Myself and BitTorrent (Source/DNS and a reward)

Update (02/08/13)
I can now confirm that I have received $500 (actually less when you take into consideration local exchange rates) from BitTorrent as a thank you for saving them millions a year and by not leaking / releasing or sharing the source code, financial documents , introductory salary offers and more (including a lot of embarrassing material stored on their servers that would get them into a lot of trouble). Having reviewed all the press postings, user comments and more I think its the general consensus that a find of this magnitude is worth more than $500 and I should just be grateful to get anything at all.


(Original post is below).


I kept this private for a long time but a few months ago I managed to accidentally stumble upon a system that contained some crucial and private information and having reviewed what it was ... it turns out it was access to the network of the company "BitTorrent" including sources codes / builds and private unreleased goodies too, such as financial documents and more.

I checked further to see what was at hand and was surprised to find I was able to push public builds on all data such as utorrent and more. I had master keys to everything, including DNS level material. Once I sat down, reviewed what was on my screen I concluded it was in the best interest to notify the company immediately.

Once notified they said thank you and wanted to give me a reward (Cheque) to which I gladly accepted but to this day nothing has been sent/received on my part. I emailed them further and was given some rather rude replies and was told that I would need to 'invoice' them in order to get my reward. To me, this seems absurd. A hacker recently found a bug in which he was able to reset passwords and got £20,000 reward, me? I got the entire source of ALL products / webpages / DNS / Fincial documents and more and in the end they offered me $500, I felt insulted.

So, this is where I am at. I felt I wanted to share and express my annoyance regarding the matter. They make millions a year in ad revenue alone and I never released, tweaked, sent fake builds or nothing out to any user and I feel insulted. Below, I've attached some screenshots authenticating all I've said above.

http://i.imgur.com/3wRUm3Sh.png

http://i.imgur.com/VZNLBphh.png

http://i.imgur.com/HgobghDh.png


http://i.imgur.com/NtsU0Qeh.png

http://i.imgur.com/kKksd17h.png


http://i.imgur.com/aCsATMUh.png


http://i.imgur.com/u4jR9H3h.png


http://i.imgur.com/bRa0eYRh.png


Note: no data is physically located on any of my workstations / servers or anything related. I kept screenshots of the data for myself as verification and web page saved dumps only, so... sorry guys, nothing can be released, will be released or anything at all because I no longer have it.

Well they're lucky that you didn't release this to the public, yet they only give you 500$? cunts.

They should give you like 50K, this is way more serious then resetting passwords. You could have done much damage without them knowing it.

Pitiful of them, so much for being a good samaritan!

Should have kept everything, now you have no leverage other than publicizing the issue.

Pretty sweet.

How could a company put all of that stuff up at GitHub? Do companies do that? If so, I need to go through a few records.

Second, mind giving us backstory into how you found it? What were you doing? What were you surfing? What other tabs did you have open at the time? What kind of porn did you watch during or afterwards? We must know.

Wow, you had them by their balls. Not sure how you 'accidentally stumbled upon' the heart of their business but if you've already disclosed this to the company, you should totally release the details about your stumble.

And the fact that they're not going to reward you for your admirable actions, that's pathetic of them. Kudos to you, MentaL.

You should have copied this files and saved them somewhere and if they pay you delete it and if they don't release it. Win Win

GG on that, MentaL. You should've been part of the Hackers Conference here in Holland.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Repthon

You should have copied this files and saved them somewhere and if they pay you delete it and if they don't release it. Win Win

---

Why would I do that? That's extortion and I'm not an asshole. It's people like you with an attitude like that which gives people bad names.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by (^^,)

Wow, you had them by their balls. Not sure how you 'accidentally stumbled upon' the heart of their business but if you've already disclosed this to the company, you should totally release the details about your stumble.

And the fact that they're not going to reward you for your admirable actions, that's pathetic of them. Kudos to you, MentaL.

