There are some torrrents showing up with .lnkextension (ex: movie.mp3.lnk, tvshow.mkv.lnk…) and automated software (Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, qBittorrent RSS Downloader) could pick those torrents (but not import).
These (fake) torrents include a .lnk file that executes a script on your Windows
HOW TO exclude from download on qBittorrent.
-
Go to Options -> Downloads
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Enable “Exclude file names”
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Add patterns:
(one by line)
*.mp4.lnk
*.mp3.lnk
*.mkv.lnk
*.torrent.lnk
*.zipx
*.scr
*.arj
*.lzh
Or exclude all together: *.lnk
Example on VirusTotal https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/e74f64df6ebaf3a1b6e3f42591eb6e87d2ac2828eb5a99fd8d3d82c140137fc9/detection
Not using Windows helps a ton :)
Sonarr will still pick the release and download GBs of malware, and if you don’t notice your download directly is filled with GBs of fake torrents
We just deleted those failed to import periodically with an automation 😁