However, the threat posed by torrents extends beyond these clients. macOS malware called OSX/Keydnap, spread using yet another hijacked version of the Transmission software – planting a permanent backdoor in infected devices and stealing credentials stored in the Keychain app.Īgain, the official team of the BitTorrent client was fast to react and removed the trojanized app from the website within minutes after being notified by ESET researchers. What is worse, KeRanger’s creators used a cryptographic algorithm that was effectively unbreakable, rendering victims’ data inaccessible.Īnother case following the same path occurred in August 2016. Despite the quick reaction of Transmission’s developers, who removed the trojanized version of the app only a few hours after it appeared on the official website, it still hit thousands of victims worldwide. The first attack was documented in March 2016, downloading ransomware known as KeRanger. This has been observed in the past year when attackers targeted macOS users by hijacking a version of Transmission app, a legitimate and widely used BitTorrent client and then used it to spread nasty malware families. Since the beginning of 2016, ESET telemetry has detected almost 15 million cases in which downloaded malicious code was linked to one of the most popular P2P clients or file sharing services.Īnd it is not just torrents that can be misused by black-hats, but occasionally even the BitTorrent clients themselves – software necessary for any user who wants to download or seed files from this ecosystem.
However, the popularity of torrents among users makes them also into an attractive vector for black-hats.
Operating systems and open-source software leverage this technology to spread their new versions gamers might know them as their update stream some musicians even embraced the ecosystem and use it to get their music out to their listeners. Torrents have many legitimate uses, in various segments. This blogpost didn’t intend to denounce the technology as such. Update, Aug 7 – 14.50 CEST: We updated the article to acknowledge the many legitimate uses of the torrent technology as well as provide our telemetry data to show how frequently black-hats try to misuse the P2P ecosystem to spread their malicious products.
However, their popularity among users makes them also into an attractive vector for black-hats.
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