---

This was never intended to go public as they said I would get a reward and obviously I told them about my daughter being due in a few months (Who was born on Thursday) the funds would go towards her. Now, fast forward a few months, still nothing. Although they did ask me to invoice them again but I still dont understand that part.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MentaL

Why would I do that? That's extortion and I'm not an asshole. It's people like you with an attitude like that which gives people bad names.



This was never intended to go public as they said I would get a reward and obviously I told them about my daughter being due in a few months (Who was born on Thursday) the funds would go towards her. Now, fast forward a few months, still nothing. Although they did ask me to invoice them again but I still dont understand that part.

---

It is very fair honestly. If you keep thinking like this people will always fool you Mental all your life.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FullmetalPride

Pretty sweet.

How could a company put all of that stuff up at GitHub? Do companies do that? If so, I need to go through a few records.

Second, mind giving us backstory into how you found it? What were you doing? What were you surfing? What other tabs did you have open at the time? What kind of porn did you watch during or afterwards? We must know.

---

A friend was looking for a hosting provider and wanted it all secure, I checked a network range and found the Jenkins panel of BitTorrent. This was all 100% accidental, truth! At the end of the day If I wanted to 'hack' BitTorrent I wouldn't even know where to begin. I mean, there is no real skill or talent involved in what I did to find the information on BitTorrent. They forgot to set a user/pass to the admin panel, that had access to github from a master account. Github accounts had user/passes that was linked to everything.

No hacking, just random find. Mad huh?

PS:

If anyone can share this I would appreciate it.

What a dick move on their par. Had you given that information to someone who could of done damage it would of been bad for them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by vLife

What a dick move on their par. Had you given that information to someone who could of done damage it would of been bad for them.

---

150 million monthly users! Imagine pushing a modified build. The damage would be insane.

Quote:

---

This was never intended to go public as they said I would get a reward and obviously I told them about my daughter being due in a few months (Who was born on Thursday) the funds would go towards her. Now, fast forward a few months, still nothing. Although they did ask me to invoice them again but I still dont understand that part.

---

I'm not sure if this is what they mean by 'invoice' But, I think your best bet would be to try and send them an invoice through PayPal. Here's a link to it https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/he...Id=11153&m=SRE Just get there PayPal email and do that.

I don't have PayPal.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MentaL

This was never intended to go public as they said I would get a reward and obviously I told them about my daughter being due in a few months (Who was born on Thursday) the funds would go towards her. Now, fast forward a few months, still nothing. Although they did ask me to invoice them again but I still dont understand that part.

---

Wow, that's even worse. You opened up a piece of your life to them and told them what you wanted to use the reward for and by their actions, they completely blew you off. With the apparent disregard for security (forgetting to set a user/pass for an admin panel? Really now? I'm sorry but that's just sad. Just with that detail alone, their reputation is ruined in my mind) and the power you possessed over their company, you could have done much damage (i.e. pushing malicious code with public builds, etc) but you chose not to. They should have taken your actions a little more seriously. I hope this PR blows up in their face.

I don't understand the invoicing part neither. Are they too lazy to send the cheque to you themselves like they we're to setup a user/pass for a critical panel of their business? It appears so. Did you ever send them the invoice?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by (^^,)

Wow, that's even worse. You opened up a piece of your life to them and told them what you wanted to use the reward for and by their actions, they completely blew you off. With the apparent disregard for security (forgetting to set a user/pass for an admin panel? Really now? I'm sorry but that's just sad. Just with that detail alone, their reputation is ruined in my mind) and the power you possessed over their company, you could have done much damage (i.e. pushing malicious code with public builds, etc) but you chose not to. They should have taken your actions a little more seriously. I hope this PR blows up in their face.

I don't understand the invoicing part neither. Are they too lazy to send the cheque to you themselves like they we're to setup a user/pass for a critical panel of their business? It appears so. Did you ever send them the invoice?

---

I'm not sending any sort of invoice until they tell me exactly why an invoice is required on my part?

# Update

Invoice is required for accounting as they will not release any funds until an invoice has been sent. I'm unsure how to approach this.

