Malware on peer 2 peer


I have read on a few articles by tiversa and the ftc about issues with malware on peer 2 peer networks. I know malware is lurking on these networks. But there is a particular malware that concerns me. There is this malware that when you download a song it could be embedded that will change your settings in the p2p share folder. Making your computer personal files available in the p2p share folder making them all available to the whole world. Is this likely to happen. I talked to a tech and they said it was just an experiment and it didn't work very well. 

13 replies

Userlevel 7
Hi Trailblazer
 
Welcome to the Community Forums.
 
Well that is quite a specialised question and therefore I would recommend that we get the Professionals into answer this one...perhaps ? would be able to provide an insight/view on this one?
 
Regards, Baldrick
Userlevel 7
Badge +35
I would simply suggest being careful with what you download from P2P networks. Malware is often placed on P2P networks to make inexperinced users think they are downloading audio files or packaged in archives along with audio files - I'm guessing that is what you're thinking of.
 
-Dan
Userlevel 7
Cheers, Dan...your input is always welcome and much appreeciated. :D
 
Baldrick
Well I'll give you the link to the article. It says malware is designed to change the files you are sharing to share personal files. Isn't their more advanced malware where the hacker would have back door access not to the whole
World.

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0016-p2p-file-sharing-risks
Userlevel 7
Really, the answer above applies perfectly.
 
Have good anti-malware (Check: we have WSA), make sure you do what you can to limit access to certain folders and be very careful what and who you download from.  The very same principles of files from anywhere: email, facebook, etc etc etc.   The very suggestions that article puts forth are the same as presented above. 
I don't use it anymore I'm talking about before back in 2010 or so. I know precautions to take I wasn't asking about the precautions lol. I was asking if that malware existed or anyone that knew
Userlevel 7
Of course it does, as far as I would say.  There has LONG been malware that can give a remote user control of your system with admin rights.  Just by that, the folder permissions can also be changed.
Ok so if the hacker already had access why would they share everything with the whole network
The link said the malware was designed to do the changing of the p2p settings not the hacker. So it would have to be a very complex code. The tech I talked to said about 3 percent of users got infected and less than 3 percent it was successful. And code writers learned that it wasn't very effective. But I was getting other opinions if anyone ran across this.
Userlevel 7
@ wrote:
I don't use it anymore I'm talking about before back in 2010 or so. I know precautions to take I wasn't asking about the precautions lol. I was asking if that malware existed or anyone that knew
You asked if it existed.  It does.  As to the WHY, that would depend on the specific hacker using it and what thier desired ends were.  I have heard of them using hijacked systems to act as servers for bootleg software or media files for example.
 
Why open all folders for that use?  Simple.. the owner of the target computer would notice extra files being added to their shared folders, but they might not notice a new folder hidden within C:Windowsewfolder and the files located in there.
I see what your saying what would be inside that folder? The whole user hardrive or what
Userlevel 7
@ wrote:
You asked if it existed.  It does.  As to the WHY, that would depend on the specific hacker using it and what thier desired ends were.  I have heard of them using hijacked systems to act as servers for bootleg software or media files for example.
 
Why open all folders for that use?  Simple.. the owner of the target computer would notice extra files being added to their shared folders, but they might not notice a new folder hidden within C:Windowsewfolder and the files located in there.
 
Would that show up in the library in the p2p? The files they stole. How common was this

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