BitTorrent Ratio Exploit Software on Increase

[soulxtc]

Despite over a year for site administrators to deal with the exploit, tools for falsely increasing ratios at private BitTorrent sites are becoming increasingly easy to use.

http://digg.com/tech_news/BitTorrent_Ratio_Exploit_Software_on_Increase

[shawners]

Its just another link to ratio master that was in a previous discussion.

[soulxtc]

Its just another link to ratio master that was in a previous discussion.

It's much more than that, it's an article taking an in depth look at what these programs are all about and what's being done to combat them if anything......



Despite over a year for site administrators to deal with the exploit, tools for falsely increasing ratios at private BitTorrent sites are becoming increasingly easy to use.


Tools for exploiting the weak system used by private BitTorrent trackers to monitor user ratios are becoming increasingly user-friendly and available. Despite being a widely publicised problem for nearly a year, there are still no obvious solutions.


The exploit was first publicly highlighted in September last year, at Xyflar.


RatioMaster, who develops cheating software, explained to Zeropaid. “Private trackers keep statistics about how much you’re uploading and downloading. Those stats reported by each client. There are many ways to report wrong statistics.”


Private BitTorrent trackers rely on individual clients for information on how much the client has uploaded. Due to the decentralised nature of a BitTorrent swarm, trackers are unable to monitor the actual uploaded and downloaded data, so have to rely on the each client being honest.


By interrupting messages to the tracker, cheaters can change the reported upload and download statistics.


Xyflar explained how to exploit this weakness last year. By using freely available software, the site demonstrated how to increase the amount of uploaded data reported, hence giving a better ratio.


Despite being reported by major technology and file sharing websites, the exploit’s publication did not cause the predicted flood of leechers. Arguably this is because the exploit requires unfamiliar software and lots of time to execute. Each time a user wants to fake their upload, they must “catch” and then edit a packet sent to the tracker. Falsify the upload by too much, and anti-leeching scripts will catch the exploiter. Falsify by too little and the exploiter would need to catch and edit too many packets to make the exploit feasible.


This process has been automated by groups of cheaters, mostly in small communities who require a minimum number of forum posts to access the files. Steadily these cheats are becoming more readily available from a new wave of developers.


Theoretically, since the exploit does not require any abnormal code to be sent to trackers, the exploit is virtually impossible to detect.

READ REST OF ARTICLE (http://www.zeropaid.com/news/7473/BitTorrent+Ratio+Exploit+Software+on+Increase)

[the great one]

It took a lot of patience for me to keep my ratio where it is on the torrent sites I use,then to see some asshat cheat the system....well it just grinds my gears.

[davec8]

Ya, ticks me off too. Unfortunately, there's always dicks out there willing to make software for anything.

[nizrulesall]

sorta against wot bittorrents are all about. we're all supposed to help each other right? unfortunately theres always gonna be cheaters in anything one ever does. Its just like an aimboter on a fps game, they are all low-life scum imo.

[bobhss]

It took a lot of patience for me to keep my ratio where it is on the torrent sites I use,then to see some asshat cheat the system....well it just grinds my gears.

Agreed.

No honor among theives right?

I'll just have to upload more. I'll get a faster connection when it comes to my town. (10Mbps/1Mbps instead of 3Mbps/256Kbps)

[napho]

It took a lot of patience for me to keep my ratio where it is on the torrent sites I use,then to see some asshat cheat the system....well it just grinds my gears.


If YOU'RE pissed off by leechers, can you imagine what a studio who's invested $100 million in a movie or a musician who invested 2 years of their life in an album feels like when pirates steal their copyright property? Just relax, pirate, leech, it's the way life is. :icon_pira One problem is that the #1 leecher mod is a version of Azureus, and geeks look at Azureus as their girlfriend and are loathe to crack down.

[Aval0n]

Lol. Oh well shit happens.

[the great one]

If YOU'RE pissed off by leechers, can you imagine what a studio who's invested $100 million in a movie or a musician who invested 2 years of their life in an album feels like when pirates steal their copyright property? Just relax, pirate, leech, it's the way life is. :icon_pira One problem is that the #1 leecher mod is a version of Azureus, and geeks look at Azureus as their girlfriend and are loathe to crack down.

So I see you buy into that theory that every download equals a sale?Lmao!Or you think that everything that is being downloaded isn't already public domain?Don't assume too much now.

I wouldn't bother wasting my bandwidth on movies or the latest brittany spears album.

whether or not downloading is legal isn't the problem here,that is a whole different matter altogether.

P.S. happy downloading.:icon_pira

[Mels_Smileys45]

So I see you buy into that theory that every download equals a sale?