You could try sending this in to some news sites related to this topic, you never know:
TorrentFreak | Breaking File-sharing, Copyright and Privacy News - ernesto@torrentfreak.com
Techdirt. - Submit a Story to Techdirt

TorrentFreak already have emailed me back regarding it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MentaL

TorrentFreak already have emailed me back regarding it.

---

What did they say?

Also, did you contact them about how to open a invoice?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by VVess

What did they say?

Also, did you contact them about how to open a invoice?

---

They said they'll contact me further if they have any questions so I guess they'll write up a story. As for the invoice, I know how to (as I have a business account for RZ stuff) but I'm just sceptical.

It's just weird but I guess each company has their own way and policies regarding rewards for bugs. I do believe $500 is awfully low for the severity of the bug though. I would expect at minimum $2000 and higher.

EDIT: It feels so wrong calling this a bug. More like someone didn't do their fucking job right and didn't care about the security.

Good job, MentaL!
Those biatches are actually really lucky.

Well if you think about it, If you would've released it(Thank god you're a good guy). They would've lost a shitload of more than 500$. I am kinda disappointed that they only gave 500$, considering they would be in so much trouble right now :/ damn,

Great example of someone doing the right thing and getting screwed over. Company's really take the piss now. 500$ is not even 250 pounds thats a joke. You saved they tons of money they could have at least given you a few K not a slap in the face for doing the right thing!

From what I've learned in various accounting/fraud classes, an invoice is so when they file taxes, they can prove where the money went.

But Yeah 500 is total bs. The worst part is, they know that and they also know there is little you can do to ask for more simply because they could sue you for "nefarious" activities, even though the security flaw was accidental.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by croog24

From what I've learned in various accounting/fraud classes, an invoice is so when they file taxes, they can prove where the money went.

---

That makes a lot of sense and they did confirm that to me.

#Update

It seems this thread is gaining a lot of interest. One thing I've picked up on is that a lot of people feel that I am a self entitled a-hole which is a fair judgement when I step back and look at it but I do apologies if I come across that way.

Has it been posted anywhere yet ?

Nearly 2k guests viewing this..

Looked over the comments again, and I can't really find the reason behind people thinking that way.

From the start you have noted you aren't releasing any sources to the public (no bad intends), blurred out information from letters, etc.

The fact you share it with the public shows security risks in big companies like that a lot of people put their trust in. For showing such a high risk vuln. they atleast could have helped you better with the reward, and even higher the reward a bit, as if someone else would have abused it, it could have costed them much more time, work and money.

Just my 2 cents.

@Alfons, yes i posted it to https://news.ycombinator.com , and it made the front page

Cheers..

Really curious to see how they're going to respond to this.

Should have switched the ad accounts to yours for 24 hours, then switched it back.
Hah, pretty sure you would have gotten a nice penny from the revenue. Tis what I would have done.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Supicioso

Should have switched the ad accounts to yours for 24 hours, then switched it back.
Hah, pretty sure you would have gotten a nice penny from the revenue. Tis what I would have done.

---

The law suite would take more money from him then he got from the ads.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Supicioso

Should have switched the ad accounts to yours for 24 hours, then switched it back.
Hah, pretty sure you would have gotten a nice penny from the revenue. Tis what I would have done.

---

Pushing ads to a website you do not own or operate is not really advisable.

I had a nice reply from the bittorrent team and there could be progress made avoiding the need to invoice. They also congratulated me on the birth of my daughter which was thoughtful. All funds are for her hence why I was initially patient. Whilst I went public with the information everything that I found has been fixed which is most important.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 2

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MentaL

It seems this thread is gaining a lot of interest. One thing I've picked up on is that a lot of people feel that I am a self entitled a-hole which is a fair judgement when I step back and look at it but I do apologies if I come across that way.

---

To me you come off as a guy who tried to do the right thing. Then you were made a promise and they haven't followed through on that that promise. With the promise comes the entitlement.

I hope they follow through on their promise to you. Since you did the right thing, they should too.

BitTorrents an ass.

I'm certain you would have made a whole lot more selling the find to the wrong person / group. You did the honourable thing by getting in touch with them, I wouldn't write them off yet, you probably just got in touch with assholes after the 1st contact, I'm guessing they have plenty of people on their team.

