A Must Read For All Users Of Pirated Windows 7 Version's:

[Guest Reimar]

The following article is a Must Read for all who has downloaded the leaked Version of Windows 7 Build 7100 from various Torrent sites.

Pirated Windows 7 leads to malware, botnet

Several news outlets (including eWEEK and Washington Post) are reporting on a new piece of malware embedded into pirated copies of Microsoft’s Windows 7 for the express purpose of building a botnet.

According to researchers at Damballa, the bootleg copies of the new operating system have been posted on torrent sites and was infecting downloaders at a rate of 552 users per hour.

WaPo’s Brian Krebs writes:

Damballa managed to grab control over the server that’s contacted by the pirated Windows 7 versions — codecs.systes.net — which is how it knows how many new, compromised installations are requesting the malware. As of Monday afternoon, the company had tracked 3,452 compromised systems hitting the site, with a peak of more than 550 new infections per hour on Sunday.

There is evidence that the pirated packages of Windows 7 were released on torrent sites on April 24 and was live for at least 16 days before Damballa killed the command-and-control. That puts estimates at about 27,000 installs, eWEEK reports.

[ SEE: iBotnet: Researchers find signs of zombie Macs ]

This is the second documented case of a botnet being built with pirated software distributed on the Internet. Earlier this year, researchers at Symantec discovered a direct link between a malicious file embedded in pirated copies of Apple’s iWork 09 software and what appears to be the first Mac OS X botnet launching denial-of-service attacks.

SOURCE

[Guest Reimar]

Do anyone understand why someone use the pirated version of an software if the original is freely available and downloadable for everybody from developers website?

I don't!

And to tell that they can't wait just a few day's for the public release, isn't any excuse!

Cheers.

[H2oDunc]

Thanks for the warning Riemar. I have always found that paying for a legal copy of my operating software leads to less trouble and hassle. I have found also that the people who moan and complain about MS all have pirated copies and do not use the automatic updates. Running auto update means I have never had a problem running either XP or Vista. Thinking of upgrading to 7 but am going to try running Vista 64 bit before I do. Cheers again

[BigSnake]

Best to get the real thing from the start, my friendly internet shop load a Pirated Window XP to my PC 3 years ago, now I'm getting these nasty little messages everytime I log on. Yes do the right thing, get the real THING, an Original Windows 7, pay a little more but well worth it in the long term.

[nikster]

Do anyone understand why someone use the pirated version of an software if the original is freely available and downloadable for everybody from developers website?

I torrented it because I couldn't get the dam_n download to work. I kept having interruptions which would then render the file unreadable. The download manager managed (ha) to download 99.7%, then timed out, and I was unable to restart it. I imagine there are some safeguards in the shape of login credentials or such on the download file. And since I got that partial copy with the download manager, I couldn't just continue either because various pieces inside the file are missing, not just the end.

Now I don't know if I have a pirated version or not - I did have to enter my serial number and it was activated. But I got it from a torrent site. Is there any way I could check?

If it is pirated there is no harm done - I took my old hard disk out so I can always put that back in and use XP, and the new HD is a clean Win7 install with nothing on it so overwriting it won't cost me anything. Havent really used it either, lack of time Maybe I'll get Win7 from the official servers now that I have a better connection.

Come to think of it: Anyone know the md5 on the official ISO file?

Edit: Thanks for the warning too, much appreciated!

Edited May 14, 2009 by nikster

[monty]

Nikster, use one of following links (courtesy of Reimar):

x86: http://bit.ly/RCx86

x64: http://bit.ly/RCx64

Copy and paste into address bar, don't click on them.

These links allow the use of 3th party download managers (I used Orbit) which allow for resumes.

[Guest Reimar]

Do anyone understand why someone use the pirated version of an software if the original is freely available and downloadable for everybody from developers website?

I torrented it because I couldn't get the dam_n download to work. I kept having interruptions which would then render the file unreadable. The download manager managed (ha) to download 99.7%, then timed out, and I was unable to restart it. I imagine there are some safeguards in the shape of login credentials or such on the download file. And since I got that partial copy with the download manager, I couldn't just continue either because various pieces inside the file are missing, not just the end.

Now I don't know if I have a pirated version or not - I did have to enter my serial number and it was activated. But I got it from a torrent site. Is there any way I could check?

If it is pirated there is no harm done - I took my old hard disk out so I can always put that back in and use XP, and the new HD is a clean Win7 install with nothing on it so overwriting it won't cost me anything. Havent really used it either, lack of time Maybe I'll get Win7 from the official servers now that I have a better connection.

Come to think of it: Anyone know the md5 on the official ISO file?

Edit: Thanks for the warning too, much appreciated!

As long as you follow the MS requirements, there wouldn't be any problem with downloading. All you had to do is to use MS owns FTM (Download Manager) and Windows 7.

The links I posted later for direct download even allowed to use Firefox.

