we would have to go through all of the growing pain bullshit with viruses and adware as Windows is discovering right now. Because the user base of Linux is so small, the creating adware for it is not worth the effort.
I like it that way.
Excellent suggestions, to which I might ad, a hex editor works wonders in disabling a virus, too. Just type enough zeros!
That is why I usually get my torrents from known sources, like piratebay or torrenttyphoon search sites.
That way I can see a comment and if there is a bad torrent [fake] usually it is comented.
I think that was one of the advantages of bittorrent over other p2p protocols no?
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