I do not think anyone said that. Thats a statement lots of people like to throw around right away when ever this subject comes about. If downloads only cause a 25% lose of sales thats still a butt load and everyone knows it likley much higher than that.

Lets flip that around. Never ever does a download = a lost sale. Is that false also?

I only buy a DVD if it offers something extra that I can't download like a fancy package with a free doo-dad. Beofre broadband I bought a least a DVD a week. Over the last few years now Ive only bought blank DVD's.


I think leeching sucks and these tools are for tools. I personally can understand why the movie/music business is upset but do I care enough to stop downloading? Don't think so! But I'm not going to be mad when they fight back. It would be hypocritical of me to say theyre the bad guys in this situation. Both sides are greedy, bottom line.

[napho]

So I see you buy into that theory that every download equals a sale?Lmao!Or you think that everything that is being downloaded isn't already public domain?Don't assume too much now.

P.S. happy downloading.:icon_pira


I don't care how much business is lost through piracy, I take what I want. It's just that some people take things like the BitTorrent "community" a little too seriously. It's just a bunch of people who are pirating things instead of paying for them; that's all well and good, but if some of those pirates are leeching too, don't get too excited and get your gears ground. :bom:

[the great one]

I don't care how much business is lost through piracy, I take what I want. It's just that some people take things like the BitTorrent "community" a little too seriously. It's just a bunch of people who are pirating things instead of paying for them; that's all well and good, but if some of those pirates are leeching too, don't get too excited and get your gears ground. :bom:

I'm not really into the whole 'community'idea myself,I just get what I need(or want is more like it)and try to give back what I take.If only my upload speed was as good as my download speed there wouldn't be much of a problem.

I don't really like cheaters of any sort,but what can you do?I'm sure they'll find a fix for this problem soon enough.

[shawners]

Ratio master has a few clients it mimics and lets you choose to report as. Banning all those clients would lead to the demise of this, but people will later update ratio master to fit all the clients out there.

I take more pride in what i upload then what I report.
Uploaded torrents
Request filled.

[Aval0n]

Banning the clients it uses means all clients which are allowed by "private" sites would be lost.

[the great one]

I do not think anyone said that. Thats a statement lots of people like to throw around right away when ever this subject comes about. If downloads only cause a 25% lose of sales thats still a butt load and everyone knows it likley much higher than that.

Lets flip that around. Never ever does a download = a lost sale. Is that false also?

I only buy a DVD if it offers something extra that I can't download like a fancy package with a free doo-dad. Beofre broadband I bought a least a DVD a week. Over the last few years now Ive only bought blank DVD's.


I think leeching sucks and these tools are for tools. I personally can understand why the movie/music business is upset but do I care enough to stop downloading? Don't think so! But I'm not going to be mad when they fight back. It would be hypocritical of me to say theyre the bad guys in this situation. Both sides are greedy, bottom line.

I personally wouldn't buy what I download(although I have downloaded PC games that I bought because the protection on them was a pain to remove, so I guess that could count a a loss of sale)but if you say you bought DVDs before you got broadband and stopped afetr you got it then I guess they can claim some loss of sales.

Most people I know would have never bought what they downloaded,they just do it because it's there.But there are obviously exceptions to this too.

[shawners]

I dont buy what I download. For one reason, money has more value then a optical disc and fancy packaging. Cost of 25 blank dvd's is way less then 1 dvd bought.

Maybe i can explain it alot better.. Suppose I log on here, and create a program that will randomly create threads of things for sell, free ipods and shit.. I logged on, one of the rules was to not spam or post ridiculous crap. So the mods ban me, were they in their RIGHT to ban me?? I mean its there site, they have the rules in place for people to prevent this stuff from happening. Now i post more and more threads about my device of randomly spamming it without getting caught and it will keep creating new username with free-email service and log on to a different proxy all the time. Now i give this program a name, put it up on my site.. now im encouraging users to engage in spamming, it may not be detected. Then i say some stupid shit to say its to help the mods and admins to detect cheating programs.. Its pointless, and its redundant. I never had a problem keeping a positive ratio. It takes 2hours for a dvd to download, it takes a day and half to upload 1:1. You can seed slowly so you can have bandwidth to do more stuff, upload fast so you can get it over wiith and get it off your computer. Some sites let you upload your own stuff if you follow the simple steps.. Some are different then others, but its pretty descriptive in what you upload so theres no confusing for others who want to download. Some even go as far as pay for gigs. 5 a month gets you 20-40 gig credit or makes you immune to being disabled as a leecher and lets you download without having a positive ratio. Some even have banners for non donating members so they can get some money for servers, design, and upkeep. Which can be blocked by adblock on firefox =). I'm not a member of all private sites, just a couple that i like. You have to go out and find the site thats right for you. Different ones for different folks. Some are better then others.