I'd get them to confirm in writing all details about the reward, they want an invoice for their own protection, you want snail mail too, it's fair. Have they been in touch with you since? Hopefully a little media exposure will motivate them to help you out a little, you are a nice guy, an asshole would have done a lot of damage to them.

The information is now featured on TorrentFreak.

Well that's fucking ridiculous. Shows what happens when you do the right thing...

http://i.imgur.com/OVKBIbH.png

What the heck is this? Can't the editor not read? I hacked nothing and exploited nothing.
http://www.businessinsider.com/bitto...rk-hack-2013-8
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MentaL

What the heck is this? Can't the editor not read? I hacked nothing and exploited nothing.
BitTorrent Network Hack - Business Insider
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

---

Thats media for you... Changing stories to make it even more interesting.

Press aren't allowed to print false stories however. I've sent the article writer, Dylan Love, a wee tweet. I suggest others also contact him and let him know his story's wrong

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Junkers

Press aren't allowed to print false stories however. I've sent the article writer, Dylan Love, a wee tweet. I suggest others also contact him and let him know his story's wrong

---

Contacted him aswell. Hope to hear from him soon.

This is just ridiculous. Honestly half speechless as to how they managed to Hire such shite staff.
In essence , you have basically done the job of some complete sod , so you should get his wage.

I'm glad BitTorrent Inc sent a classy reply to Business Insider for their disaster of an article. I also appreciate the comments below that page.

MentaL did they still pay you after this time?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by zh1nt0

MentaL did they still pay you after this time?

---

No, nothing yet but they said they maybe able to avoid the whole 'invoicing' scenario. A lot of people seem to think I'm trying to 'extort' but what people are failing to realise is I notified them of the issue immediately, they in turn contacted me back about a reward as a "Thank you". They asking for my information and where to send and failed to follow up on it. When I was able to get a response that is when the $500 was mentioned which seemed a little low as I based it on what had happened around that time with Facebook and other payments issued for stuff only minor in comparison to my find.

If I come across as a self righteous asshole then so be it but the reward was offered to me AFTER i notified them and told them in rather great detail on how things where accessed and so on.

I still have no reply from Mr Love as of yet, the prick!

Just saw that article, obviously put out by someones boyfriend at BitTorrent.

WeaselDetector, was my favourite name from the replies so far :P

Some of the comments on TorrentFreak are very disappointing. So many people with dumb comments or just complete retarded ones.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Junkers

I still have no reply from Mr Love as of yet, the prick!

---

I contacted him on everything.. If no answer by 4 am tomorrow, shit will go down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZOywn1qArI

more slander: This Hacker Claims To Have Access To BitTorrent's Master Keys And Now He Wants Cash - Yahoo! Finance

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by exclamatio

more slander: This Hacker Claims To Have Access To BitTorrent's Master Keys And Now He Wants Cash - Yahoo! Finance

---

The title is misleading. damn.

MentaL, they just screwed you up.Btw i like the response from the users.You got many supporters!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by VVess

Some of the comments on TorrentFreak are very disappointing. So many people with dumb comments or just complete retarded ones.

---

Welcome to the Internet

I've been in contact with the VP of Marketing and the matter is being resolved.

i seen this on facebook.. this topic made my day :D excellent job!

Mental being too nice for his own good.

I'd be willing to bet money on this being worth thousands to certain companies and countries. He could have easily sold it to a shady group of chinese hackers, and probably made enough to buy a new house. 150 million monthly users is a lot of people to spy on. Hell some of the entertainment companies would probably pay a lot to essentially destroy one of the largest copyright infringement enablers out there (though I guess it would be a bit hypocritical for Dan to do that?).

Though I suppose doing that would likely mean he'd have to move country etc, and with a baby I doubt that would have been practical.


