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Trojan Found At Torrent Sites Insists "Downloading Is Wrong"

NoisySplatter writes "Ernesto, founder of TorrentFreak, reports that a new trojan, 'Troj/Qhost-AC,' has been distributed on The Pirate Bay. The virus was disguised as a serial key generator, and the offending torrent has since been removed, but the source has not been identified. Troj/Qhost-AC makes changes to the user's hosts file that redirects The Pirate Bay, Suprbay, and Mininova to 127.0.0.1. In addition to making three popular torrent sites inaccessible, the virus also plays a sound file that says: 'downloading is wrong.' It looks like someone has finally stepped up to the plate to challenge Madonna for the title of 'Most Obnoxious Anti-Piracy Stunt.' Of course, this could just be the software industry's attempt at outdoing the RIAA and MPAA."

25 of 345 comments (clear)

  1. Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    There once was a man who could boast
    that due to his low latency host
    when blog posts went down,
    he was always around
    to sit down and type swiftly "FIRST POST"

    1. Re:Nice by ciderVisor · · Score: 3, Funny

      Whatever you do
      Don't become a poet
      That was dreadful. For real.

      Worst. Haiku. Evah.

      --
      Squirrel!
    2. Re:Nice by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Funny

      Worst. Haiku. Evah.
      You could have done this better?
      Then why didn't you?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    3. Re:Nice by Crizp · · Score: 2, Funny

      A haiku should have
      ref'rence to winter snow or
      some other season

  2. Holy fuck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    127.0.0.1 turns out to be *my* private IP address. So everyone with that virus is connecting to my Internet. That would explain why my connection has been so slow lately. I sure hope they find the bastard who did this to me. I'll gladly add my own lawsuit to the pile.

    1. Re:Holy fuck by Chris+Daniel · · Score: 4, Funny

      Do you, by any chance, live in Tuttle, OK?

      --
      Don't blame me -- I voted for Roslin.
  3. oops, downloaded this web page by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ..which of course according to the recording is wrong. Oh, I'm in the middle of downloading packets of data for TV since I'm using satellite TV, which is also wrong I guess. Where did I go so wrong in life.

  4. Re:Keygens by Hal_Porter · · Score: 5, Funny

    I rely on feedback from other downloaders on TPB. If the installer or keygen do bad things, many people will scream in comments. For popular torrents that are more than a month old, that catches malware pretty well. So far, I've no visible problem on my machine with this approach.

    I checked out your machine from here and it seems ok. A bit slow though, makes me wonder what everyone else is running on there.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  5. Beware the BM trojan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    It replaces all your audio files with Barry Manilow songs. The initials refer to the users reaction when they realize they now have 30,000 copies of "Mandy" choking their hard drive.

  6. Re:Keygens by AngryBacon · · Score: 3, Funny

    The authors of Norton Anti-Virus did this already, but most people don't really notice.

  7. Re:Summary makes it sounds like a virus but it's n by evanbd · · Score: 4, Funny
  8. Just wait 'til... by CarpetShark · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just wait 'til you get a dumbass letter from the RIAA saying that the IP 127.0.0.1 has been identified as a computer uploading copyrighted material. Then the shit will really hit the fan ;)

    1. Re:Just wait 'til... by dmsuperman · · Score: 4, Funny

      They would get halfway through the trial before realizing they're sitting on both sides of the court. Incompetent jackasses -_-

      --
      :(){ :|:& };: Go!
    2. Re:Just wait 'til... by BlueStrat · · Score: 4, Funny

      They would get halfway through the trial before realizing they're sitting on both sides of the court. Incompetent jackasses -_-

      And how much do you want to bet they'd still try for a conviction or settlement? :D

      Cheers!

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  9. Re:Summary makes it sounds like a virus but it's n by mqduck · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm all against nefarious software creeping onto my system, but this is like complaining that the guy you tried to buy drugs from turned out to be a cop.

    What, you don't get pissed when that happens to you?

    --
    Property is theft.
  10. Re:Please explain to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I don't see how that's illegal

    Fair enough.

    or unethical.

    Ah- he's retarded. Nevermind.

  11. Re:It literally kills its own spreading method by scream+at+the+sky · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mod parent up. If you can't get to thepiratebay.org anymore, you're gonna reinstall your OS.

    <cynic>
    if you can't get to thepiratebay.org, where are you gonna get your OS from?
    </cynic>

    --
    I wish I was a neutron bomb, for once I could go off...
  12. Re:Please explain to me by GFree678 · · Score: 2, Funny

    if I were your boss, I'd fire you, because you're clearly lacking in ethical stability

    Lacking in ethical stability?

    At my place of work this would be cause for a promotion!

  13. Re:Please explain to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    So, how're you finding life at Microsoft?

  14. rickbot by argent · · Score: 2, Funny

    Patches your flash player so that everything you look at on Youtube gets replaced by Mr. Astley's stellar performance.

  15. OT thead by totally+bogus+dude · · Score: 3, Funny

    Somewhat relevant quote from Clientcopia:

    In my previous life as a fed agent I was often asked to assist with some "undercover" sting operations all over the Northeast US. One of the most memorable was a op in northern Maine. I was to play the brother-in-law of our source whose co-worker had recently asked him if he knew of any good dealers of crack.

    Long story short, they brought me in to sell him crack. We met the "Client" as planned and you should have seen this kids eyes when I pulled out this giant bag of crack we had obtained from a previous bust. He looked like he was going to start crying, like he had just come to know Jesus or something... anyway he wanted to buy it all, every last gram of it, but he had only brought $150.00 bucks with him.

    I thought for a second and asked him if had his checkbook on him and he did. I asked him how much money he had in the bank, he told me and I told him he could just write me a check for the total. This kid didn't think twice about it and started writing the thing out. As he was writing he asked me all the usual questions, correct spelling of my name, confirmed the date, then stopped writing for a second, put his pen down, and I started to panic.

    He looked me straight in the eye and he stated that he always wrote down "the reason" in the little space provided in the lower left hand of checks for that purpose. Before I could even speak he picked his pen back up again and started writing, then folded the check in half and handed it to me. Before I handed him the crack I wanted to see what he wrote, so I unfolded the check and read aloud; "For Illegal Drugs", the second I read that out loud we could all hear very loud laughter coming from the room next door. You see I was wired and 6 agents were in the next room, hanging on every word. They knew they had alerted this guy and without delay came charging into the room to arrest him, but what a strange sight it was to see 6 armed feds tearing into a room, guns drawn and laughing so hard they really could not even speak in complete sentences...

  16. Darwin Award Nominee by Waxwing+Slain · · Score: 2, Funny

    Can we have the name of the person who downloaded the "serial key generator" and found this trojan? What did it claim to generate a serial key for, Duke Nukem vs Predator 2?

  17. Re:It literally kills its own spreading method by Erikderzweite · · Score: 2, Funny

    This way we can finally drag the user kicking and screaming into the year of Linux on desktop! :)

  18. Re:Summary makes it sounds like a virus but it's n by TheSpoom · · Score: 2, Funny
    --
    It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
    - E. Debs
  19. Re:For the Japanese-impaired by pxlmusic · · Score: 2, Funny

    there once was a girl from nantucket...

    --
    "If for any reason you're not satisfied with our service, I hate you."