Malware Found on a Movie Downloaded via Torrent Steals your Crypto

omone1

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Quote from: jointherevolution on January 18, 2019, 08:52:30 AM

I think I'm this day and age it is highly irresponsible to not have antivirus not only related to protecting your crypto but for the computer in general. So many threats get discovered every day by anti viruses, it is scary. And because of this, many new ways are created to scam people and infect them.

But some complicated Malware can enter your computer unnoticed. Although this certainly has to do with how up-to-date the anti-virus is and its defend mechanism. I have some friends computer been corrupted even with anti-virus. This is worrisome for crypto investors, this is partly why people fear Cryptocurrency too many targeted attacks, when you are hacked or fund diverted, no central body to hold or complain to.

perla

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Not much use torrent, but since i know there are some virus that contained in something that we download in internet. I never download anything from internet even only picture and a MP3, i will use other computers and my computers which is clean only to open wallet.

CryptoBry

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As a non-technical guy, I am always afraid of anything that can destroy the many things I have done with cryptocurrency. As one of the many victims of phishing, I am always careful with the things that am downloading and using since I have no way to know for certain if there can be something harmful with it. The best takeaway here is always be cautious at all time as long as we are connected online as there will always be people who are using their technical expertise to victimize other people and take money from them. Good thing that there are also people who are good in finding out many shenanigans going around anywhere.

Artemis3

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Quote from: jointherevolution on January 18, 2019, 08:52:30 AM

I think I'm this day and age it is highly irresponsible to not have antivirus not only related to protecting your crypto but for the computer in general. So many threats get discovered every day by anti viruses, it is scary. And because of this, many new ways are created to scam people and infect them.

An antivirus is not going to protect you from so called 0 day exploits, (new malware), or targeted attacks (you attracted someone's attention); that is why using a secure OS should be your priority. I already gave a solid recommendation: Use Linux. That will reduce the number of threats significantly, and for truly sensitive stuff (ie cold wallets), booting a live iso should be practiced religiously (even if you are already running a linux desktop).

Torrent is simply a (decentralized, p2p) method for transferring files, what files you transfer is not the protocol's fault. Just because its a torrent doesn't mean anything. Many linux isos are distributed that way, you actually help offload servers by using that method instead of a simple download.

pooya87

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Torrent being a decentralized peer to peer network means there is no way of stopping what people share and for many years one of the things they spread this way has been malwares. with popularity of bitcoin growing, the number of attacks against its users will also grow but this is nothing new.

the thing about "tokenization" is not correct as far as i know, they are not tokenizing anything. it is just that Bram Cohen sold his company (bittorent) to Tron dudes. i am curious to see how will they do it though, i think around Summer we will see. but i still think it is a foolish idea to tokenize something that has been free for nearly 2 decades.

eaLiTy

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Quote from: NeuroticFish on January 18, 2019, 06:43:23 AM

Quote from: bL4nkcode on January 18, 2019, 06:11:53 AM

Malware Found on a Movie

I was very curious how can a movie file contain a malware.
I think the correct title would be something like "malware pretending it's a movie can be downloaded via torrent and can steal crypto; watch out for .lnk and other unexpected file extensions!"

The movie file might not contain the malware, but they can add extra incentives in the files you are downloading, downloading from public torrent sites always has the risk of getting compromised, never use your system to store important data and use it for downloading torrents or visiting non trusted sites, they can add a script in the subtitle or other files in the torrent and so on or a simple cookie attack.

bitart

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Quote from: joeperry on January 18, 2019, 08:46:15 AM

I'm using torrents not just to download movies but software as well and this is helpful for me since I'm not aware that there's that kind of virus the only virus I know that is connected to cryptocurrency is the ransomware wherein you're going to pay crypto in order to unlock your files, thanks for this valuable information.

May I ask for some suggestions for everyone? What are the things we should do in order to avoid this? or what kind of antivirus do you think is helpful to avoid this.

You can't avoid it 100%
Possible solution:
Create 2 folders (disks, PCs, etc...) one for the sensitive and important data (family photos, etc...), and the other for the rest (films, music, downloadable stuff). Backup the sensitive data folder regurarly onto an external HDD (once a week, month, depends on) and when a ransomware hijack your PC, you'll just erase the complete system, install a brand new and you can copy your sensitive data back from the backup, problem solved. You should not forget to use a proper antivirus of course, but antivirus is a prevention and this is a solution.
If you are paranoid enough, you can keep the backup HDD offsite, in a safebox, create copies and store it in differen places etc... you can decide how valuable the information you want to protect and what is the maximum effort you want to take to protect it.

bL4nkcode

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Quote from: Lucius on January 18, 2019, 09:25:32 AM

We already have an open thread : https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/fake-movie-file-infects-windows-and-steals-or-tricks-bitcoin-users-5097436

It is not true that this malware steals any crypto from user wallet, but instead it is inject bad code in some search engines, and even in Wikipedia. Users then see fake ads in which some popular sites ask for donation.

