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Flaw in Popular μTorrent Software Lets Hackers Control Your PC Remotely

Flaw in Popular μTorrent Software Lets Hackers Control Your PC Remotely

Feb 26, 2018
If you have installed world's most popular torrent download software, μTorrent, then you should download its latest version for Windows as soon as possible. Google's security researcher at Project Zero discovered a serious remote code execution vulnerability in both the 'μTorrent desktop app for Windows' and newly launched 'μTorrent Web' that allows users to download and stream torrents directly into their web browser. μTorrent Classic and μTorrent Web apps run in the background on the Windows machine and start a locally hosted HTTP RPC server on ports 10000 and 19575, respectively, using which users can access its interfaces over any web browser. However, Project Zero researcher Tavis Ormandy found that several issues with these RPC servers could allow remote attackers to take control of the torrent download software with little user interaction. According to Ormandy, uTorrent apps are vulnerable to a hacking technique called the "domain name s
Flaw in Popular Transmission BitTorrent Client Lets Hackers Control Your PC Remotely

Flaw in Popular Transmission BitTorrent Client Lets Hackers Control Your PC Remotely

Jan 16, 2018
A critical vulnerability has been discovered in the widely used Transmission BitTorrent app that could allow hackers to remotely execute malicious code on BitTorrent users' computers and take control of them. The vulnerability has been uncovered by Google's Project Zero vulnerability reporting team, and one of its researchers Tavis Ormandy has also posted a proof-of-concept attack—just 40 days after the initial report. Usually, Project Zero team discloses vulnerabilities either after 90 days of reporting them to the affected vendors or until the vendor has released a patch. However, in this case, the Project Zero researchers disclosed the vulnerability 50 days prior to the actual time limit because Transmission developers failed to apply a ready-made patch provided by the researchers over a month ago. "I'm finding it frustrating that the transmission developers are not responding on their private security list, I suggested moving this into the open so that
Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Mar 21, 2024Operational Technology / SCADA Security
When you read reports about cyber-attacks affecting operational technology (OT), it's easy to get caught up in the hype and assume every single one is sophisticated. But are OT environments all over the world really besieged by a constant barrage of complex cyber-attacks? Answering that would require breaking down the different types of OT cyber-attacks and then looking back on all the historical attacks to see how those types compare.  The Types of OT Cyber-Attacks Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for improved cybersecurity practices in IT's lesser-known counterpart, OT. In fact, the lines of what constitutes a cyber-attack on OT have never been well defined, and if anything, they have further blurred over time. Therefore, we'd like to begin this post with a discussion around the ways in which cyber-attacks can either target or just simply impact OT, and why it might be important for us to make the distinction going forward. Figure 1 The Pu
The Pirate Bay Caught Running Browser-Based Cryptocurrency Miner

The Pirate Bay Caught Running Browser-Based Cryptocurrency Miner

Sep 19, 2017
The world's popular torrent download website, The Pirate Bay , has again been in a new controversy—this time over secretly planting an in-browser cryptocurrency miner on its website that utilizes its visitors' CPU processing power in order to mine digital currencies. The Pirate Bay is the most popular and most visited file-sharing website predominantly used to share copyrighted material free of charge. The site has usually been in the news for copyright infringement by movie studios, music producers and software creators. The Pirate Bay has recently been caught generating revenue by secretly utilizing CPU power of its millions of visitors to mine a Bitcoin alternative called Monero without their knowledge. The modern Internet depends on advertising revenue to survive, which apparently sometimes spoils users' experience. But The Pirate Bay is trying to choose a different approach. Visitors to the Pirate Bay recently discovered a JavaScript-based cryptocurrency mine
cyber security

Automated remediation solutions are crucial for security

websiteWing SecurityShadow IT / SaaS Security
Especially when it comes to securing employees' SaaS usage, don't settle for a longer to-do list. Auto-remediation is key to achieving SaaS security.
ISPs Should Block ‘The Pirate Bay’ Torrent Site: Top European Court Rules

ISPs Should Block 'The Pirate Bay' Torrent Site: Top European Court Rules

Jun 14, 2017
The Pirate Bay — a widely popular file-sharing website predominantly used to share copyrighted material free of charge — is once again in trouble, this time in Europe. The European Union Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled today that Dutch ISPs can block access to The Pirate Bay, as the Swedish file-hosting website facilitates an "act of communication" by allowing users to post and obtain torrents for pirated films, TV shows and music for free. Dutch anti-piracy group Stichting Brein (BREIN) in 2009 filed a case against local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) Ziggo and XS4ALL, and in 2012, the District Court of The Hague ruled that the ISPs must block users from accessing The Pirate Bay. However, Ziggo and XS4ALL, ISPs successfully overturned the decision two years later with the court ruling against BREIN and concluding that the blockade restricted the internet providers entrepreneurial freedoms. BREIN group then took the same case to the Supreme Court, who eventually r
ExtraTorrent, Popular Torrent Site, Permanently Shuts Down!

