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?

  • helpimnotdrowning@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
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    1 month ago

    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.

    • Quail4789@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      0·
      1 month ago

      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.

      • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
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        1 month ago

        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" -delete would work.

        • CmdrShepard42@lemm.eeEnglish
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          1 month ago

          It should also be obvious in your torrent client as it will be listed there with the full file name.

    • heavyboots@lemmy.mlEnglish
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      1 month ago

      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.