Flash Downloader Using BitTorrent?

[somehacker]

Why?

Who thought this was a good idea?

Every single person in my organization is going to get quarantined from the network because someone thought it would be a good idea to handle updates using bittorrent. THIS WAS NOT A GOOD IDEA!

Please go back to handling updates the right way so that I don't have to spend weeks dealing with the monumental problem this is going to become.

[pwillener · Accepted solution]

Flash Player is not available as BitTorrent download, at least not from Adobe.

Please download FP (and other software) only from legitimate download sites!

[somehacker]

Nevermind then.

Thanks for the fast response.

[somehacker]

Scratch that, I need to take away your question answered award.

Adobe serves up an installer made by Solid State Networks from adobe.com. This installer uses bittorrent to download data. This is the idiocy I was talking about. This is going to cause a problem on every corporate network that blocks bittorrent traffic.

[pwillener]

Now I have no idea what you are talking about.  Here are the installers: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/fp_distribution3.html - where do you see any bittorrent?

Also, I have no idea who or what "Solid State Networks" is.

[somehacker]

There isn't any bittorrent used in that installer.
I have an installer on a workstation in my office that I downloaded from adobe.com which uses bittorrent. I know this because I watched the packets leaving the computer using wireshark. I'll dig up a link to the offending installer when I get back to work tomorrow.

Solid State Networks:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=solid+state+networks

It's the first actual result.

tl;dr: They use bittorrent as a content delivery system for application update, primarily games, but in this case flash player.

[somehacker]

Here are the links:

http://platformdl.adobe.com/SSN/AIH/flashax+gtb_d.exe
http://platformdl.adobe.com/SSN/AIH/flashax+gtb_a.exe
http://platformdl.adobe.com/SSN/AIH/flashax+mss_d.exe
http://platformdl.adobe.com/SSN/AIH/flashax+mss_a.exe

If you don't have flash installed on your computer, this is what you get served up when you go to install it.

[pwillener]

Sorry, I have no idea what these are or how you found them.  The "normal" download links are

http://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player_ax.exe

http://fpdownload.adobe.com/get/flashplayer/current/install_flash_player.exe

You may need to contact Adobe regarding the strange links you posted.

[somehacker]

I've already explained exactly what they are and how I found them. Do you think I'm lying?

Adobe switched the install links back to the proper non-bittorrent installer today. They were handing out the SSN installer for a little over a week if you went to get a flash player installer on a machine that did not already have flash player installed.

[WestyD]

Just want to confirm that the links seoci has given, are true.

Sometimes when you go to adobe.com and then click the link to get flash player. you get taken to the download page.

When you click download now, then a yellow bar appears at the top of the screen and asks

if you want to download this program.

If you click yes, then you get  flashax+gtb_mss_d.exe

it shows this to come from  platformdl.adobe.com/SSN/AIH/flashax+gtb_mss_d.exe

This is wat happens when going through the adbe.com page which is probably what many people do.

It would be really nice if adobe confirmed this is ok

As for it being a bit torrent thing, that I do not know.

Now sometimes when you download flash player from adobe.com, the process has you download the adobe download manager instead of

flashax+gtb_mss_d.exe

I tried this both on my home PC and on the computer at work.

whether you get adobe download manager  or flashax+gtb_mss_d.exe. it appears to be random

[WestyD]

nobody else?

[jonman05]

Still to this day, Adobe is using bittorrent to handle updates! Why? This is a nightmare for our help desk since we block that traffic.  Users call our help desk daily complaining about the issue and we tell the help desk, "Sorry, but until Adobe fixes it they are stuck with what they have." 

[C_F_McBlob]

http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/current/support/install _flash_player_ax.exe

http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/current/support/install _flash_player.exe

http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/licensing/mac /install_flash_player_11_osx....

THOSE are the ONLY official Flash Player download links and they contain NO BitTorrent files, they use NO BitTorrent client, and the DO NOT come from anywhere but here.

[jonman05]

Glad you pointed that out Mike but you missed what I was saying.  Somone needs to explain why Adobe uses Bittorrent to UPDATE Flash Player after it has been downloaded.  I never said anything about Adobe using Bittorrent files to DOWNLOAD FP. 

[C_F_McBlob]

Adobe uses NO BitTorrent protocol to update ANYTHING THEY MAKE. Adobe has what is known as the AAM (Adobe Application Mamanger - now the Creative Cloud Manager) which USES NO TORRENT PROTOCOLS to download. It uses the Akamia Download Engine (which many, many software companies also use), which is a DIRECT CONNECTER to the Adobe update server, via a "stubinstaller" which is a 1mb (approx) file that connects and finishes the download. It's a direct download to a single end user.

Firefox uses these, as do Chrome, Opera, VLC, and numerous other legitimate software developers worldwide. IT IS NOT A TORRENT. NOT IN ANY IMAGINABLE WAY.

Here's something for you to consider.

When I worked at Intuit, and at AOL, simply having "bit torrent software" (Vuze, Tomato, Transmission, uTorrent, etc.) installed on your workstation was an IMMEDIATELY TERMINABLE OFFENSE. It didn't matter if it had never even been opened. If it was installed and someone found it... YOU WERE FIRED. No questions asked, no appealing the decision, no nothing. If people claim they're downloading Adobe updates via a torrent, than they HAVE the software installed to download OTHER torrents, otherwise they'd get a "What app do you wish to use to open this file?" message with these supposed Adobe updates. Your  I/T people NEED to implement a zero tolerance policy and remove ALL torrent software from company workstations. Then NO ONE could use these "false updaters" via torrent.

Since Adobe does not use, and has never used, ANY torrent protocol to update their software, WHATEVER your people are downloading IS NOT COMING FROM HERE.

[jonman05]

I guess we can agree to disagree on this.  On our network, all bittorrent traffic is blocked as well as downloading any executable related to torrents.  A simple trace and watching the packets via Wireshark will prove what is actually happening, torrenting updates for flash.  It's okay if Adobe, as well as other people, continue to deny this with uppercase words in order to be convincing, but it's still an issue and we won't remove our blocks for that traffic.  Now, Adobe has changed this at times here and there when people have called them out on this, but eventually they just go right back to torrenting updates in the end. 

[C_F_McBlob]

If you'd do a simple trace, you'd find that the "updater" in use is going or attempting to go, somewhere outside this domain. Fact is, a single user download is not, by definition, a torrent. There is no tracker, there is no hash file. anf there are no peers. It's entirely unnecessary for a file of 18mb on a T1. By the time enoug peers joined the "swarm" to actually get a decent download speed, one could have downloaded it directly using one of the above posted links.

Here's another question that puzzles me. Why does your I/T dept allow end users to update their own third party apps? Why aren't they pushing the MSI during off peak times like everyone else who maintains a corporate network environment? In 2006 I managed an office of just six (6) systems and I was prohibited by the business owner from allowing anyone to install or update anything. The owner's daughter was fired for putting LimeWire on her workstation.