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Chrome and Firefox Flag The Pirate Bay As a 'Phishing' Site...Again (torrentfreak.com)

The Pirate Bay's download pages are being blocked by Chrome and Firefox. These pages have been flagged as "deceptive," by Google's safe browsing program. TorrentFreak reports that "millions" of Pirate Bay users are currently unable to access the torrent detail pages on the site without receiving a stark warning. The report adds: The homepage and various categories can be reached without problems, but when visitors navigate to a download page they are presented with an ominous red warning banner. According to Google the notorious torrent site is linked to a phishing effort, where malicious actors try to steal the personal information of visitors. It's likely that the security error is caused by a malicious third-party advertisement. The TPB team informs TorrentFreak that they are aware of the issue, which they hope will be resolved soon.

67 comments

  1. So use Brave as a browser with a VPN by SensitiveMale · · Score: 1

    That's what I hear some people are doing.

  2. Disabiling Checks for Malware and Phishing Sites by DERoss · · Score: 1

    I do not know about Chrome. However, there are two preferences that control the checks for malware and phishing sites in Mozilla-based browsers (e.g., Firefox, SeaMonkey).

    For SeaMonkey:

    1. Select [Edit > Preferences] on the menu bar.

    2. On the Preferences window, select Privacy & Security.

    3. On the Privacy & Security pane, there are two checkboxes, one for malware Web sites and one for phishing sites. Unchecking a checkbox disables the corresponding check.

    For Firefox, I am not sure if there is a user interface. However, the preference variable browser.safebrowsing.enabled controls the check for phishing Web sites; and the preference variable browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled controls the check for mailware sites. Setting one of these to False via about:config disables the corresponding check. I have the PrefBar extension installed for SeaMonkey. In it, I created buttons to enable and disable each of these checks.

  3. Re:Again indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It is true, because it happened to me not an hour ago. Thanks for trolling though!

  4. Re:Again indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In all fairness the amount of dodgy shit on TPB both uploaded by criminals with root kits and governments/Hollywood mafia unless you know what you are doing it is most definitely a very unsafe site for a user to be using.

  5. It's entirely possible there are threats there by caseih · · Score: 2

    from time to time. Remember this is partly based on user reports.

    I'm sure the majority of Slashdot users are savvy and looking for specific things (like free Linux ISOs or creative commons content... right). I would bet a nickle there are threats that people have encountered downloading things willy-nilly from the PirateBay. I've heard of music and movie files that were really executables, for example. I'm also fairly confident that malware comes through ads from time to time which many less-experienced users are going to be seeing.

    So for many Windows users I would rate many torrent indexing sites as high risk for malware infection. Sad thing is, that's pretty meaningless though as commonly used "legitimate" commercial sites get malware in their ad networks from time to time. uBlock (origin?), and ghostery are standard installs for any computer I work on for friends and family. Just can't risk it today.

    1. Re:It's entirely possible there are threats there by ArylAkamov · · Score: 1

      You're telling me popular_music.mp3.exe isn't legit!?

    2. Re:It's entirely possible there are threats there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Possible yes, I've had plenty of "official" sites serve me bad adds containing all kinds of shit making my virusscanner work overtime. It's possible some were false positivies, but sure not all of them were. It's because of this I never ever disable my addblocker, even for "the good guys", there's just no way any site can guarantee there will be no malicious adds when they get served dynamically.

      Yet none of these sites have ever been flagged by Chrome or Firefox, at least for me.

    3. Re:It's entirely possible there are threats there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's most likely the ads, not the torrents themselves. They use the sleaziest bunch of ad networks they can find, you see. Not because they want to, but because the reputable ad networks will have nothing to do with them.

  6. Re:Again indeed by r1348 · · Score: 1

    It actually happened to me too, plus TPB lately is literally invaded by fake torrents advertising the latest blockbusters, which I'm pretty sure are actually serving malware. They get removed quickly enough, but some of them seemed to already have thousands of peers.

  7. Re:Again indeed by bloodhawk · · Score: 2

    The thousands of peers are fake. however I actually really like the fake torrents, they are braindead simple to spot as they are nearly always the same size and always have the same dumb arse comment on them and always have X thousand peers even though they were only uploaded 10 seconds ago and also uploaded in bulk by the same unverified user. What it does do for me though is gives me a nice list of all the upcoming movies that I need to search for.

  8. Re:Again indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm in the USA using Google Chrome and Googles DNS servers. TPB loads just fine, no warnings, no errors. Yes, this story is BS brought to you by MPAA/RIAA/Clinton.

