Video: How People Are Tracked Using BitTorrent
Written by enigmax on January 14, 2008Being tracked by anti-piracy organizations and receiving infringement notices on file-sharing networks is becoming more common. A security project manager has just released a short video showing how it’s done.
A common question from BitTorrent users is how anti-p2p outfits trace and trace file-sharers in order to send infringement notices. We’ve reported on one technique in the past and now, thanks to Dan Morrill, a Security Project Manager with VMC Consulting in Redmond Washington, we have a short video illustrating another basic technique which is easy to understand.
Dan’s example involves him downloading a large file with the popular Azureus client, while giving a commentary on the various types of information offered by the client, a brief overview of how BitTorrent works, how it’s possible to be tracked and how the gathered information could be processed. He also touches on anonymity and the use of blocklists.
A popular piece of IP blocking software is Peerguardian, which can be downloaded at Phoenix Labs, with the blocklists available from Bluetack. Users seeking anonymity can achieve this by using a free proxy server but in reality, most don’t offer performance anywhere near good enough for BitTorrent. VPN services such as VPNTunnel aren’t free but they’re reliable and generally protect users from the techniques shown in the video.
Just one criticism; Dan states towards the end of the video that if you don’t use blocklists you are almost guaranteed to be ‘nabbed’. The majority of people don’t use blocklists and the majority of those are not getting ‘nabbed’.
Indeed, most of the cases we hear of from the United States are people who don’t use BitTorrent at all. On the other hand, blocklists mostly offer pseudo-security, since there’s no guarantee that you are not tracked while using them.
Previously: TorrentFreak Interviews a Lawyer Defending 500 File-Sharers
Next: MediaDefender Hacker Speaks Out
93 Responses
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Where is my chocolate?
Peer Guardian II is a bag o’ shite……its a placebo and does as much harm as good.
Anyone that thinks otherwise is a complete Gimp and commonly known as a gullible plonker!
so to track people downloading a torrent, you need a bittorrent client and then look at the console to see the list IPs downloading the file. NO FREAKING WAY?!
Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop Woop
VMC is an absolute JOKE of a company in the IT sector
I don’t get why this is news? I mean, you look at your peers, you see their IPs, you right them down on a piece of paper and you go hunt them down. It’s like looking for a house burglar, when you know he is staying at his momma’s house and you know the address.
We all know that we rely on odds, to escape the federales while we download to our heart’s content! Like buying weed! “They just want the big guys’, lil’ guys like me get left alone, and if not we just get warned…”
At least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
:)
Whats the difference between a dead baby and a Cadillac? There isn’t a Cadillac in my garage.
yarrrr!!! bring it on MAfIAA lackeys!!!
#2 Although PG2 is not the holy grail of p2p protection, it is protection none the less. Of course if you want maximum protectio, rip out your lan cable, but as thats not an option, using PG2 or ipfilter.dat or safepeer, or nipfilter is better than doing nothing at all. Theres an article right here on TF that shows using a blocklist of some sort is indeed of benefit.
last time i checked peerguardian didnt work on vista 64… any change?… alternatives to peerguardian?
I use vista 64, heres what i do: download a blocklist from bluetack, rename the rar file to ipfilter and insert it into your client. for utorrent you place the file in by opening run command and typing %appdata%\uTorrent. put the ipfilter file in there and its done. (utorrent has “use ipfilter=true” set as default). hope this helps.
use peerguardian under linux with ipblock (iplist)
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=198679
My IP is f*ck MPA.AIF.PIR.IAA
Blocklists aren’t for protection (not so for a long time anyway).
They are for keeping out malicious clients, trying to send bad data or slow down the spreading of files.
As a SIDE EFFECT on occasion you also block access to/from snooping anti-p2p companies.
But thats it.
Snooping doesn’t require high bandwidth connections. You could even use an analog modem.
Better rely on some thoughts on what you are downloading and where to get it from BEFORE you start doing it.
indeed qm. private trackers anyone?
Private trackers are not a guarentee of safety. They too have thier share of anti p2p lurkers. Perhaps less in the way of bad peers, but not immune to the **aa’s and their ilk.
what about TOR?
The database they create, they cant use. What about dynamic IP-adress ;)
An I use Relakks, so I can Relaxx :D
[quote]Better rely on some thoughts on what you are downloading and where to get it from BEFORE you start doing it.[/quote] By #14 qm2003
You’re right.
block lists are a joke… if they want to trace you why dont they just hire a temp broadband with a new IP, or get dialup, or use VPN them self… to think that all their attacks on downloaders are done on their corporate IP is naive surely?
No way to know 4 sure there aren’t copyright guys is there ?
Or do you have a system? Last I checked anti-p2p organizations use private ip’s.
Well I guess he haven’t thought about shared IPs :-D
I dont think companies and anti-p2p can use information that you gather from the logger.
I mean if they can track me down because of this method than who is to say that i can’t do the same to them.
if i charged for downloading the file because my ip is registered there than anti-p2p companies are doing it ilegal as well.
Doesn’t this mean they have to download illegal stuff themselves? :)
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