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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"

  • Add patterns:

(one by line)

*.mp4.lnk  
*.mp3.lnk  
*.mkv.lnk
*.torrent.lnk 

Or exclude all together: *.lnk


Example on VirusTotal https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/e74f64df6ebaf3a1b6e3f42591eb6e87d2ac2828eb5a99fd8d3d82c140137fc9/detection

top 38 comments
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[-] boredsquirrel@slrpnk.net 18 points 8 hours ago

Not using Windows helps a ton :)

[-] American_Jesus@lemm.ee 3 points 7 hours ago

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

[-] N0x0n@lemmy.ml 9 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

For those interested, John Hammond did a video a few months ago about .lnk extension (and other 16 hidden extensions on Windows).

He doesn't go to much and to deep into the subject, but you get a general view how this could be exploitable.

YouTube link

Piped Link

[-] ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org 120 points 1 day ago

thanks Microsoft for hiding extensions by default!

[-] ad_on_is@lemm.ee 9 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Microsoft: De nada, amigo! Oh... here's an ad, btw... and...did you enable Recall already?

[-] ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org 5 points 2 hours ago

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

[-] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

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.

[-] American_Jesus@lemm.ee 3 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Is not regex
https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/pull/17106

Examples
*.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'

[-] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 73 points 1 day ago
[-] CmdrShepard42@lemm.ee 66 points 1 day ago

What if it executes and install Windows 11 on your machine!?

[-] black0ut@pawb.social 26 points 1 day ago

Oh lord please have mercy! Blacklisting the file extension right now!

[-] Trent@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 day ago

That would be the very worst malware. I mean both the malware that installed it and win11...

[-] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 7 points 1 day ago

ackshually the proprietary .lnk shortcut format can only be run on windows 🤓

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 5 points 17 hours ago

A Linux executable can't be named ending on .lnk? 🤔🤔

[-] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 8 hours ago

Making such a polyglot that can run on both systems requires much more effort for little gain.

[-] mexicancartel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 11 hours ago

But its not lnk but an executable that needs to be excecuted manually?

[-] American_Jesus@lemm.ee 22 points 1 day ago

Me too, but don't want to download GBs of malware and bandwidth

[-] LiveLM@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Weak.
Harbor disaster. Seed the malware. Spread the fruits of chaos amongst the unworthy. Be complicit in their downfall. Feed on their agony ^^/s

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 0 points 1 day ago

.lnk files are less than 4kb

[-] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 4 points 1 day ago

That would seem suspicious. I'm sure they have some way to pad out the size.

[-] catloaf@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

Anyone paying attention to size would probably also notice they're just .lnk files.

[-] Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 2 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] American_Jesus@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Not these ones, some could have more than 1GB, look at the virustotal link, the file had 422MB.

Also Sonarr/Radarr filter torrents by size

Here some examples
https://bt4gprx.com/search?q=The.Lord.of.The.Rings.The.Rings.of.Power.S02E08

Those where posted on 1337x (and removed) and probably other sites, Sonarr can pick those based on release name and torrent size

PS: had to rename the fine from .lnk to .com so virustotal could accept

[-] dsilverz@thelemmy.club 43 points 1 day ago

When I read the title, I was thinking of something sophisticated such as hidden executable streams inside the MKV container (IIRC, it's possible to append binary data other than audio, video or subtitles specifically inside a MKV). The ".lnk" trick only works in Windows and, even there, it's easy to prevent: Windows Explorer > Options > Advanced > find and check "Always show extensions for files" (i can't really remember the exact label for this option as I'm not a Windows user, but something like this will be there).

[-] cosmic_skillet@lemmy.ml 19 points 1 day ago

I believe you uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types"

[-] dsilverz@thelemmy.club 8 points 1 day ago

Exactly! Thanks! I couldn't point the exact label, I've been using Linux for years in a daily basis so I forgot most of the Windows shortcuts/options.

[-] brainw0rms@hexbear.net 12 points 1 day ago

Even then, that setting doesn't unhide the ".lnk" file extension, that requires a registry edit: https://www.askvg.com/tip-how-to-show-file-extensions-of-shortcuts-lnk-url-pif-in-windows-explorer/

Although shortcuts are pretty easy to spot in the first place unless you just double-click things without paying attention lol

[-] bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net 30 points 1 day ago

You gotta love how aggressively they prevent users from seamlessly running executables from the internet, a VERY legitimate common use case, but a desktop shortcut from the internet? Run away!

[-] turkalino@lemmy.yachts 24 points 1 day ago

Yet another reminder that piracy on Linux is the way because new files don’t have execute permissions by default

[-] American_Jesus@lemm.ee 9 points 1 day ago

On many distros will open with WINE by default, not a big deal, you can just delete ~/.wine. If it does anything

[-] Kuvwert@lemm.ee 16 points 1 day ago
[-] can@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 day ago

That's mentioned near the bottom of the post.

[-] LostXOR@fedia.io 4 points 1 day ago

Also make sure you have file extensions enabled in Explorer, it makes it waaay harder for something like this to work.

[-] Lojcs@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

How is the link file executing malware? Can you put any shell script as the target?

[-] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 23 hours ago

You can put the script itself as the link. Shortcut to: powershell -command "Write-Host 'Gonna pwn your shit'"

[-] LordeMostarda@lemmy.eco.br 9 points 1 day ago

I am pretty sure a link file can open cmd/powershell with parameters to execute commands

[-] DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 22 hours ago

Is that the malware that is undetectable because it runs purely in memory? The name is escaping me

[-] Nexy@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 day ago

Nice to know! Thank you!

this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2024
179 points (98.4% liked)

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