  9. Re:Again indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It should shock me that there are still people out there who can't tell the difference between Godawful.CGIgasm.That.Will.Still.Make.300M.mp4 (2.0 GB, ETA: 10 minutes) and Godawful.CGIgasm.That.Will.Still.Make.300M.mp4.exe (50 kb, ETA: 2 seconds)

    It should, but it doesn't.

  10. Hacked executables are hacked?!?!?! by raymorris · · Score: 0

    Pirate Bay has categories "Applications" and "Games" (aka executables). It seems most of these are supposedly hacked to get around the licensing check.

    Chrome may be indicating that some of these hacked executables are ... wait for it ... HACKED!

    It's almost unbelievable, hackers who illegally mess with software sometimes illegally add malware. I'm shocked!

    1. Re:Hacked executables are hacked?!?!?! by dissy · · Score: 2

      Pirate Bay has categories "Applications" and "Games" (aka executables). It seems most of these are supposedly hacked to get around the licensing check.

      Chrome may be indicating that some of these hacked executables are ... wait for it ... HACKED!

      That wouldn't be possible, since there are no executables on the pirate bay to download.

      Those pages have only an SHA1 hash, which is all that's required to get the needed magnet link into your bittorrent client.
      Any potential infected executables would be coming in over your bittorrent client, and would be completely invisible to your web browser.

      That said, the site does use an ad network, which many of the smaller ad networks are known to deliver malware via javascript and such.
      Malware containing ads are certainly delivered through the browser, and are a legit infection method to be blocked.

      NoScript or a similar extension would provide full protection in such a case.
      AdBlock I would like to think would also block the maware containing ads, but these days that's less assured and I don't feel like going there to verify that.

    2. Re:Hacked executables are hacked?!?!?! by raymorris · · Score: 1

      It wouldn't say it's IMPOSSIBLE for Google to know the SHA1 hash (torrent URL) of infected files.

      If you're just trying to make the same tired argument about unlawful pirate sites that courts have struck down again and again, you might enjoy this page:
      http://famguardian.org/publica...

      But keep in mind, believing such utter BS *will* end up with you in prison. See:
      https://www.irs.gov/tax-profes...

    3. Re:Hacked executables are hacked?!?!?! by dissy · · Score: 1

      Ok fair enough, "impossible" was a poor choice of words.

      However is it provably not what they are doing. In Google search for "Bing torrent [some game or pirated app]", and note you do not get the same warning even though the result contains the same SHA1 hash.
      So that is clearly not what is triggering it.
      The actual malware they scan for isn't in the SHA1 so that is clearly not what is triggering it.

      The only likely place a malware signature would match is in the ads.
      A more unlikely place would be if the site itself was hacked and changed to serve up malware directly too of course.

      As for legality, I made no such claim so I'm not sure why you'd mention it or insult me over it.
      We are talking about malware detection here, which is purely technical.
      Of course uploading something under another persons copyright is illegal.

    4. Re:Hacked executables are hacked?!?!?! by dissy · · Score: 1

      And at this point I tried struggling through the first paragraph in your first link, and I really want to ask: WTF, taxes? Really?

      Is that some complex analogy you're making to an argument I didn't bring up or mention?
      You may want to find another example that isn't so boring and obviously baseless. I couldn't even get past the first paragraph so really don't get the point you intended to make.

      I also didn't mention taxes let alone claim we don't owe them. Is that what you think?
      Personally I pay my taxes in full and on time, and don't run my own business so no potentially questionable deductions (or any deductions)

      I happen to both love living in society and have grown very dependent upon it.
      I may not agree with each and every little thing the govt spends that money on, but similar to my employer may or may not agree with what I spend my paycheck on, not paying at all is not the right way to go about it.

      Back on the actual topic, are you trying to claim that because most things downloaded off torrent sites are not legal to be there somehow means people don't still do it?
      Are you claiming *I* do it?

      Sorry to repeat myself but WTF?

    5. Re:Hacked executables are hacked?!?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It wouldn't say it's IMPOSSIBLE for Google to know the SHA1 hash (torrent URL) of infected files.

      You can't get infected by the hash, so blocking a site for distributing the hash, rather than those distributing the infected files is stupid.

      Kinda like when anti-virus programs once in a while block anti-virus updates, because they contain virus signatures.

    6. Re:Hacked executables are hacked?!?!?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dumbass. If you know shit about teh interwebs, don't post anything about it.

  11. Re:Again indeed by silverkniveshotmail. · · Score: 1

    Microsoft sure doesn't help by hiding known extensions by default.

