Abandoned Popcorn Time apps had to be disabled to prevent a zombie army
Security researchers have intervened to disable the abandoned 'Popcorn Time' streaming app, which was being used as a potential vector for botnet attacks. By hijacking the app's update mechanism, researchers pushed a patch that effectively neutralized the software on millions of devices.
Why it matters
This case illustrates the security risks posed by abandoned software that remains installed on user devices, potentially turning them into unwitting participants in cyberattacks.
Remember Popcorn Time, the app that served as an easy-to-use front end for streaming torrents of movies and TV shows? Development of the MPAA’s least-favorite app of the 2010s has been abandoned for years, but the “Netflix of Piracy” software is still installed on millions of devices that are just waiting to join a bot army. Researchers at Eye Security found the updater for a Popcorn Time fork called “Time4Popcorn” still running on tons of Windows, macOS, and Android devices located around the world, phoning home to now-abandoned web domains over unencrypted HTTP and running an outdated, insecure version of Chrome.
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