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uTorrent Quietly Installs Cryptocurrency Miner
New submitter Eloking sends news that uTorrent, a popular BitTorrent client, is silently installing cryptocurrency mining software for many users.
[uTorrent] brings in revenue through in-app advertising and also presents users with “offers” to try out third-party software when installed or updated. These offers are usually not placed on users’ machines without consent, but this week many users began complaining about a “rogue” offer being silently installed. The complaints mention the Epic Scale tool, a piece of software that generates revenue through cryptocurrency mining. To do so, it uses the host computer’s CPU cycles. ... The sudden increase in complaints over the past two days suggests that something went wrong with the install and update process. Several users specifically say that they were vigilant, but instead of a popup asking for permission the Epic Scale offer was added silently.
For something as important and risky as BitTorrent, why would you use a proprietary client?
Aren't bitcoins, between the drop in value and the ASIC enthusiasts, at the point where clandestine CPU mining is close to pointless? I realize that free as in stolen has its virtues; but it likely wasn't free to get their shitware, rather than somebody else's, bundled with utorrent, so I'm surprised that it was worth it.
Time to abandon utorrent. In fact, time to abandon all software who's owners bundle in adware/malware/anything-other-than-the-program-the-user-is-trying-to-install.
The only way this practice will stop is if users refuse to download and use software that does this.
A couple of years ago uTorrent started installing adware with their software as well, and everyone either bailed or went back to v2.2.1. So why would anyone be using the most current version of uTorrent anyway?
I'll not post any link here (it's quite easy to Google it anyway), but I suggest going back to utorrent 2.2.1. It's the last stable build without any malware/ads/crap. There's already many torrent site that doesn't allow utorrent version higher than 2.2.1.
Elok
"Reports that uTorrent silently installs Bitcoin crapware are... crap" http://betanews.com/2015/03/06... Tim S.
When they started pulling this crap I switched to something else that apes the older, simpler, cleaner versions: http://www.qbittorrent.org/
Boo.
I used uTorrent when it was fairly new and it was excellent but in this day and age does it offer anything versus the number of matured open-source alternatives out there? I'm really asking if it has some special sauce that gives it an edge. When it was released one could look past it's closed source nature since it made it's mark being lightweight yet feature packed. Once the major update that brought advertising on-board I saw no reason to use it anymore.
I've been using qBittorent for a couple years and it gives me all the relevant functionality without the mess as well as Transmission QT for Windows and Deluge, I can see no reason to use uTorrent when it's been shown repeatedly to be scum-ware.
>the leading Java-based client
If you mean the client I think you do, that has been crap for many years.
Transmission is the way to go these days.
...because it's popular.
Older versions could fit on a floppy disk, and didn't require an Installshield Wizard. Now, it's not at Vuze levels of bloatedness (though Vuze beats to a different drum and has a pretty nice "content store" for Creative Commons content and similar), but it's gotten big and annoying. Transmission works on Windows (...and OSX...and *nix...and plenty of routers and NASes...) and is nice if you don't need RSS feeds. QBittorrent does RSS and is simple to use. Deluge, while being a bit awkward, does a good job. if you're into a super-configurable ecosystem, rTorrent has 101 plugins and browser based frontends, but can also run exclusively from the CLI if that's your thing. The list goes on and on, but utorrent seems to be coasting on inertia, nothing more, nothing less.
The interesting thing is that a similar "we'll borrow some unused CPU cycles" method of revenue generation caused a huge mess with Digsby, an IM client that was great and had a pretty good following until that point. Then again, with most technical folks opting for one of the plentiful alternatives to utorrent, I don't see this being a major impact.
There are ways to hide a program so that increased CPU life would not be noticed:
1: Wait for the MSI install/upgrade mechanism to be used, then start using the CPU after it completes. The program installed will get the blame.
2: Ramp it up over a period of time, so the user gets used to his MBA eating its battery in two hours.
3: Wait until the laptop is plugged in and the screensaver is on, and hit it.
It eventually will be caught, but there are ways to keep all but the more astute people from noticing.
I am actually surprised more "free" programs don't do this with a stipulation in the EULA that they have free run to use the end user's CPU/RAM/IO/disk/network as they see fit, and there isn't anything legally that can challenge that.
Torrent used to be great. It had over 100 million users and was the most popular client for years. I remember the first version fit on a floppy, and you could xcopy install it. It was awesome. I did a test of different BitTorrent clients for a PC magazine, and Torrent won easily when it came to download speeds. It beat Vuze, as the poster I'm replying to mentioned, by more than 30%.
It was small and fast. It did everything you need. Now it is bloated and too slow to leave running when using your computer. Also, it wastes tens of megabytes of bandwidth per day downloading animated ads plus it uses so much CPU to show the ads that it overheats my new Dell laptop. The guy above exaggerated with this gigabytes claim.
So why was this guy marked a Troll? He is correct. Do we have a Torrent fanboi with mod points?
Just another reason to have a seedbox for all of your torrent needs.
It's something like a 100:1 loss on electricity at $0.11/KWH by the way.
except they aren't paying for the electricity, so it's all profit. even if they are only making $100, that's still pretty great. considering they probably spent a week hacking together existing software ... and after that it's zero expenditure and all profit (except what they are paying bittorrent).
Why doesn't /. understand Unicode in 2015?
Past abuse of bidirectional override control characters to spoof comment scores. Details
Deluge likes to use random ports
Edit->preferences->Network, uncheck "Use Random Ports" and it will let you specify a port range, old-school style.
All this furor over Epic Scale bitcoin miner, and none over other crud like Wajam that uTorrent installs?
Have a look at the last image in this article. "...may change your local proxy settings...collect...URLs of the pages you visit...content of encrypted webpages...Wajam may protect itself from other software that tries to wrongfully interfere with it."
Yikes. Lenovo got spanked pretty hard for packaging advertising malware that MITMs your encrypted sessions, but at least theirs doesn't officially threaten a counterstrike against your antivirus too.
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
uTorrent alternatives you should have moved on to a long time ago; cross platform clients, with clickable links for the lazy:
qBittorrent v3.1.12
Deluge v1.3.11