  12. Re:Disabiling Checks for Malware and Phishing Site by silverkniveshotmail. · · Score: 1

    Can't you just type "badidea" and proceed? I don't mind the warning.

  13. Re:Again indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If a person is dumb enough to download an executable instead of movie then having them be able to see .exe is not going to save them. However I also wish they did not hide this by default as it is simply so annoying to have to turn extensions and hidden files back on for every machine I have to use.

  14. Pirate Bay should be flagged by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    It is harmful to our society and breeds disrespect for the law which was duly passed by an elected congress.

    1. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whether the US is a democracy is a matter of opinion.

    2. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by Psion · · Score: 1

      God bless America, son!

    3. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's supposed to be a check for phishing and malicious sites. Once people start getting trained, "Oh, just disable it on this site.", they will disable it on every site, and the warning will no longer be effective.

      Boy who cried wolf anyone?

    4. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by OrangeTide · · Score: 3, Insightful

      In principle I think you have a point. But I don't think Congress extending copyright law to 100's of years is really in the interest of the vast majority of citizens. I accuse our democracy system of being subverted by special interests. My elected officials cease being my representatives when they take millions in contributions for a handful of corporate donors.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    5. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by viperidaenz · · Score: 4, Informative

      I didn't elect them, I don't live in USA, nor is TPB a US based site.

    6. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

      I think you typed the word "bribes" wrong, it's not spelled "contributions"

    7. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You forgot the /s ...

    8. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My elected officials cease being my representatives when they take millions in contributions for a handful of corporate donors.

      Then you and the people in your district should stop reelecting them. Don't blame them for winning. Lack of resistance is implied consent. You gotta at least make an effort.

    9. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      It is harmful to our society and breeds disrespect for the law which was duly passed by an elected congress.

      You mean the Congress with the 1 digit approval rating, almost all members of which I had no say in electing and don't like the one which supposedly represents me?

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    10. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe that AC was being sarcastic, as TPB is not hosted in the US and most users are also not Americans.

    11. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      bribes are illegal, contributions are allowed under current law. It amounts to the same thing though, with the difference is that there is no transparency with bribes.

      The old way with bribes is we all could only suspect that our politicians were corrupt, and could do nothing without proof.
      The new way is we all have access irrefutable proof that they are corrupt, but there is little we can do it.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    12. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      The seats for many elections are uncontested. The political party with the majority in that district gets to select the candidate who runs. And the bar for getting in as a third party candidate is impossibly high. If you take a look at the election reform of the last 10-20 years, you'll see that it is firmly a two party system.

      I can and will complain about it. I can and will place the blame squarely on the shoulders of politicians who are making decisions that cement their hold onto power.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    13. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      with the majority

      Exactly!

    14. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is a congress in Sweden than can pass laws? Thanks Slashdot, I learn something new every day.

    15. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by houghi · · Score: 1

      It is. Please update your Newspeak book.
      Freedom is Slavery
      War is Peace
      Bribe is Contribution

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    16. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your parliaments are also elected

      The context of the law is irrelevant. It is the law, and you must obey.

    17. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Select, not elect. My choice of words was quite intentional. It's the difference between a republic and a democracy.

    18. Re:Pirate Bay should be flagged by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      It seems that the US government believes it has jurisdiction over the entire Internet. And it definitely does go after US citizens for activities that occur on servers in other countries.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  15. Re:Again indeed by murdocj · · Score: 1

    Same here. I've never understood why MS considers this to be a good thing. Especially when you have multiple files that only differ by extension.

  16. This comes as no surprise by mfearby · · Score: 1

    "It's likely that the security error is caused by a malicious third-party advertisement."

    The ads on that site are terrible, and it's no wonder browsers flagging the site as suspicious. If a web site chooses to plaster dodgy ads all over the place, then they can deal with the fallout.

    1. Re:This comes as no surprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's more than ads. The site has a history of troubles: http://news.softpedia.com/news/pirate-bay-blocked-in-chrome-and-firefox-because-of-safe-browsing-alert-509026.shtml

  17. Re:Again indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    supposedly it is because most users have no clue what a file extension means and it just adds confusion for them (which is actually somewhat true), still wish it wasn't the default.

  18. Re:Again indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The NSA doesn't care about piracy or really any laws. They only care about knowing what everyone is doing they can find terrorists, dissidents, etc. It's kind of like how the CIA doesn't care about illegal drugs, so they import a few millions of dollars worth of it into the country to hide their covert operations.

    FBI would care about piracy. But it's probably just a normal situation of big corporations putting pressure on other big corporations to get them to do little things like this behind the scenes.