Anyway, those news sites damning him are quite frankly just showing white hats the thanks they get. Don't release info, get a joke of an amount from the company, and a shit load of bad press. Frankly the media and companies should be supporting, and promoting, this behaviour, because in the end it's OUR computers that are at risk when the hacker decides, fuck it sell it to the bad guys. Frankly when a hacker gets a password database, it should be the company paying the hacker off, not the thousands of users who get their banking accounts raided.

Just read about this on TorrentFreak and as soon as I saw MentaL I had a feeling it was something to do with RaGEZONE and to my surprise it was. Good on you for doing the right thing and not being malicious with what you discovered hopefully they attempt to resolve this issue with you now and actually give you a decent reward. $500 seems a little insulting based on what you had access too.

I've sent the story to the BBC, hopefully they'll write up an unbiased story!

I doubt they'll pick up on it, not unless there is an agenda or a spin.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Junkers

I've sent the story to the BBC, hopefully they'll write up an unbiased story!

---

I would think they would only use it with the current topic of "OMFG WE DONT UNDRESTNAND INTERNIT. BAN PORNZ AND ALL BAD STUFF PLZ"

Even though it ain't in the UK or US. I had submitted the poor decisions they made on a dutch hardware/software site. Just top support you so they can act normal to you for what you did for them and they for you. You deserve all the credits, and what you've got from them? 500 bucks and a bad altitude from them.

Scream it on over the world. I am here to support you for the dumb decisions they made! We want justice for MentaL!

Dutch website can be found here: Hacker had toegang tot broncode uTorrent via lek in Github - Computer - Nieuws - Tweakers

Ps. Sorry for the bad English. It has been a while sinds I had an English course. :p

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by warzie006

Even though it ain't in the UK or US. I had submitted the poor decisions they made on a dutch hardware/software site. Just top support you so they can act normal to you for what you did for them and they for you. You deserve all the credits, and what you've got from them? 500 bucks and a bad altitude from them.

Scream it on over the world. I am here to support you for the dumb decisions they made! We want justice for MentaL!

Dutch website can be found here: Hacker had toegang tot broncode uTorrent via lek in Github - Computer - Nieuws - Tweakers

Ps. Sorry for the bad English. It has been a while sinds I had an English course. :p

---

Could someone translate what that Stealthy guy is saying more accurately? He claims to know me and yet I have no idea who he is.

#Update

I wish people would stop calling me a hacker, I am not. Nothing was hacked, NOTHING.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by warzie006

Even though it ain't in the UK or US. I had submitted the poor decisions they made on a dutch hardware/software site. Just top support you so they can act normal to you for what you did for them and they for you. You deserve all the credits, and what you've got from them? 500 bucks and a bad altitude from them.

Scream it on over the world. I am here to support you for the dumb decisions they made! We want justice for MentaL!

Dutch website can be found here: Hacker had toegang tot broncode uTorrent via lek in Github - Computer - Nieuws - Tweakers

Ps. Sorry for the bad English. It has been a while sinds I had an English course. :p

---

Read through the article, also here they assume (and even share how he did it according to them) that MentaL didn't find it by accident, and instead used a security flaw in a recent announced Github leak.

"From the screenshots it appears that 'MentaL' had access to the Github-area since march. He probably abused a previously announced leak in Github.'"

They didn't even look through it fully, the whole Jenkins panel part has been left out. Probably the worst article untill now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MentaL

Could someone translate what that Stealthy guy is saying more accurately? He claims to know me and yet I have no idea who he is.

---

Sigh... MentaL
Him knewing (yes I had a history with him) he had heard something again via via something and is there going to framefarming with it.

I had made my hobby for a while to plague his forum after a game what he wanted to play with me.

Irrelivant? Mabye.
But I don't like the bias in the media... "hacker MentaL"... lol
It took long enough for him to let the apache server settings to configure by someone else.

But it seems to go this way for a long time now.
Jantje-connection-bigtalking hears something or finds someone else's work and blows the story (alot of it undeserved) even bigger the media world in with all the unnecessary consequences afterwards.

I think it results in al those "I am a hacker" / "I am hacked" spam these days only more in new policies and more strict laws -> controls of the internet.