Anyway here the security infos for to check the download for both 64 and 32 bit of Windows 7 RC build 7100:

Windows 7 RC x64

Build string: 7100.0.090421.1700

ISO Name: 7100.0.090421-1700_x64fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRC1CULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso

Size: 3,119.3MB 3.04GB

MD5: 98341af35655137966e382c4feaa282d

SHA-1: fc867fe1ab2e0a9796f9e4d155b44ea6998f4874

CRC32: 58fb2be0

Windows 7 RC x86

Build string: 7100.0.090421.1700

ISO Name: 7100.0.090421-1700_x86fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRC1CULFRER_EN_DVD.iso

Size: 2,413.73MB 2.35GB

MD5: 8867C13330F56A93944BCD46DCD73590

SHA-1: 7D1F486CA569EFFFFB719CFB48355BB7BF499712

CRC32: E8A1C394

[regedit]

Thinking of upgrading to 7 but am going to try running Vista 64 bit before I do.

I'm dual-booting Vista x64 and Windows 7 x64 (RC7100). Vista is much quicker on the start-up and seems to run applications much quicker. W7 seems to hang for a few seconds every-so-often, although this could be due to anti-virus not yet being truely compatiable with W7.

[Tywais]

For those who think downloading Windows 7 via torrent isn't a problem you might rethink it. Besides, it is available freely from the Microsoft site and should be no reason to use a torrent (yes, I'm aware of some members having download speed issues - but beware of the consequences).

May 12th, 2009

Pirated Windows 7 leads to malware, botnet

"Several news outlets (including eWEEK and Washington Post) are reporting on a new piece of malware embedded into pirated copies of Microsoft’s Windows 7 for the express purpose of building a botnet.

According to researchers at Damballa, the bootleg copies of the new operating system have been posted on torrent sites and was infecting downloaders at a rate of 552 users per hour."

Source: ZDNet

[surface]

R

[MeetJohnDoe]

<deleted>...the RC is available for FREE from MSFT and good for one year...so why would anyone get their copy from any other source that one of MSFT's official download sites.

These morons deserve whatever virus, spyware, or trojan they get!

[Guest Reimar]

<deleted>...the RC is available for FREE from MSFT and good for one year...so why would anyone get their copy from any other source that one of MSFT's official download sites.

These morons deserve whatever virus, spyware, or trojan they get!

You're maybe right but that have also a negative impact on others.

Cheers.

[tomartoh]

Being a bit cautious I have decided to wait for the official release of windows 7 and decide then what to do. Maybe then it will be time for another computer and net books will be sorted out to run it. As also the bugs in win7 will be fixed

So far I have been happy with Vista and not had any problems and I use my computer everyday

[Phil Conners]

I'm sorry but if a journalist on a newspaper knows about it I'm sure the manufacturers of anti-virus software knows about it too and have made provisions for it in their daily updates. FUD out of Redmond again. :shrug:

[MeetJohnDoe]

<deleted>...the RC is available for FREE from MSFT and good for one year...so why would anyone get their copy from any other source that one of MSFT's official download sites.

These morons deserve whatever virus, spyware, or trojan they get!

You're maybe right but that have also a negative impact on others.

True...but again it effects people who are such dim-bulbs that they don't use any of the many FREE anti-virus and anti-spyware programs out there, open email attachments from unknown people/sources, and don't activate Windows/Explorer anti-phishing and automatic update functions. Such people are beyond hope and should not be allowed to surf the net to begin with

Anyone who takes the above steps will never have any problems. I have had my computers connected to the net almost 24/7 for years and have never had a single instance of a virus or trojan infection.

[Daffy D]

Why do people download a fakes when the official release is available from M$ - Not everybody is lucky enough to be as well informed as we are on this site.

I for one would not have known anything about the M$ release had it not for the invaluable information supplied by Reimar and the others who take the time and trouble to keep us informed and up to date with whats happening in the IT world.

If this sounds a bit like ass-kissing it's not meant to be, just a genuine appreciation for the work done by the forum members

[nikster]

Windows 7 RC x86

Build string: 7100.0.090421.1700

ISO Name: 7100.0.090421-1700_x86fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRC1CULFRER_EN_DVD.iso

Size: 2,413.73MB 2.35GB

MD5: 8867C13330F56A93944BCD46DCD73590

SHA-1: 7D1F486CA569EFFFFB719CFB48355BB7BF499712

CRC32: E8A1C394

Thanks so much for posting the md5, Reimar, looks like I have a clean version!

>$ md5 7100.0.090421-1700_x86fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRC1CULFRER_EN_DVD.iso

MD5 (7100.0.090421-1700_x86fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRC1CULFRER_EN_DVD.iso) = 8867c13330f56a93944bcd46dcd73590

For those of you who don't know what a md5 is, it's a unique digital hash of a file. If the md5 is identical, it means the file is bit for bit identical. A pirated version would have a different md5 because of whatever malware code the hackers have added - there's no way around it.

For those of you who are wondering why anyone would torrent something that can be freely downloaded, it helps to be able to read. See above.

Edited May 16, 2009 by nikster