  19. Tor, also again by DrYak · · Score: 1

    Also again, like all the previous times, the tor .onion address ( http://uj3wazyk5u4hnvtk.onion/ ) continues to work flawlessly, no matter what, as long as you have a tor proxy/tor browser/whatever running.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  20. Or tor by DrYak · · Score: 1

    They also have a .onion address ( http://uj3wazyk5u4hnvtk.onion/ ) so you can simply fire up your tor proxy, and it works flawlessly.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  21. Re:Again indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can confirm just had to bypass the giant bright red annoying fucking warning screen!

    Again!

  22. Re:Again indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Had to bypass the bright red warning screen today, USA comcast customer using firefox.

  23. It isn't Pirate Bay itself ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's the pop-up ads that is doing this, not the pirate bay main site. When you click on a link, it brings a pop-up, and that's what is triggering the phishing report.

    1. Re:It isn't Pirate Bay itself ... by byrdfl3w · · Score: 1

      It's the pop-up ads that is doing this, not the pirate bay main site. When you click on a link, it brings a pop-up, and that's what is triggering the phishing report.

      Yes.

  24. Alternatives by jenningsthecat · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you're using Firefox, switch to Pale Moon - it's basically Firefox before the suckage grew to ginormous proportions. If you're using Chrome... well, I don't know what to tell you. I never could stand it.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
    1. Re:Alternatives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still waiting for it to be packaged for Xubuntu (or at least Debian; it'll find its way downstream from there).

    2. Re:Alternatives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you're using Firefox, switch to Pale Moon - it's basically an old version of Firefox maintained by amateurs

      FTFY

      Firefox ESR + Classic Theme Restorer

    3. Re:Alternatives by jenningsthecat · · Score: 2

      I'm running Xubuntu. No need for a 'buntu or Debian package - just download the installation script from https://linux.palemoon.org/dow.... There are no automatic upgrade prompts, but running the install script again at any time after installation will allow you to get the latest update. I've been using Pale Moon on Xubuntu for well over a year, with zero conflicts or dependency problems.

      --
      'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
    4. Re:Alternatives by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or stop being a pompous ass who thinks Pale Moon is "better", when in reality it's just an old build of Firefox with some cherry-picked patches that can still be made to work with their old branch. Many, many Firefox users have discovered that you can get by just fine without the old UI, and that the old Firefox isn't really as rosy as you think it was. But instead, some people keep on with this ridiculous negative PR campaign against Firefox, as though they think Pale Moon can exist without Firefox there to do the real development they're cherry-picking patches from. This kind of nonsense is self-defeating, grossly exaggerated, and indicative of someone who has not even tried Firefox since they changed the UI.

  25. No. by rebelwarlock · · Score: 1

    Just like the last time it was reported, no, no it's not being flagged. Just stop it with this crap. It wasn't funny the first time.

  26. Re:Again indeed by Vlijmen+Fileer · · Score: 1

    It is false, because it happened to me not an hour ago. Maybe you are behind?

  27. Re:Again indeed by Vlijmen+Fileer · · Score: 1

    If you get so brightly red fucking annoyed by it, maybe you should just disable the option.

  28. Shit happen by higuita · · Score: 1

    Firefox uses google blacklist (and helps build the list), to avoid duplication of work.

    This list grabs several info from several sources and sometimes innocent sites get in in the cross fire... google added some google sites to the blacklist at least twice in the last few years. Usually the source of the problem is comments/posts and ads networks. If the comments we can control, ads networks are shitty and very hard to control... so yes, shit happen

    --
    Higuita
  29. Re:Again indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    TPB actively takes down root kits and phishing attempts.
    I feel a lot safer visiting them than some "legit" pages.
    Blocking TPB for that is something that should happen a long time after pages that bundle ask toolbar and other malware with their downloads have been taken down.

  30. Deceptive by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    These pages have been flagged as "deceptive," by Google's safe browsing program.

    Well, that may not be entirely inaccurate, given some recent texts in the search results, being probably some advertisements for VPN services (I'm not sure if those are ads) using some scary language about federal crimes (quite amusing for us foreigners).

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  31. Should be held responsible by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If Google/Firefox/etc wrongly labels a site as being a risk, there should be repercussions. I don't imagine TPB will sue Google but if I had a legit business that was harmed by this, then I absolutely would.

  32. Re:Again indeed by kaatochacha · · Score: 1

    internet via comcast, but using Private Internet Access, got the big red page on Chrome.

  33. Re:Again indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's another attempt to ape Apple.