--------------------------

zucht... MentaL
hem kennende (ja ik heb een geschiedenis met hem) heeft hij weer eens via via iets gehoord en is er mee gaan famefarmen

ik heb er een tijd hobby van gemaakt om zijn forum te plagen na een dergelijk spelletje wat hij wilde spelen

irrelevant? misschien
maar ik houd niet van bias in de media... "hacker MentaL"... lol
het heeft lang genoeg geduurd voor hij zijn apache service door iemand anders juist liet configureren

maar zo lijkt het vaker te gaan tegenwoordig
jantje-connectie-grootmuil hoort of vind iets van iemand anders en blaast het verhaal (vaak onterecht) nog groter de media wereld in met alle onnodige gevolgen van dien

volgens mij resulteert al die "ik ben een hacker" / "ik ben gehacked" spam van tegenwoordig alleen maar in nieuwe policies en strengere wetgeving -> controle van het internet

gefeliciteerd

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by warzie006

Sigh... MentaL
Him knewing (yes I had a history with him) he had heard something again via via something and is there going to framefarming with it.

I had made my hobby for a while to plague his forum after a game what he wanted to play with me.

Irrelivant? Mabye.
But I don't like the bias in the media... "hacker MentaL"... lol
It took long enough for him to let the apache server settings to configure by someone else.

But it seems to go this way for a long time now.
Jantje-connection-bigtalking hears something or finds someone else's work and blows the story (alot of it undeserved) even bigger the media world in with all the unnecessary consequences afterwards.

I think it results in al those "I am a hacker" / "I am hacked" spam these days only more in new policies and more strict laws -> controls of the internet.

--------------------------

zucht... MentaL
hem kennende (ja ik heb een geschiedenis met hem) heeft hij weer eens via via iets gehoord en is er mee gaan famefarmen

ik heb er een tijd hobby van gemaakt om zijn forum te plagen na een dergelijk spelletje wat hij wilde spelen

irrelevant? misschien
maar ik houd niet van bias in de media... "hacker MentaL"... lol
het heeft lang genoeg geduurd voor hij zijn apache service door iemand anders juist liet configureren

maar zo lijkt het vaker te gaan tegenwoordig
jantje-connectie-grootmuil hoort of vind iets van iemand anders en blaast het verhaal (vaak onterecht) nog groter de media wereld in met alle onnodige gevolgen van dien

volgens mij resulteert al die "ik ben een hacker" / "ik ben gehacked" spam van tegenwoordig alleen maar in nieuwe policies en strengere wetgeving -> controle van het internet

gefeliciteerd

---

Ah right, he is a liar. Thanks. Also, I don't use Apache, not that it matters.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by VVess

Read through the article, also here they assume (and even share how he did it according to them) that MentaL didn't find it by accident, and instead used a security flaw in a recent announced Github leak.

"From the screenshots it appears that 'MentaL' had access to the Github-area since march. He probably abused a previously announced leak in Github.'"

They didn't even look through it fully, the whole Jenkins panel part has been left out. Probably the worst article untill now.

---

Even they call him a hacker (which he ain't). I am supporting him for the right decisions MentaL made and the poor the decisions made on the other side (BitTorrent).

I am gonna talk to Tweakers again and address them to the fault of calling him a hacker. Because he ain't.

Sigh.. Media...

Translated:
sigh... MentaL

Knowing him (yes, I have a history with him) he heard something from someone else and used it to gain more fame himself.

I made it a hobby to annoy his forum after some sort of game he tried to play with me.

irrelevant? maybe
But I don't like bias in the media... "hacker MentaL".... lol
It took long enough before he let his apache service correctly configure by someone else.


But it appears to go this way more lately
mister-connection-bigmouth hears of finds something from something else and blows the story (most of the time unfairly) even bigger the media world in with all unnessecary results of it.

I think it results in al those "I am a hacker" / "I am hacked" spam these days only more in new policies and more strict laws -> controls of the internet.

