1337x mod response on Reddit, seemingly confirming the existence of the torrent: https://i.imgur.com/ij4CXIm.png
They appear to be implying that it was only checked, verified to be malware and deleted… after the listing was vigorously defended by mods and users complaining that it was malware were banned. Very odd.
EDIT: Found an archived copy of the listing before it was taken down by 1337x mods. Includes some comments (up to yesterday).
User comments provide proof that malware was uploaded (and 1337x mods themselves admitted it was malware in the Reddit response), yet VitaminX remains unaffected on the site: https://1337x.to/user/VitaminX/
There are preserved comments from the 1337x mods, such as:
Ex0duS5150: the next user posting, “Trojan found” is getting the ban hammer. Stop it with the n00bishness. this torrent is not dirty if you dont know what your doing stop DLing torrents.
reply:
IGGGAMESCOM: @Ex0duS5150: thank you so much for this reassurance buddy, now I can breathe a sigh of relief instead of having to “fight” with those guys, lol.
TBF, it’s more likely just overconfidence/incompetence. Cracks are OFTEN flagged by AV, and it’s usually nothing malicious. The guys at 1337x aren’t dumb enough to think a crypto miner wouldn’t be found pretty quickly.
Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Maybe, it’s definitely a possibility. What’s weird is the original uploader (https://1337x.to/user/VitaminX/) remains unaffected and users were reporting this up to 3 days before it was taken down with very compelling evidence - the miner was barely hidden and only when it blew up on Reddit was any action taken.
Can you link the preserved comments or give a screenshot or archive or something?
Absolutely. It took a bit of digging, but I found an archive with some of the comments: https://web.archive.org/web/20230805153327/https://www.1337x.to/torrent/5753101/Baldurs-Gate-3-GOG-Digital-Deluxe-Edition-Multi13-Baldur-s/
It only goes up to yesterday, so some of the recent comments (especially from mods) are missing - but this should provide sufficient evidence. Mods’ combative and defensive comments from today were widely viewed (just look at Reddit), their authenticity is not under question. That being said, comments from Ex0duS5150 are present, proving mods were aware of the listing early on.
User comments provide proof that malware was uploaded (and 1337x mods themselves admitted it was malware in the Reddit response), yet VitaminX remains unaffected on the site: https://1337x.to/user/VitaminX/