Does/can running Kazaa zombie-fy (partly) a PC?

March 11, 2006 7:34 PM

I have this idea that running Kazaa potentially lets other users store files on your PC. Is this correct?

I don't use the program, but I do need to know the answer for work, and am having difficulty searching out the answer. From what I know, since some of the internal code "shares" some of your available hard drive space with other users (in addition to "sharing" some of your available processing power), it would seem that if you are running the program, and have it set to share, in addition to allowing the downloading what you already have on your PC, others can upload their files onto your PC. Is this possible?
Is it possible, by some other method, (if my understanding of the code in Kazaa is wrong) to force upload a file to another computer using Kazaa?

posted by birdsquared to computers & internet (12 comments total)

Regular Kazaa has spyware in it - that should be your bigger concern.

Assuming you're running Kazaa lite, though -- to my knowledge it only downloads things to your computer when you ask it to. I've never heard of it allowing anyone to store files on your PC.
posted by twiggy at 7:44 PM on March 11, 2006

Twiggy is right about that. As far as the "share" aspect, that is a directory designated to allow people to download from you, they can't put anything on that directory.
posted by Mijo Bijo at 7:59 PM on March 11, 2006

Hmm. I remember an entertaining thread on another forum posted by a guy called "C_drive_on_kazaa" -- he'd post love notes, bad poetry, drafts of resignation letters, even homemade porn (eww) that he claimed to find on other people's computers using kazaa.

This was a few years ago. I hope it was a troll.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 8:05 PM on March 11, 2006

oops. sorry. didn't read the original post correctly. D'OH!
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 8:08 PM on March 11, 2006

I have lots of experience using kazaa and kazaa lite, and lots of friends who use/have used the software as well. I personally don't believe that the program puts anything on your drive other than the files you specifically download, and I have no anecdotal evidence to suggest I'm wrong.

I think this a myth, possibly related to how spyware-tastic Kazaa is.

You say your question is work related, so let me urge to not to let your employer (or anyone else) install Kazaa. There are a few decent p2p apps, but Kazaa isn't one of them.
posted by chudmonkey at 8:39 PM on March 11, 2006

Potsmokinghippieoverlord's anecdote reminds me of my own a friend's P2P days. IHe used to do searches on Kazaa and other services for files like "autoexec.bat". This would return a list of moronic clients that had their whole c:\ drive shared (usually to increase their share ratio on services that required it). You could then browse their entire hard disk at will using the "show what else this user has shared" feature.
Not that I would ever condone such actions, of course.
Back on topic: 1) Kazaa does not allow others to put files on your drive. 2) Careful which directory your decide to share.
posted by AndrewStephens at 8:49 PM on March 11, 2006

Also, you may be thinking of the Freenet project, which does use your hard disk to store parts of other peoples files.
posted by AndrewStephens at 8:56 PM on March 11, 2006

Actually, I'm thinking more of the Altnet part of the originally linked site:

We intend to market Altnet's peer-to-peer services in three main areas: Network Services, Distributed Storage and Distributed Processing.

It's the "Distributed Storage" part that I'm wondering about. How would a user who has granted full access or sharing to Kazaa know whether their PC was being used for such Distributed Storage? Who has access to that Storage space?

Am I misreading the linked website? Is it incorrect about the code in Kazaa?
posted by birdsquared at 11:44 PM on March 11, 2006

From a bit of googling, it sounds like altnet does not let other users store files on your computer. What it does is it allows Brilliant Digital to store files on your computer, which is not quite the same as other users doing so, but just as nasty IMO.

see here, for reference.
posted by juv3nal at 12:31 AM on March 12, 2006

Kazaa certainly does install spyware

Cydoor, BDE, and up to 4 'optional bundles'.

In theory, P2P systems work, because you're 'sharing' some of what you have (therefore, hard drive space that's allocated to the file).

Beyond passing packets (which probably occurs in ram), you're not getting forcibly any files you didn't ask for (although you may get stuff you tried to download that is imitating a file you really want)

The only file, it seems, you're forced to have in your shared folder is the latest version of Kazaa Media Desktop...so the software can be shared with less strain on their servers.

And since, when you're running it, you can't really 'see' it working...some of the processing power is dedicated to kazaa.
posted by filmgeek at 6:37 AM on March 12, 2006

I was using either Kazaa Lite or Shareza, and found a temp directory filled with crap I definitely didn't download. I suspect some sort of exploit was used. It was scary.
posted by mecran01 at 11:14 AM on March 12, 2006

juv3nal - thank you - I don't know why I didn't just google Altnet myself - sometimes I miss the obvious, thankfully not too often.
posted by birdsquared at 11:35 AM on March 12, 2006