The irony is that by adding these 82 pirate sites to the hosts file and having this action publicized, the malware writers are inadvertently promoting a list of 82 sites where users can download pirated software.
Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them
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Re: Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them
#22The main take away I get from this is ..a list of torrent sites.
All of them are honeypots nowadays though
Re: Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them
#23Anyone has the list of sites blocked by Vigilante? For research purposes.
Re: Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them
#24Are people still pirating software? Apart from kids trying out software, people from countries where the product is not officially available or is exhorbitantly priced as compared to their purchasing power, I doubt there is a reason to pirate. Most tools have alternatives available or an easy on the pocket subscription plan (Adobe is an exception, subscription plans should not come with a lock-in, no matter how you j…
> or is exhorbitantly priced as compared to their purchasing power, I doubt there is a reason to pirate.
I don't think it's an overstatement to say that hundreds of millions of people can't afford an 80 EUR/USD game.
Re: Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them
#25Calling it "Vigilante" is a stretch.
Re: Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them
#26>Padding it out with racist slurs told me all I needed to know about its creator. Clearly that is the intent. These companies have no shame. Remember Sony's response to their rootkit being discovered? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_roo...
> These companies have no shame.
Do you think this was backed by companies? It seems reasonable to suspect it, but it’s a issue radioactive now so won’t be easy to find out.
Re: Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them
#27lmfao. Imagine being good enough to code malware that does this and wasting your efforts on something like this. Look, if you have skills like these, you're special. Don't fucking waste it on building malware for corporate asshats.
It doesn't sound like particulary clever malware to me. It sends a filename to some logging service, then opens the windows hosts file and adds some lines to it. And it's only run because the downloader thinks it's some pirated software or keygen. Not to say there aren't some folks wasting time on more clever malware.
This is definitely no Stuxnet or even remotely close. In fact, it's not even a very new strategy, themes of this have been done several times to varying degrees of sophistication.
Re: Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them
#28Its bamboozling that in this new age of 'deplatforming', that video and game entertainment companies have not pushed ISPs, nations, or tech companies harder to deplatform torrent sites. It would yield pretty major benefits for minor effort. Its also strange that people are willing to spend $thousands on a gaming PC, and then risk their entire device to malware just to save a couple bucks on games.
Saving money is not the only reason to pirate content.
Some things aren’t available in my region and never will be (as they are 20+ years old).
Some things are presented via a crap app, in dubious formats or with truely horrible DRM. I pirate plenty of shows that I have legal access to or own.
Re: Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them
#29The irony is that by adding these 82 pirate sites to the hosts file and having this action publicized, the malware writers are inadvertently promoting a list of 82 sites where users can download pirated software. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
I would take that as a list of 82 sites to avoid when looking for pirated software.
Re: Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them
#30Are people still pirating software? Apart from kids trying out software, people from countries where the product is not officially available or is exhorbitantly priced as compared to their purchasing power, I doubt there is a reason to pirate. Most tools have alternatives available or an easy on the pocket subscription plan (Adobe is an exception, subscription plans should not come with a lock-in, no matter how you j…
I pirate everything. Honestly, the only things I don't pirate are like 1-2 games a year that me and some friends end up playing together. For software I generally just run whatever FOSS thing I can find, and in the case of movies and music I have never spent a cent on them in my life. I've been pirating since I started using a computer.
The same rich people trying to sell predatory subscriptions and vendor lock-in are the same ones trying to raise my rent and food bill every year, so I have no incentive to give them money for pointless entertainment on top of that.