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Poisoned Torrents Plague Mybittorrent
jambarama writes "One of the biggest problems with the Fasttrack network has been poisoning. This is the practice of sharing a file on a P2P network that looks like the real thing, but isn't. Bittorrent until recently has been largely immune to this. Now a new type of torrent is tricking bittorrent sites to rising to the top of the download lists." From the article: "According to Rex, about 50 new torrents have been released from what he calls "fake" trackers (~31 in total.) These trackers are seemingly part of an elaborate plot to infiltrate the BitTorrent community with intentionally corrupt files. These movie and film titles are specifically designed to report false information to trackers, thereby gaining artificially inflated popularity."
Esepcially as from TFA:
Those who download these torrents are unable to complete a full download, as the file transfer stops at approximately 97%-98%.
Guess that would give plenty of time to harvest the IP, whilst the pirates end up with gigabytes of useless 1s & 0s....
I mean given the reported posioned torrents so far are:
"The Wedding Crashers"
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
The first three episodes of "The O.C."
It seems unlikely that there is any legitimate use of these.
Here's the article text, enjoy :-)
New Breed of Corrupt Torrent Infiltrates BitTorrent
September 24, 2005
Thomas Mennecke
myBittorrent is a popular BitTorrent listing site used by tens of thousands of individuals each day. It also has become the focus of an individual or group of individuals looking to undermine the integrity of the BitTorrent community. Although false and corrupt files have been a part of the BitTorrent community since its beginning, a new kind is emerging that aims for maximum exposure.
"I think they are doing this to give BitTorrent a bad name," Rex, the administrator of myBittorrent told Slyck.com.
Of course the proverbial "they" is the real question. According to Rex, about 50 new torrents have been released from what he calls "fake" trackers (~31 in total.) These trackers are seemingly part of an elaborate plot to infiltrate the BitTorrent community with intentionally corrupt files. These movie and film titles are specifically designed to report false information to trackers, thereby gaining artificially inflated popularity.
"In a very short period of time, these false torrents have become most of my top downloads," Rex told Slyck.com. "I've never seen anything else before like it."
Those who download these torrents are unable to complete a full download, as the file transfer stops at approximately 97%-98%.
Here's how this clever plot works.
These trackers have published about 50 variant torrents of only three titles, "The Wedding Crashers", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", and the first three episodes of "The O.C." Some titles are published as "DVD-rips" while others are pushed as "XviDs". Others are presented as an English or French releases.
This is done to disguise the origin of the torrent, and also to present a diverse array of choices. For example, if all were DVD-rips, their exposure would be limited to those only with enough bandwidth to download such large films. Having DVD-rips and XviDs exposes the torrent to a wider market.
According to Rex, the torrent originating from false trackers are intentionally reporting false information. For example, a corrupt torrent will report 400 seeds with 3000 leeches. Since the more individuals having a file are indicative of the file's download speed, it becomes a highly downloaded torrent and aids in its popularity.
The ruse is additionally disguised by spreading the torrent release from over 31 different trackers. Interestingly enough, although the identified trackers have different sub domains, they all originate from the same IP address.
It appears myBittorrent has borne the brunt of this attack; however these types of corrupt torrents have begun to appear on Mininova as well. Since the threat has been identified, the administration of myBittorrent has begun eliminating any torrent files originating from the identified trackers. At this time, the origins of the attack are unknown. But their initial goal of gaining maximum exposure certainly did work, if only for a short while.
Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know when your gonna get food poisoning.
Theres already a plugin for Azureus that prevents it connecting to the IP addresses of known bad torrent seeders and goverment agencies using a regularly auto-updated list. I think its called 'Safepeer'.
To err is human. To forgive is not company policy.
If you use bittorrent, you are uploading, it's part of how the protocol works.
the identified trackers ... all originate from the same IP address.
The solution suggests itself. Is PeerGuardian onto that IP address yet?
My Karma: ran over your Dogma
StrawberryFrog
Bad news: You do break the law. Downloading is legal here, but uploading definitely is not. While you're downloading, you are feeding data to peers and that makes you an uploader. Also, if you leave the torrent open after downloading, you are seeding (which of course you should do, lest you be branded a leecher).
He probably downloaded it because in cases where activation is required, that code is stripped out by the pirate release group, so it's not always as simple as just getting a keygen.
Law Enforcement might be able to entrap people (undercover cops pretending to be hookers for example)
I think you're confused about what entrapment actually is. Entrapment is inducing someone to break the law, like if an undercover cop was luring ricers into racing him so his buddy down the road could bust them. Simply setting up a situation where people will get caught doing what they would be doing anyway is NOT entrapment.
Those prostitution stings are carefully arranged so that they aren't entrapment. The undercover cop doesn't go walking up to peoples cars and soliciting them. Instead, she just stands around looking like she might be a prostitute, and the johns approach her. It's still a honeytrap, but not entrapment, since the john walks into it entirely of his own accord.
And while we're on the subject, a civil case has a much lower bar for what's admissible as evidence than a criminal trial. Something that would be thrown out as entrapment in a criminal case could be perfectly acceptable in a civil one.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
So yes, I do feel entitled to the X-Men cartoon series, as well as any other media, because I actually am entitled to it! The Public Domain is the natural state of intellectual works. It is only by my (and every other American citizen's) good graces that artist have any monopoly at all.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz