I’m seeing thepiratebay org is discouraged because it has lots of viruses due to lack of moderation. I was wondering how could an mp4 or an mkv etc. could be harmful? Are people talking about executable stuff?
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yes, it’s mostly things like games or software
though, I have seen more & more reports of people finding malicious disguised LNK files in their downloads and torrents, which will run some arbitrary command if you open that: Windows does not ever show the LNK extension, so a file could be named “<whatever>.mkv.lnk”, and you would only know if you checked the “file type” column in Explorer (which would read “Shortcut” instead of something like “Matryoshka file”), or when you see the cmd.exe window flicker open and close.
bonus edit: LNK is the native file extension that Windows uses to link app shortcuts, such as the shortcuts on your desktop.
Aah okay, thanks. Yeah, I’m on Linux already and only ever view files from a client that only shows media files. I’ve found some more recommended alternatives and will use them going forward. I was just looking to see if I should delete the stuff I had from tpb but doesn’t seem necessary.
Link files will show the .lnk extension on Linux and it should be obvious from the icon that it’s not a video file. If you have wine installed, then double clicking one will run it and malware can still cause problems when run in wine.
If your torrent client has the option to run a script or command when a download completes, you could have it delete all .lnk files in the download directory. Something like
find /path/to/my/download/directory -type f -iname "*.lnk" -deletewould work.It should also be obvious in your torrent client as it will be listed there with the full file name.
Not showing suffix on a file browser is just stupid…
Yes, thank god windows has turned it off by default these days… /s
I have literally never downloaded pirated software since OS 9 went away and OS X became a thing. Open up your task manager and look at how many processes there are (Window, Mac or Linux) and ask yourself if you’re going to notice the one extra process that is out of place.
As for files with extra extensions, this is why you should always set Explorer/Finder/whatever to show all file extensions the very first thing, regardless of what OS you’re running too.
That’s why you should scan every torrent download before opening the files.
TPB is fine if you’re cautious and just download video/audio. I’m in a bunch of private trackers but still use it occasionally since it can have old and obscure stuff occasionally since the site is so old.
Yup. There are some extensions and/or scripts that should help a bit, but you are always your best anti-virus. I only go if I absolutely have to, but occasionally it is the only place to find older shows and things
Ideally, a .mp4, or any other non-executable file format, would not be able to execute rogue code on your computer, but the programs you use to open the files with might have security flaws which allow rogue code execution if done right.
You might have a hypothetical file, which might not be dangerous if opened with VLC, but which exploits a flaw in, say, Windows Media Player version x.y.z to execute a payload.
Sorry, for not including any examples, I’m currently not at the PC.
mkv is just an archive containing whatever files. Not sure but some could contain code
Have a look at Dangerzone to strip code from tons of files. Videos not included afaik
mkv is not a file archive format.
It’s a media container format. Like mp4.
Both can include [file] resources, but that’s different from a file archive having and extracting to files.
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I think the piratebay is fine. I haven’t seen anything mal on piratebay in years, and I think the last mal download I saw then was a basic the video itself is the text “go to http://malware.ru/payload/virus to download the codec for this totally legit file” not like, state actor polymorphic virus shit. For an mkv/mp4 itself to actually do anything, it would need to memory overflow the player (which could be mitigated in several ways) and that’s a heavy engineering lift to use to do much on a modern OS (and would be specific to one OS/version/hardware situation). A criminal organization or state actor bothering to develop something like that isn’t going to put it on piratebay to be downloaded by 10000 randos globally, they’d put it on the public web, or target it to specific high value targets.
It’s usually fine, but I download new TV shows automatically and I got a .exe instead of the new Frasier. I don’t think I’ll be downloading an actual .exe from TPB in the future lol
I find TPB is best for old music, and one off random old things, – new TV, I recommend just always waiting for season packs on sites that offer full season packs and just living a few months behind. Must see GoT-style water cooler TV is mostly dead anyway.
Only problems I’ve ever had on TPB were not finding things that I could find on other sites. Then again, I don’t use Windows for either downloading or media consumption, I check torrent file lists as I’m downloading to make sure I’m not downloading anything suspect, and I’ve so far managed to catch wind of things like certain trusted uploaders getting hacked, spoofed, or just plain trying to cash-in, in-time to avoid getting worked over.
Those same users post to most of the other public sites as well, so I’m not getting where TPB is somehow particularly un-trustworthy. IME, other public sites seem to have MANY more torrents for a given search, often by orders of magnitude, so which one is really less moderated?
The REAL encouraged/discouraged is Private vs Public sites and trackers, and I’m not pretending that for all my caveats I haven’t been just plain lucky. If you download regularly at all, Private is the way to go.
