Basically I want to download a serie in a specific language and absolutely nowhere I can find it and recently I saw that the serie is available in the language I want in The Pirate’s Bay but I know the bad reputation of the site and I have never used it.
I ask if it can be considered “safe” in quotes because at least in this specific case the files are not executable, they are only .mkv and in fact I don’t even plan to play them on my PC, I plan to play them on a computer I use as a media center that has no internet access (and it’s Linux). And although this setup should be considered “safe” enough, the question itself makes me curious.
In the torrent there is only the chapters of the serie and nothing else, or so it seems, I would analyze the files in VirusTotal before playing them but each chapter weighs more than 1GB (they are in 1080p and last more than 40 minutes) and VirusTotal does not allow to upload files of a certain weight.
I am sorry for the generic question about a site with a bad reputation, but although according to my knowledge everything should be fine, there are always things that one does not consider or go unnoticed due to ignorance or lack of knowledge.
There’s no such thing as safe safe. While unlikely, even media/data files could contain exploits. They’d need to target specific issues in specific software, but that happens all the time.
WinRAR had a recent high publicity mistake earlier, where a “specially crafted” archive can make executables seem like other files so it’s easy to accidentally run them. Big no.
I also recently saw an (old) exploit analysis: some Linux thing got wrecked specifically because of vulnerabilities in a media player/codec - in fact opening the folder was enough to trigger the exploit, which could give someone unrestricted access to your system. Very, very big no.
Back in the day, I think Windows Media Player had some idiotic license download thing that was also used as an attack vector.
Basically: executables are just a slam dunk malware delivery vector. Media files are safer in general but not safe.
Fortunately I live in a country where they don’t care about piracy, but maybe I misspelled the question, I meant “sure” it can’t contain some kind of virus.
And I guess you won the lawsuit? On Reddit I remember that people would commonly say they got those law suits but people would always suggest “don’t do anything about it because they were just warnings”.
Yeah, “don’t do anything” is horribly advice, at least in Germany.
I managed to avoid the lawsuit by showing the lawyers who wanted to fleece me that I had legal representation and collected enough evidence in my favor to make it difficult.
All they had was a file and an IP address.
It was a back-and-forth of letters between me, them and the court, which eventually refused to formally open a trial.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a complete iso, but a part of the “Linux ISO” is enough. Since your still helping others complete their “ISO” illegally.
Yes, I hired a lawyer for consultation.
Since I was very poor at the time, I could get the cost for it reimbursed from the state, after laying bare my finances in front of a judge.
As for the seriousness, the legal firm moving against me had opened a case before a court in Munich (500km from where I lived) and I had to plead my case in writing to the court.
Next step after a lot of legalese back and forth would have been a summons before the court in person, which didn’t happen. The letters just stopped.
In the end, I paid 60€ for fees and postage. They had wanted me to pay 2000€ to settle and my lawyer told me if it goes before a judge, worst probable outcome would have been 600€ in court and lawyer fees.
Yes it’s inexcusable in my opinion that they want over 1000€ for a single movie. 600€ is still a lot of money but asking so much more than the “damage” is obviously worth is just…
I heard of some people who actually paid the fine they were asked for, since they didn’t know better (it wasn’t them but an exchange student from a country where torrenting media isn’t an issue, or so they said).
If it’s for multimedia content, it’s safe, I guess. I have been downloading movies and series from that page for 5 years, and I have never had any security problems.
Good to know! I know it’s stupid and not at all the case, but I had read about a virus that ran on an old version of Windows when you open a file because Windows needed to compile the file to open it and the exploit took advantage of a vulnerability in that compiler to rescale to admin permissions, and I think about that when downloaded this serie.
I only recently stopped using it. And a lot of content on the internet, expecially ones for download use rar part files to split it up and host freely.
It has to be executed to have any danger, so you’d need a zero day exploit for your media player, even then it should be contained at user level rather than system. I’ve not really heard of it happening, but it’s theoretically possible I guess, would take a really bad coding mistake. Keep your players updated and you should be fine.
Any media can contain exploits, for the most part if you stick to reputable uploaders you should do alright but it’s essentially an unavoidable problem. Keep your media player up to date
You can check justwatch.com to see if it’s available anywhere for streaming or purchase. I dunno how they do it but they’re amazing at tracking this sort of thing.
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There’s no such thing as safe safe. While unlikely, even media/data files could contain exploits. They’d need to target specific issues in specific software, but that happens all the time.
WinRAR had a recent high publicity mistake earlier, where a “specially crafted” archive can make executables seem like other files so it’s easy to accidentally run them. Big no.