ExtraTorrent, Popular Torrent Site, Permanently Shuts Down!

May 18, 2017
After the shutdown of Kickass Torrents and Torrentz.eu , it's time for the torrent community to say goodbye to the second most popular torrent site in the world, ExtraTorrent. Yes, the popular torrent site ExtraTorrent has permanently shut down. So, stop searching for ' extratorrents unblock ' and ' extratorrents proxy ' websites. In a short but clear message on its homepage , the ExtraTorrent portal announced Wednesday that it has shut down for good, saying "farewell" to its millions of users. The ShutDown Message Reads: " ExtraTorrent has shut down permanently " "ExtraTorrent with all mirrors goes offline.. We permanently erase all data. Stay away from fake ExtraTorrent websites and clones. Thx to all ET supporters and torrent community. ET was a place to be...." The message does not mention the reason of shutdown of the torrent site but indicates that the popular torrent index will not return. Launched in November
Torrentz.eu Shuts Down Forever! End of Biggest Torrent Search Engine

Torrentz.eu Shuts Down Forever! End of Biggest Torrent Search Engine

Aug 05, 2016
Over two weeks after the shutdown of Kickass Torrents and arrest of its admin in Poland, the world's biggest BitTorrent meta-search engine Torrentz.eu has apparently shut down its operation. The surprise shutdown of Torrentz marks the end of an era. Torrentz.eu was a free, fast and powerful meta-search engine that hosted no torrents of its own, but combined results from dozens of other torrent search engine sites including The Pirate Bay ,  Kickass Torrents and ExtraTorrent. The meta-search engine has announced " farewell " to its millions of torrent users without much fanfare, suddenly ceasing its operation and disabling its search functionality. At the time of writing, the Torrentz.eu Web page is displaying a message that reads in the past tense: " Torrentz was a free, fast and powerful meta-search engine combining results from dozens of search engines. " When try to run any search or click any link on the site, the search engine refuses to show
Kickass Torrents — Domain Names Seized! Owner Arrested! Website Goes Down!

Kickass Torrents — Domain Names Seized! Owner Arrested! Website Goes Down!

Jul 21, 2016
The federal authorities have finally arrested the alleged mastermind behind the world's largest and most notorious BitTorrent distribution site Kickass Torrents (KAT) , the US Justice Department announced on Wednesday. After The Pirate Bay had suffered copyright infringement hardship, Kickass Torrents (KAT) became the biggest and most-used pirate site on the Internet, attracting millions of daily unique visitors. However, the site appears to be offline after its alleged owner Artem Vaulin , a 30-year-old Ukrainian national was apprehended in Poland today, and the US government has requested his extradition. Although some proxy sites seem to be currently up and running, its main site, https://kat.cr , appears to be down worldwide and most of the other Kickass Torrents domains, including kickasstorrents.com, kastatic.com, thekat.tv, kat.cr, kickass.cr, kickass.to, kat.ph, have been seized by the authorities. Charges Filed Against Kickass Torrents Owner According to cri
The Pirate Bay Founder Ordered to Pay $395,000 Fine in Lawsuit he didn't even know about

The Pirate Bay Founder Ordered to Pay $395,000 Fine in Lawsuit he didn't even know about

Jun 17, 2016
One of the founders of notorious file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has been ordered to pay a fine worth nearly US$400,000 to several major record labels after their content was shared illegally via the platform. The penalty has been imposed on The Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde by a court in Helsinki, Finland. Interestingly, Sunde, who already left the notorious file sharing site in 2009, said on Twitter that he lost the court case he did not even know about. The court case was brought by the Finnish divisions of Sony Music, Universal Music, Warner Music and EMI, accusing the Pirate Bay of illegally sharing the music of 60 of their artists through its service. The artists mentioned in the brief included " Juha Tapio, Teräsniska, Chisu, Deniece Williams, Suvi Vesa-Matti Loiri, Michael Monroe, Anna Abreau, Antti Tuisku, and Children of Bodom, " according to the local outlet Digitoday . However, the recording division did not accuse Sunde of direct infringeme
BitTorrent Forum Hacked; Change your Password Immediately

BitTorrent Forum Hacked; Change your Password Immediately

Jun 08, 2016
If you are a torrent lover and have registered on  BitTorrent community forum website, then you may have had your personal details compromised, along with your hashed passwords. The BitTorrent team has announced that its community forums have been hacked, which exposed private information of hundreds of thousands of its users. As of now, BitTorrent is the most visited torrent client around the world with more than 150 Million monthly active users. Besides this, BitTorrent also has a dedicated community forum that has over hundreds of thousands of registered members with tens of thousands of daily visitors. A recent security alert by the team says the forum database has been compromised by hackers who were able to get their hands on its users' passwords, warning its users to update their passwords as soon as possible. The vulnerability is believed to be originated at one of its vendors, who alerted the BitTorrent team about the issue earlier this week. "The vulnera
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