this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
1105 points (92.6% liked)

Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

55064 readers
242 users here now

⚓ Dedicated to the discussion of digital piracy, including ethical problems and legal advancements.

Rules • Full Version

1. Posts must be related to the discussion of digital piracy

2. Don't request invites, trade, sell, or self-promote

3. Don't request or link to specific pirated titles, including DMs

4. Don't submit low-quality posts, be entitled, or harass others



Loot, Pillage, & Plunder

📜 c/Piracy Wiki (Community Edition):


💰 Please help cover server costs.

Ko-Fi Liberapay
Ko-fi Liberapay

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's one torrent that's not safe. That doesn't make the entirety of the website unsafe!

[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 year ago

If the admins endorse malware, it's best to assume the entire site is compromised.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If the admin are in cahoots with the crypto mining douchebag, then no part of the site is safe.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

what evidence is there that this is the case?

edit: oh, I see. that’s… pretty damning!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

1337x mod response on Reddit, seemingly confirming the existence of the torrent: https://i.imgur.com/ij4CXIm.png

They appear to be implying that it was only checked, verified to be malware and deleted... after the listing was vigorously defended by mods and users complaining that it was malware were banned. Very odd.

EDIT: Found an archived copy of the listing before it was taken down by 1337x mods. Includes some comments (up to yesterday).

https://web.archive.org/web/20230805153327/https://www.1337x.to/torrent/5753101/Baldurs-Gate-3-GOG-Digital-Deluxe-Edition-Multi13-Baldur-s/

User comments provide proof that malware was uploaded (and 1337x mods themselves admitted it was malware in the Reddit response), yet VitaminX remains unaffected on the site: https://1337x.to/user/VitaminX/


There are preserved comments from the 1337x mods, such as:

Ex0duS5150: the next user posting, "Trojan found" is getting the ban hammer. Stop it with the n00bishness. this torrent is not dirty if you dont know what your doing stop DLing torrents.

reply:

IGGGAMESCOM: @Ex0duS5150: thank you so much for this reassurance buddy, now I can breathe a sigh of relief instead of having to "fight" with those guys, lol.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

TBF, it’s more likely just overconfidence/incompetence. Cracks are OFTEN flagged by AV, and it’s usually nothing malicious. The guys at 1337x aren’t dumb enough to think a crypto miner wouldn’t be found pretty quickly.

Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Maybe, it's definitely a possibility. What's weird is the original uploader (https://1337x.to/user/VitaminX/) remains unaffected and users were reporting this up to 3 days before it was taken down with very compelling evidence - the miner was barely hidden and only when it blew up on Reddit was any action taken.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

yikes! what assholes!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can you link the preserved comments or give a screenshot or archive or something?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Absolutely. It took a bit of digging, but I found an archive with some of the comments: https://web.archive.org/web/20230805153327/https://www.1337x.to/torrent/5753101/Baldurs-Gate-3-GOG-Digital-Deluxe-Edition-Multi13-Baldur-s/

It only goes up to yesterday, so some of the recent comments (especially from mods) are missing - but this should provide sufficient evidence. Mods' combative and defensive comments from today were widely viewed (just look at Reddit), their authenticity is not under question. That being said, comments from Ex0duS5150 are present, proving mods were aware of the listing early on.

User comments provide proof that malware was uploaded (and 1337x mods themselves admitted it was malware in the Reddit response), yet VitaminX remains unaffected on the site: https://1337x.to/user/VitaminX/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

That mod is definitely the same guy posting on reddit as his complaint is literally almost word for word identical on both comments.