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What lunacy.

The standard bt clients are open source and do not have any spyware/malware - and the files downloaded are data files. I've not heard of viruses/trojans being able to hide in a Matroska Video Stream.

resedit wrote:

What lunacy.

The standard bt clients are open source and do not have any spyware/malware - and the files downloaded are data files. I've not heard of viruses/trojans being able to hide in a Matroska Video Stream.

Um, there is a tremendous amount of virus/trojan ridden stuff out there. Video files that ask for "Codec packs", executable cracks with viruses, etc. Most of it is caught be a decent virus scanner, but this is where the new crap gets released - good and bad.

Fortunately, unless you want something immediately, those files are marked fairly rapidly, and tend to fall off the radar fast. The good files, that have been independently qualified, also tend to have the highest download rates, and the most peers.

Like most things, life's hard. Life's harder if you're stupid. (John Wayne)

resedit wrote:

Playing data files in standard media player is not.

Not true... Default setting for Windows media player is to automatically go get codecs which can contain harmful code.
All you have to do is open the file and boom your infected. Gotta love XP

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291818

indicates you have to set up WMP to auto fetch codecs.
That's also my experience.

It also looks like it downloads them from MS - not any old untrusted source.

Last edited by resedit (2009-10-13 1:06 pm)

Bren wrote:

It's not unheard of for cracked software on public torrent sites to contain viruses, and there are plenty of movie file uploads out there that try to trick newbies into thinking they need to install some special, proprietary codec or video player, which just happens to secretly come with malware at no additional cost.

So the comic's basic premise is sound, in that downloading pirated stuff is, in fact, riskier than not doing so.
.

Abstaining is the only 100% sure way to protect yourself from a virus.

mrreet2001 wrote:

resedit wrote:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291818

indicates you have to set up WMP to auto fetch codecs.
That's also my experience.

No it tells you how to change the setting.


....
Walks over to a computer with WMP 11 ...
Logs on with a new user ....
launches WMP11

It goes though it's initial settings and agreements...

chooses the default / recommended options
....
now WMP11 is open
... Checks settings

Hmmm "Download codecs automatically" is checked.

But those codecs come from Microsoft approved source.
I think you are confusing the pluginspace attribute sometimes used with the netscape embed browser tag that instructs the web page where it can download a browser plugin to handle embedded media.

That has nothing to do with windows media player, which does not get it's plugins from the media or web page.

videos downloaded via kazaa

That's your problem right there. I'd mention better alternatives, but I think that's against the rules, and my favorite one is offline right now anyway.

True, but when you're using the right private torrent-tracking site, you're not likely to get that file in the first place, 'cause crap like that is flagged and removed rather quickly.

mrreet2001 wrote:

I havent' used a P2P in years so once again the medium is really moot. I was just pointing out a security flaw in WMP/xp

You can tighten up both, but most people don't.

1) Most people haven't heard of VM's - ignorant. If you really want to protect your box, run your P2P app from within a VM - and make sure you take a snapshot BEFORE you begin, so you can back out any evil changes. Jeez folks, VMware is free. Use it.
2) The default account runs with admin privileges - dumb. Run as guest while searching for files. This is true even if you are running in a VM, as you get messages from the guest OS. This generally only helps with stupid trojans, but it's a good practice anyway.
3) Most systems don't come with decent anti-virus - stupid. While not perfect, there are some good, free AV packages that will protect you from 99% of the evil crap out there. Yes, running it in a VM slows the VM down. Remember, you aren't WORKING in this VM, you are downloading in this VM. It only has to run fast enough to get your files.
4) People who do run VM's often transfer files before they are sure they are safe - retarded. The whole point of a quarantine is to verify non-infection. Otherwise, you've just added more steps to your download. Make sure you have used the file in every way possible BEFORE transferring it to the host. For media files, this means playing the file. For executables, this means running them in the guest.

For data files, once you have verified that the file, and its codecs, are legit, it's safe to transfer and archive.

If you are downloading exe's, you might consider running them with an Admin account INSIDE THE VM first. Some of this crap is smart enough to probe for permissions before attempting to "pwn your box". They may remain quiet in a guest account.

Lastly, for cracks, it's often better to move the executable you want to crack to the VM, crack it, and then move it back out - so the crack program never leaves the VM. This stuff is already potentially dodgy. Treat it like you would a glass tube of nitroglycerin.

I've heard OS X is also pretty secure.

I think the issue is the torrent client.

I use transmission for gui and the python client for cli.

They don't do the nasty spyware things that many of the crap windows P2P clients do. They get the data file, period.
I don't find exotic codecs on multimedia served by bt - I find divx for standard definition and h.264+ac3 for high def.

I'm actually not using it that much anymore, much of what I'm interested in is free via On Demand, and doesn't have the crap artifacts and audio sync problems from the encoding noobs who use some crap encoder and try to be first to publish instead of taking their time doing a quality two-pass encoding and viewing the file before they upload.

resedit wrote:

I think the issue is the torrent client.

I use transmission for gui and the python client for cli.

They don't do the nasty spyware things that many of the crap windows P2P clients do. They get the data file, period.
I don't find exotic codecs on multimedia served by bt - I find divx for standard definition and h.264+ac3 for high def.

I'm actually not using it that much anymore, much of what I'm interested in is free via On Demand, and doesn't have the crap artifacts and audio sync problems from the encoding noobs who use some crap encoder and try to be first to publish instead of taking their time doing a quality two-pass encoding and viewing the file before they upload.

The problem with torrents is that the quality ranges from pure crap to gold, only it follows the rule of 90% of everything being crap. Unless you are on a private tracker, the odds of getting what you want is pretty close to 10% or less.

That said, I find I don't have a reason to use trackers much, anymore. Hulu serves as a handy stand-in when I miss an episode of most things - since catching up on missed ep's was about the only reason I was using them.