There are some torrrents showing up with .lnkextension (ex: movie.mp3.lnk, tvshow.mkv.lnk…) and automated software (Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, qBittorrent RSS Downloader) could pick those torrents (but not import).
These (fake) torrents include a .lnk file that executes a script on your Windows
HOW TO exclude from download on qBittorrent.
-
Go to Options -> Downloads
-
Enable “Exclude file names”
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Add patterns:
(one by line)
*.mp4.lnk
*.mp3.lnk
*.mkv.lnk
*.torrent.lnk
*.zipx
*.scr
Or exclude all together: *.lnk
Example on VirusTotal https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/e74f64df6ebaf3a1b6e3f42591eb6e87d2ac2828eb5a99fd8d3d82c140137fc9/detection
Probably this will help as well at the arr end: https://forums.sonarr.tv/t/automatic-blacklist-malware/37822
thanks Microsoft for hiding extensions by default!
Yes, but also whoever set the defaults for the *arr tools. Why would any filename with extra shit past the extensions you’re looking for be considered an acceptable result?
Tack $ on the end of your regex, for fucks sake.
Is not regex
https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/pull/17106Examples
*.exe: filter ‘.exe’ file extension.
readme.txt: filter exact file name.
?.txt: filter ‘a.txt’, ‘b.txt’ but not ‘aa.txt’.
readme[0-9].txt: filter ‘readme1.txt’, ‘readme2.txt’ but not ‘readme10.txt’
Microsoft: De nada, amigo! Oh… here’s an ad, btw… and…did you enable Recall already?
or rather: oh silly you were so clumsy that you disabled recall by accident again. let us be so kind to re-enable it for you
For those interested, John Hammond did a video a few months ago about
.lnkextension (and other 16 hidden extensions on Windows).He doesn’t go to much or to deep into the subject, but you get a general view how this could be exploitable.
that executes a script on your Windows.
I don’t have a Windows.
Then just draw on your wall.
I use Arch btw
Me too, but don’t want to download GBs of malware and bandwidth
Weak.
Harbor disaster. Seed the malware. Spread the fruits of chaos amongst the unworthy. Be complicit in their downfall. Feed on their agony ^^/s.lnk files are less than 4kb
That would seem suspicious. I’m sure they have some way to pad out the size.
Anyone paying attention to size would probably also notice they’re just .lnk files.
Not necessarily. Even with “hide extensions” unchecked, Windows hides the .lnk extension by default; it just shows an arrow in the bottom-right corner of the icon, which is plausibly missed when in the list view. I’m surprised antivirus doesn’t know about it already tbh.
What if it executes and install Windows 11 on your machine!?
Oh lord please have mercy! Blacklisting the file extension right now!
That would be the very worst malware. I mean both the malware that installed it and win11…
ackshually the proprietary .lnk shortcut format can only be run on windows 🤓
A Linux executable can’t be named ending on .lnk? 🤔🤔
Making such a polyglot that can run on both systems requires much more effort for little gain.
Not using Windows helps a ton :)
Sonarr will still pick the release and download GBs of malware, and if you don’t notice your download directly is filled with GBs of fake torrents
Nice to know! Thank you!
Nice one OP. Just had sonar pick up one of these today named like a proper release of a trusted group. Sonarr didn’t move it from qbit but better to not DL it in the first place even though its a linux box
Yet another reminder that piracy on Linux is the way because new files don’t have execute permissions by default
On many distros will open with WINE by default, not a big deal, you can just delete
~/.wine. If it does anythingWine will mount your root folder as a Windows drive by default. So if the malware is scanning all connected drives and encrypting/uploading them you still have a problem.
How is the link file executing malware? Can you put any shell script as the target?
You can put the script itself as the link. Shortcut to: powershell -command “Write-Host ‘Gonna pwn your shit’”
