uTorrent (may) Silent Install Crypto Currency Miner

[Tom Bombadildo]

Hide yo kids, hide yo wife, cuz uTorrent may be installing cryptocurrency miners all up in your PC. At some recent point in time, uTorrent users have been experiencing odd slowdowns and high CPU usage reports on their systems only to find that they were coming from a cryptocurrency miner installed on their system, called Epic Scale.

After some users went snooping, they discovered that Epic Scale was being installed with a uTorrent install/update, but whether it was a ploy from uTorrent or one of the many ad offers uTorrent has stuffed in their installers is unknown at this time. The situation isn't entirely clear, either, as the reports of this miner being installed are infrequent to a point that some users must be triggering something with their uTorrent updates/installers that is causing the silent install of the miner.

The silent install appears to happen selectively, and not on all machines. TF had confirmation from various sides and with screenshots of every step of the install process where no Epic Scale screen appeared. In one case, the opt-out screen was eventually shown after several re-installs.

BitTorrent Inc has made a small response to this claim, and originally didn't believe it at all after moderators deliberately deleted the first forum thread made on uTorrent's site regarding the issue.

“In terms of user complaints in our forums, we always take these claims seriously. We highly value our users, they are a passionate and tech savvy group. In the last 24 hours we have received less than a dozen inquiries out of several million offers.”

“We have reviewed the issue closely and can confirm there is no silent install happening. We are continuing to look at the issue. But this is most likely these users accepted the offer during install.”

Source

It's strongly recommended any uTorrent user checks their PC for any malware and miners that could or couldn't have been installed.

In the mean time, any uTorrent users should check out other (safer) torrent programs, such as qBittorent, Tixati, or Transmission. You can also find an older version of uTorrent, such as 2.2.1, which is considered the last "great" update from uTorrent.

 

[Kippykip]

woah

 

[Lucifer666]

good thing I'm on a mac

 

[vahnx]

I hope this isn't true but seems unlikely
I've been a uTorrent user for several years. While I don't agree with their most recent builds (ads everywhere) you can still go into settings and turn them off.
But installing a miner without me knowing? I'm moving to Deluge.

Edit: http://forum.utorrent.com/topic/950...ware-silently-installed-with-latest-utorrent/

good thing I'm on a mac

uTorrent runs on Mac

 

[nl255]

Unfortunately there is no way to migrate to another torrent program short of manually opening every single torrent one at a time. If you have a ton of different torrents with multiple download folders on different drives, then switching over could easily takes weeks.

 

[Lucifer666]

uTorrent runs on Mac

uTorrent may be installing cryptocurrency miners all up in your PC.

It's strongly recommended any uTorrent user checks their PC for any malware and miners that could or couldn't have been installed.

uTorrent runs on a mac, but the crap that it's installing probably doesn't (just an assumption cos a lot of crap isn't developed for mac), and just did a quick search on Epic Scale's website et voila, "Windows only"

 

[Kippykip]

Just downgraded to the 2013 uTorrent, has no ads anyway

 

[vahnx]

Oh I had know idea Mac's weren't PC's. I better take a computer course.

 

[Hells Malice]

Oh I had know idea Mac's weren't PC's. I better take a computer course.

Pretty sure he means he's safe because nobody makes virus' for macs because those poor bastards are suffering enough already by just using that OS.

 

[vahnx]

Pretty sure he means he's safe because nobody makes virus' for macs because those poor bastards are suffering enough already by just using that OS.

I wish that was the case but I encountered a virus on a mac a few months ago. The user installed a "codec pack" to watch a fake movie download. Suddenly fake OS pop-ups and browser hijackings galore.

 

[jumpman17]

I don't seem to have anything like that running on my computer. I know Malwarebytes blocked uTorrent from installing their stupid Web Toolbar thing with the last update, but that was it.

 

[TeamScriptKiddies]

Utorrents been junk for the past couple years now. Bundled with all kinds of adware/spyware/crapware etc. Why anybody still uses it is beyond me. I moved on from utorrent when all this crap started happening.

 

[Apache Thunder]

I haven't updated uTorrent since 3.4.2 (on build 33883 to be specific). There was something in an update I didn't want to *** with, so I stopped updating it. What is the latest version of uTorrent anyway and is the one I have come with this crap? I haven't noticed any CPU spikes. My internet is generally ***t all the time, so network spikes I wouldn't really notice.

 

[vahnx]

"We can confirm that the Epic Scale partnership is, per our policy, an optional install presented to users during the install of µtorrent."

Is there any truth to this? I know they try tricking people by alternating Yes/No positions and Agree/Disagree during installation but from what I hear, this is not the case?

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

"We can confirm that the Epic Scale partnership is, per our policy, an optional install presented to users during the install of µtorrent."

Is there any truth to this? I know they try tricking people by alternating Yes/No positions and Agree/Disagree during installation but from what I hear, this is not the case?

If you read the OP, you'd see that nobody actually knows why the install is happening, only that it's happening with uTorrent. It could just be a broken installer, or it could be intentional, but nobody right now knows for sure.

 

[FireEmblemGuy]

What surprises me isn't just that people are actually using modern uTorrent, it's that people are actually torrenting via their personal computers rather than setting up a secure seedbox for a couple bucks a month. I suppose it's not necessary if you're only downloading completely legal torrents, but it certainly limits security issues.

 

[VinsCool]

So, use another torrent client.
Case solved XD

 

[2Hack]

I left uTorrent after fighting that bs Conduit shit for the 2nd/3rd time.
I'm now using qBittorrent and have no issues whatsoever. Not feeling bad about the switch

 

[VinsCool]

I left uTorrent after fighting that bs Conduit shit for the 2nd/3rd time.
I'm now using qBittorrent and have no issues whatsoever. Not feeling bad about the switch

OMG search Conduit crap was pain in the arse to remove ><

 

[2Hack]

OMG search Conduit crap was pain in the arse to remove ><

Not just that, it was in every fucking update then my dad would blame me for it. Fuck that shit man! Hate it so much.
Haven't had utorrent in years now ^.^