James Delahunty
21 Dec 2005 13:41
In a bizarre "attack", some hackers have made use of PCs infected with the lockx.exe rootkit to install a doctored BitTorrent client that then downloads Disney movies and the film version of the Mr. Bean comedy. The attack was linked to a Middle East-based group but the motive for it is still unknown. It was uncovered by FaceTime Communications, which believes the attack was simply just an experiment and could be used for other purposes in future.
Of course there is an obvious problem here for the users with infected machines and for anti-piracy efforts too; what if someone with an infected machine has unknowingly shared pirated content and gets sued? The lockx.exe rootkit file was bundled with a variant of the SDBot worm. Of course, it would be silly at least to say the concept of hackers using other people's PCs to download pirated material is in any way "new".
Thousands of infected (r00ted) PCs connect to IRC networks every time they are booted and act as file servers for pirated content for example. It is also possible (and most likely) that many machines connected to P2P networks have been hacked and may be used to spread new files quicker. The victims in these attacks are usually running unpatched insecure installations of Microsoft's Windows operating systems.
Source:
The Register