I also recently saw an (old) exploit analysis: some Linux thing got wrecked specifically because of vulnerabilities in a media player/codec - in fact opening the folder was enough to trigger the exploit, which could give someone unrestricted access to your system. Very, very big no.
Back in the day, I think Windows Media Player had some idiotic license download thing that was also used as an attack vector.
Basically: executables are just a slam dunk malware delivery vector. Media files are safer in general but not safe.
The data will be safe to play on a linux box.
Whether you’ll be safe depends on where you live and whether you have a VPN in a different country.
I had to fight off a law suit for over 2 years over a single movie
I torrentedsomeone on my network allegedly torrented from Piratebay (Germany).Fortunately I live in a country where they don’t care about piracy, but maybe I misspelled the question, I meant “sure” it can’t contain some kind of virus.
And I guess you won the lawsuit? On Reddit I remember that people would commonly say they got those law suits but people would always suggest “don’t do anything about it because they were just warnings”.
Yeah, “don’t do anything” is horribly advice, at least in Germany.
I managed to avoid the lawsuit by showing the lawyers who wanted to fleece me that I had legal representation and collected enough evidence in my favor to make it difficult.
All they had was a file and an IP address.
It was a back-and-forth of letters between me, them and the court, which eventually refused to formally open a trial.
Any more advice for a fellow torrenter in Germany regarding linux isos (hey lawyer ;))
Using a seedbox from abroad to avoid local downloads.
The way they catch you is by downloading a complete “Linux ISO” you seeded. Their log from that download shows your IP and that’s the evidence.
So either don’t seed a complete “ISO”, or use a VPN from a provider that will laugh at info requests from German lawyers.
Safest way is to make sure you only torrent Linux ISOs that can be legally shared according to their copyright license, of course ;)
Well already using a seedbox located abroad.
I will just hope it won’t be linked back to me lol :p
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a complete iso, but a part of the “Linux ISO” is enough. Since your still helping others complete their “ISO” illegally.
deleted by creator
How serious was it and did you hire a lawyer for that?
Yes, I hired a lawyer for consultation.
Since I was very poor at the time, I could get the cost for it reimbursed from the state, after laying bare my finances in front of a judge.
As for the seriousness, the legal firm moving against me had opened a case before a court in Munich (500km from where I lived) and I had to plead my case in writing to the court.
Next step after a lot of legalese back and forth would have been a summons before the court in person, which didn’t happen. The letters just stopped.
In the end, I paid 60€ for fees and postage. They had wanted me to pay 2000€ to settle and my lawyer told me if it goes before a judge, worst probable outcome would have been 600€ in court and lawyer fees.
Yes it’s inexcusable in my opinion that they want over 1000€ for a single movie. 600€ is still a lot of money but asking so much more than the “damage” is obviously worth is just…
I heard of some people who actually paid the fine they were asked for, since they didn’t know better (it wasn’t them but an exchange student from a country where torrenting media isn’t an issue, or so they said).
If it’s for multimedia content, it’s safe, I guess. I have been downloading movies and series from that page for 5 years, and I have never had any security problems.
Good to know! I know it’s stupid and not at all the case, but I had read about a virus that ran on an old version of Windows when you open a file because Windows needed to compile the file to open it and the exploit took advantage of a vulnerability in that compiler to rescale to admin permissions, and I think about that when downloaded this serie.
You can hide malware in EXIF metadata.
Just let common sense and be always aware of abnormal device behavior.
There has also been a number of malwares targeted at codec decoders, VLC was at one time a big target, not sure that is true now a days though
Not necessarily. For example, I know RAR is a bit out of style, but WinRAR just this week had some articles about malware lurking in otherwise non-executable files
There is no such thing as ‘safe’ user-generated content, only a spectrum of more or less safe content.
Who the actual fuck still uses winrar?
Enough people that the dude is still actively supporting and updating it for new OS versions. The RAR is unkillable.
I only recently stopped using it. And a lot of content on the internet, expecially ones for download use rar part files to split it up and host freely.
You can just use 7zip tho
It has to be executed to have any danger, so you’d need a zero day exploit for your media player, even then it should be contained at user level rather than system. I’ve not really heard of it happening, but it’s theoretically possible I guess, would take a really bad coding mistake. Keep your players updated and you should be fine.
If you are a bit paranoid download it into a safe box and re-encode the file.
Any media can contain exploits, for the most part if you stick to reputable uploaders you should do alright but it’s essentially an unavoidable problem. Keep your media player up to date
You can check justwatch.com to see if it’s available anywhere for streaming or purchase. I dunno how they do it but they’re amazing at tracking this sort of thing.
Since it’s a Linux box, you could try to sandbox your player with Firejail or a Flatpak + Flatseal. Just for a little bit of extra peace of mind.
I think you mean “The Pirate Bay”?