I really do not understand what is described in the article, downloading some file without check what is it all about. As far I know there should be option to check what is in the folder before download, and I bet that malware has not same size as HD movie. It's amazing how easy it is to fool people...

Oh I never saw that thread.

I'm not sure if the malware can't steal any crypto on the infected device as its mentioned in the article, and it can't be categories as crypto news if the news is not related to crypto, obviously. But about the bad code for some search engine and the wikipedia donation thing was mentioned.

Lucius

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We already have an open thread : https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/fake-movie-file-infects-windows-and-steals-or-tricks-bitcoin-users-5097436

It is not true that this malware steals any crypto from user wallet, but instead it is inject bad code in some search engines, and even in Wikipedia. Users then see fake ads in which some popular sites ask for donation.

I really do not understand what is described in the article, downloading some file without check what is it all about. As far I know there should be option to check what is in the folder before download, and I bet that malware has not same size as HD movie. It's amazing how easy it is to fool people...

McVillan

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Quote from: joeperry on January 18, 2019, 08:46:15 AM

I'm using torrents not just to download movies but software as well and this is helpful for me since I'm not aware that there's that kind of virus the only virus I know that is connected to cryptocurrency is the ransomware wherein you're going to pay crypto in order to unlock your files, thanks for this valuable information.

May I ask for some suggestions for everyone? What are the things we should do in order to avoid this? or what kind of antivirus do you think is helpful to avoid this.

2 x Linux machines (physically different hardware) + Air Gap + separate networks (or one in a DMZ for downloads)

jointherevolution

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I think I'm this day and age it is highly irresponsible to not have antivirus not only related to protecting your crypto but for the computer in general. So many threats get discovered every day by anti viruses, it is scary. And because of this, many new ways are created to scam people and infect them.

joeperry

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I'm using torrents not just to download movies but software as well and this is helpful for me since I'm not aware that there's that kind of virus the only virus I know that is connected to cryptocurrency is the ransomware wherein you're going to pay crypto in order to unlock your files, thanks for this valuable information.

May I ask for some suggestions for everyone? What are the things we should do in order to avoid this? or what kind of antivirus do you think is helpful to avoid this.

dothebeats

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So I guess don't place important files and your wallet on a machine that you use for torrents and download almost any file? Malware and adware are easy to avoid tbh, so long as you don't do anything stupid to a machine that you're using. I'm not an expert on cybersec and internet security but I'm proud that I haven't got a machine infected by any malware/virus for the last 10 years of me handling them. It's no surprise that these kind of malware are already being utilized to steal your crypto funds, so taking extra precaution IMO wouldn't really hurt.

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Quote from: NeuroticFish on January 18, 2019, 06:43:23 AM

I was very curious how can a movie file contain a malware.
I think the correct title would be something like "malware pretending it's a movie can be downloaded via torrent and can steal crypto; watch out for .lnk and other unexpected file extensions!"

Yeap. It was an .lnk. The article was just titled quite inaccurately. I'd be surprised if the movie actually contained the malware.

Images on the article: https://twitter.com/0xffff0800/status/1083585136833179648

NeuroticFish

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Quote from: bL4nkcode on January 18, 2019, 06:11:53 AM

Malware Found on a Movie

I was very curious how can a movie file contain a malware.
I think the correct title would be something like "malware pretending it's a movie can be downloaded via torrent and can steal crypto; watch out for .lnk and other unexpected file extensions!"

bL4nkcode

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Malware Found on a Movie Downloaded via Torrent Steals your Crypto and Poisons your Search Results
Source: https://ethereumworldnews.com/malware-found-on-a-movie-downloaded-via-torrent-steals-your-crypto-and-poisons-your-search-results/

I want to post this to press boards but I want more people to see this.
Though malware in a torrent file is not new after all, there are so many cases like this years ago but this time it's related to crypto. And since Bittorrent want to step forward to blockchain tech with TronxBitTorrent and I know still many people use torrent in file sharing and presume much larger number of people will be using this once it's tokenized, so do more culprits will get attach to this by uploading malware and more will be victimized as well.

So to those who are fond of using torrent please be careful and update your devices with anti-virus to protect yourself from this malware.

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