It seems like somebody is eagerly pushing new software through the uncontrolled FastTrack channel (through supernodes and the automatic software upgrade function of the FastTrack engine). In the 'better' scenario that would be Kazaa/BDE, perhaps securing a way to access your computer even in case you decided to uninstall Grokster/Kazaa (I wouldn't be surprised at all to see them doing something like this). In the worse scenario a hacker has already found out how to abuse the mentioned uncontrolled channel to get an easy bridgehead to millions of computers. Considering the late publicity on FastTrack security the latter scenario would not be a big surprise either - who knows if there is an unofficial hacker competition going on who will be the one to 'own' the network. Of course there is also the possibility that some of the third-party spyware delivered with Kazaa/Grokster has been left intact despite your use of Ad-Aware and now the vendor of that spyware is quickly strengthening its own hold on your machine.
I repeat my recommendation:
do not use FastTrack-based software anymore, not even the 'neutered' versions if they connect to the FastTrack network. Unless the automatic upgrade mechanism itself is neutered you are no more safe than with the official versions. Clean your system with the latest
Ad-Aware. Learn to use alternative p2p programs and wait for the open source giFT client to enjoy the FastTrack functionality in a safe manner.
- tg