TL;DR:
- He says you have let your Apache Service configure by something else
- He says you heard this leak from someone else and abused it to gain fame
- He says you made the story bigger then it actually is
- He says he made it his hobby to plague RaGEZONE.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by VVess

Translated:
sigh... MentaL

Knowing him (yes, I have a history with him) he heard something from someone else and used it to gain more fame himself.

I made it a hobby to annoy his forum after some sort of game he tried to play with me.

irrelevant? maybe
But I don't like bias in the media... "hacker MentaL".... lol
It took long enough before he let his apache service correctly configure by someone else.


But it appears to go this way more lately
mister-connection-bigmouth hears of finds something from something else and blows the story (most of the time unfairly) even bigger the media world in with all unnessecary results of it.

I think it results in al those "I am a hacker" / "I am hacked" spam these days only more in new policies and more strict laws -> controls of the internet.

TL;DR:
- He says you have let your Apache Service configure by something else
- He says you heard this leak from someone else and abused it to gain fame
- He says you made the story bigger then it actually is
- He says he made it his hobby to plague RaGEZONE.

---

Quite amusing but all lies.

Someone 'agreed' with stealthy and also commented:

MentaL,

Yes, if the history indeed has teached us something, you are probably right.

Unless he actually has been seriously working and actually learned something the last couple of years, the possibility this is his work is very small. Ofcourse it could be possible, I set my money that this is famefarm, it fits in his lane (means that you do this more often according to him).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by VVess

Someone 'agreed' with stealthy and also commented:

MentaL,

Yes, if the history indeed has teached us something, you are probably right.

Unless he actually has been seriously working and actually learned something the last couple of years, the possibility this is his work is very small. Ofcourse it could be possible, I set my money that this is famefarm, it fits in his lane (means that you do this more often according to him).

---

What fame? Everyone is saying I'm a hacker, I am not. I've clearly stated this numerous times. People are posting up on the situation without basic reading comprehension. The idea that someone would just 'let me' report this and get the reward is idiotic. Evidently this guy is a tool or a jealous idiot.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MentaL

What fame? Everyone is saying I'm a hacker, I am not. I've clearly stated this numerous times. People are posting up on the situation without basic reading comprehension. The idea that someone would just 'let me' report this and get the reward is idiotic. Evidently this guy is a tool or a jealous idiot.

---

I'd go with both. Seems more jealousy though. He seems extremely jealous of you so he's trying to harm you.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Justice For All

I'd go with both. Seems more jealousy though. He seems extremely jealous of you so he's trying to harm you.

---

Most likely this indeed. People try to twist the story as much as possible. Its also very sad that they keep displaying him as a hacker. Ofcourse they do this to make the story more thrilling, but it gives a wrong view.

The comments (except the one from Stealthy & Co.) are way better then on the other sites this article has been posted on though. Mostly more supportive users, and people agreeing with what you did.

That's good to hear. I've read a lot of comments and understand both sides and opinions but I think I won't read anymore of them. This would never have gone public if it wasn't for all the delays and communication errors. That being said, VP of marketing Matt from BT sent me funds personally last night via bank and I am waiting for them to arrive. I'll update you all accordingly.

So the 500 bucks or 150k? Hehe

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Truth be told, I have no idea, they have not told me (It still could be the $500). Matt just asked for my bank details and said they can skip the invoicing procedure.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MentaL

That's good to hear. I've read a lot of comments and understand both sides and opinions but I think I won't read anymore of them. This would never have gone public if it wasn't for all the delays and communication errors. That being said, VP of marketing Matt from BT sent me funds personally last night via bank and I am waiting for them to arrive. I'll update you all accordingly.

---

80% of the people that comment negative stuff in at news sites are trolls who just want to get a reaction from everyone.

I'd choose to not read any of those comments. Reading those on tweakers.net just agitates me... And everyone portraying you as a "hacker" lol.

I suppose this got the forum quite some more traffic? Notice any increase?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

If anything, people addressing you as a "hacker" just boosts your rep since half the internet is full of dipshits who instantly think you're some sort of computing god the minute the word hacker is used :P: albeit it's not a nice handle to have and discredits your good reputation.

