Okay, assholes. You've been throwing the term "Botnet" around way too much, and you have no idea what it means.
Let's fucking define what the term actually means, using clear language. No glossed-over bullshit like "controlled by Microsoft", because that's too vague to mean anything.
Here is my take on it:
A Botnet is when a someone can, in a central manner, have direct (or some other more-limited form of control) over people's computer. And they can, at any time, tell those machines what to do, such as initiating a DDoSing, bitcoin mining, or sending spam emails. All without the user's consent.
I would not consider something like Windows Update or Chrome occasionally polling for updates a Botnet. Because in that vein of logic, EverNote polling their servers for new Notes to synchronize would be a fucking Botnet.
But I would extend the definition to more-grey areas such as the example of uTorrent, which have (or used to have?) which take up your CPU cycles for bitcoin mining. This is not at all what a user would expect from a Torrent application, and users get absolutely no benefit out of it.
So, Botnet thread.
Let's talk about some programs people commonly accuse of being one, and why or why they may meet that definition.
>>55045143
It's a meme you dip!
Hello DOG?!
>>55045288
Except it's a meme that less-technical users will believe.
People in real life have started asking me about Windows 10 and Chrome being botnets now, and the idea is so ingrained with them that I can't reason them out of it.
>>55045306
> People in real life
You seem to think people on /g/ are more technical savvy. Nobody gives a shit about anything, and the amount of fizzbuzz thread should have gave you a hint.
4cheng as an imageboard is just meme central, with some flavors given by the board type. I made peace with it.
>>55045369
>>55045369
OP here, and I do agree with your sentiment.
I only come here because occasionally there is gold. Like, super-gold, from amazingly technical or informed people. And even though the vast majority of the communication is kinda shit, there is enough half-decent discussion some of the time.
The only alternative that I can think of are either aggregation sites like Reddit/Hacker News. Or tech forums, which are mostly dead and just have a bunch of oldfags that dominate discourse and which have a stagnant community. I've tried them, and nothing interesting ever really goes on in them.
At least with 4chan, things are always changing, and you get a mix of oldfags and newfags all the time, and random insight you just can't see coming.
Most known are Windows OS's.
Not just 10. I see it a lot with XP and 8, too, even if they are shit and outdated.
In my opinion, you can only make your OS a botnet by being such a retard to download the botnet itself.
OP is correct. A botnet is simply a collective noun to refer to a given network of "bots" - machines compromised by malware such as RATs (remote-access trojans), which are collectively Commanded and Controlled by what is (tautologically) called a C&C.
The name comes from the historical practice - still present in some systems - of some strains of RAT containing IRC bots, to use that to organise and manage them. That way allows one blackhat to have one consolidated interface to manage multiple compromised machines at the same time, and direct them to, for example, all do the same thing at once: for example launch a DoS attack, which then becomes a DDoS attack, for the purposes of "booting" (disrupting) a website or server. One historical reason for doing this was to cause IRC netsplits, to attempt to steal nicks or channels on the rejoin. Another, more recent one is that of simple extortion. Other payloads include credential-stealing, the uninvited installation of adware/spyware for affiliate fraud, and occasionally - more recently - the installation of ransomware, although that tends to "burn" the bot as after that point the user will notice, it is not going to be available for continued use.
Modern C&C channels don't often use IRC, but it still happens. They tend to be fancy web shells these days. Pic related. (Source: malware.dontneedcoffee.com, 2012)
A computer being part of an actual botnet obviously does pose a privacy risk - even Sub7 and BackOrifice and friends had things for spying on people's desktop, webcam, any mic connected if it was working, etc.
However, some of the more technically-illiterate /r9k/ NEET tards here on /g/ have taken to using "botnet" in a meme way to refer to absolutely anything that poses or could pose a privacy risk, apparently no matter how slight or extreme, or whether that risk is pooled in any way.
This is of course stupid, as it is a term of art with a specific different meaning in infosec, but that's frogposters for you.
>>55045143
So no. Windows 10 is not "botnet". Chrome is not "botnet". uTorrent, no matter what is bundled with it, is not "botnet".
In fact, no program meets the definition of being a botnet - because a botnet is a management network. The malicious software that might take over a computer to connect it TO a botnet, therefore turning it into a bot, is a RAT, or remote-access trojan: software that allows one or more people to log into your computer to execute arbitrary code on it with system/root/administrative permissions.
Even legitimate RATs exist, as do legitimate botnets, although these terms are not used to describe legitimate software: all remote admin software meets the criteria, and some remote admin software tries to be stealthy to the normal user or to use a "rootkit", whose job is to persist the RAT software against removal (often used in corporate or educational environments). TeamViewer is one notable one (although it seems to have been taken over at least partially, lol). The only difference is whether the people involved have authorisation to actually do this. (In a corporate setting, obviously they do if they own the computers: perhaps they want to update software on them, etc.) FBI call them NITs. NSA/GCHQ/etc these days call them implants (if persistent) or agents (if non-persistent).
Pic related is a botnet. Specifically, a botnet command and control shell. (Source: Krebs.)
>>55045143
I can tell a botnet when I see it. And my subjective opinion is literal objective truth. Only shills want to lock you down to definitions so they know how to bend reality and modify perceptions. You are a shill deal with it.
/thead
>tfw you fell for the 'buzzwordGimmickBotnent' meme and replaced the word 'buzzwordGimmickBotnent' with meme, and now meme is a 'buzzwordGimmickBotnent'
