Anti-spyware advocates cry foul as the popular peer-to-peer protocol becomes the latest mechanism for the stealthy distribution of adware/spyware bundles.
Spyware Floods In Through BitTorrent
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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What i just downloaded startwars using bit torrent? i now have starwars hitech spyware.!!!!!
DUH! I get tired of these articles that seem to break some amazing news yet all I can ever think is DUH! and what are people thinking.
I see bittorrent equivalent to having s.x with a lot of people without protection,the sooner or later you get infected.
Please people, if you want it, buy it!!
Don’t download self extracting files, exe’s etc.
Use torrent sites that list torrent contents.
If you don’t, when your download starts check the stub files it creates and decide whether to continue or not based on that.
I don’t use BT but I thought this article has some strange clains. First is:
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“btdownloadgui.exe,” the user interface that downloads/uploads when using BitTorrent.
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I thought BT has a lot of clients and no one dominates, so which client exactly have that .exe? Or I’m wrong?
And:
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Because BitTorrent strips digital files into tiny shreds and reassembles them locally once a user completes a download, it has emerged as the perfect place to bundle adware programs among the bits, without the end user ever knowing.
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Yes, and what? So you embedded your installer into .avi file, that’ll just give 5 seconds of random junk while watching that avi. Media player would not run code embedded into avi, period. You can find a buffer overrun, that’s player dependend.
don’t download with Windows and your safe (for now)
people? thinking? man, gimme a break…
Yeah, it’s a spyware tool, it’s spreads virii and all sorts of malevolent software.
At the same time, ban Windows! It spreads virii and all sorts of malevolent software!
Whilst you’re at it, ban computers. They spread virii and all sorts of malevolent software!
There, now it’s all banned, we can go back to scything wheat.
Seriously, just because something is used for bad purposes doesn’t make that something bad. We need to be a little more constructive in addressing the problems of spyware and virii.
just ban dumb users from touching computers. problem solved. (though i would be out of a job then.)
“just ban dumb users from touching computers. problem solved. (though i would be out of a job then.)”
wish i could do that.
Bittorrent is just as (us)safe as downloading with HTTP or FTP. BT uses checksums to ensure that the data is intact, so middle-men can’t tamper with or replace bit with out being noticed. Of course, just as with HTTP, you have to trust the site (or rather, tracker), that you’re downloading from.
They must mean Windows spyware. There is no known spyware on Linux. Man, another reason I am glad I use Linux.
The MPAA/RIAA has been doing this for a while via multiple P2P network through music and movies. They contracted a company called Overpeer to distribute fake music and movies with spyware/malware built in.
Not another “scary” doom and gloom article. C’mon.. You’d have to be stupid to download a “movie” and go, oh lookie, it’s starwars-episode3.exe, let’s play it!!!” LOL
If people actually had a sliver of intelligence, there wouldn’t be a spyware/adware problem. It’s social engineering, pure and simple.
I knew I hated lusers for a reason!
Ok, so the OS has something to do with the problem, Windows is more succeptible to virii today and will still be tomorrow.
The real problem though is people of all ages who don’t know what the any key is. Starting before adulthood kids should have to take a mandatory course on computer fundamentals that teaches them how to use a few operating systems; they should also learn how to use Anti-virus, how to use the web safely and things that should absolutely not be done on a computer.
Always the same diatribe against the “lusers”. Meanwhile spyware gets into your system without downloading applications or visiting any sort of questionable sites, while having anti-virus software going and the Windows firewall in place and keeping the system patched. Stop blaming the users already. They don’t pay good money to MS and to the OEM’s for the privilege of collecting malware. That’s what the security geniuses up in Redmond get incredible amounts of money and stock options to do…to outsmart the script kiddies and other malcontents.
“C’mon.. You’d have to be stupid to download a “movie” and go, oh lookie, it’s starwars-episode3.exe, let’s play it!!!” LOL ”
I think you’re confusing “stupid” with “ignorant”.
why was my last post modded ?
I made a valid point that if you still use Windows, you deserve what you get.
you all pay your $ to microsoft, you would expect them to give you a secure system.
however, the primary goal of ANY corporation is to generate profit, users concerns are secondary at best.
SO therefore it follow…..
You still use Windows, you deserve what you get ™
simple. i btdownload on linux, see if the file gets extracted via zip or rar for linux (it ignores the exe part), and just copy the content over. sanitized! (for now i think)
next week:
Spyware Floods In Through 3G
what else is new?
and the linux groupies strike again
A flood of spyware yes..
What is on the more popular torrent sites currently are things like animated screensavers, which are absolutely loaded with spyware to begin with.
You have rocks in your head if you download and install an animated wallpaper, they’re -LOADED- with junk from 99% of the sites out there, suddenly you’re innundated with hords of junk.
If you’re sick of seeing loads of advertising, spyware related popups and banners I reccomend http://www.everythingisnt.com/hosts.html and get mikes adblocking host file, works for mac, windows and linux, and anything else that uses a hosts file. – just redirects thousands of known spyware ips back to 127.0.0.1 Thus there is no content to the ad, and nothing to display. Advertising shows up as blank space. Its refreshing.
You can easily extract the contents with WinRAR. That way your computer won’t be infected.