Guess all we can do is assure the people who aren't forum users who read this story that you're no hacker, you're a forum admin who's being hounded by media jackals twisting the story to boost their reputation on the back of your good deed.

Mr Dylan Love has completely ignored me. last tweetwas 10h ago.. I sent a tweet to him around 24h ago.

Ignored me as well, given his story seems to be giving foundation for other people writing their bollocks, man needs a slap!

Money just appeared in my bank account from BitTorrent for reporting the find. They sent a grand total of $500.

Good that they came through. A little cheap for the trouble you saved them, l33t h4ck3r MentaL.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Well aren't they a generous bunch! :glare:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MentaL

Money just appeared in my bank account from BitTorrent for reporting the find. They sent a grand total of $500.

---

At least they got around sending it to you. It's better than nothing though (in my opinion) this exploit is worth a lot more money than that.

Off-topic:
The press gave me a good laugh.

At least Emily has her next lot of clothes paid for :):

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MentaL

At least Emily has her next lot of clothes paid for :):

---

Good for you MentaL. You did the right thing. and congrats on the baby.
cheers

At the end of the day, we should just be grateful you received some money for this. They're a big enough company to just accept your findings and shun you, penniless.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by EliteGM

I'd choose to not read any of those comments. Reading those on tweakers.net just agitates me... And everyone portraying you as a "hacker" lol.

I suppose this got the forum quite some more traffic? Notice any increase?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

---

Tweakers.net is also calling Mental a hacker >_> is it so hard for these people too read the OP?

Anyway, $1000 is still cheap for what mental could have done with all that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tyler

At the end of the day, we should just be grateful you received some money for this. They're a big enough company to just accept your findings and shun you, penniless.

---

Though that would horribly damage their reputation to white hats. And so the next grey hat hacker might rather sell an exploit to a Chinese group.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Davidaap

Tweakers.net is also calling Mental a hacker >_> is it so hard or these people too read the OP?

Anyway, $1000 is still cheap for what mental could have done with all that.

---

People who write the article, probably copy it off another site. Since every site so far has called him a hacker, so will the others.. Really dissapointed that they don't actually read the original post.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aksel

People who write the article, probably copy it off another site. Since every site so far has called him a hacker, so will the others.. Really dissapointed that they don't actually read the original post.

---

This is not really true, also why would they read another site's article but not the thread with all the information of the reporter itself? They just want to make the article more thrilling, and most of them come with different conclusions why he 'is a hacker' (such as the Github leak theory from Tweakers).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by VVess

This is not really true, also why would they read another site's article but not the thread with all the information of the reporter itself? They just want to make the article more thrilling, and most of them come with different conclusions why he 'is a hacker' (such as the Github leak theory from Tweakers).

---

Yes, but notice how the title is similar on every english site. If not fully copying eachother, then alittle atleast.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Aksel

Yes, but notice how the title is similar on every english site. If not fully copying eachother, then alittle atleast.

---

They take the key parts, thats what every news site does. Nothing copied from the other sites. Where some people just called him a hacker on English news sites, the Dutch site used sarcastic 'by accident' (notice the '') and came up with the whole Github exploit theory. So no, you're wrong.

Very true. Had MentaL not publicised this though, these hackers wouldn't have known about it anyway. They don't have to give MentaL anything, it's just good of them to do so. Lets be honest, $500 for accidentally stumbling across something, that's not bad.


Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk

Knowing the outcome, what would you have all done if you was in my exact circumstances? I'm interested in what people would have done. My FB got bombarded with people asking to buy it, release it and so on.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MentaL

Knowing the outcome, what would you have all done if you was in my exact circumstances? I'm interested in what people would have done. My FB got bombarded with people asking to buy it, release it and so on.

---

I'd have sent them an e-mail "want to bet 20.000$ that I have access to all of your private company files?".

In all seriousness, I'd have done the same thing. There was no point in waiting because someone else could have found it the next day.

I think I would have done the same. Basicly because I think once they will find out that you have sold it / released it, they would have started a lawsuit against you. Maybe kept all the files though, looked through the code of BitTorrent etc.