Researchers Push Over 2 Million Updates to Disable the Popcorn Time Updater That Could Enable a Botnet

From November 2025 through March 2026, Eye Security sent more than 2 million updates to computers it did not own to stop and disable the abandoned Time4Popcorn background updater. The updater accepted and installed code over an unencrypted connection with the highest privileges, without verifying who sent it. Eye Security said this could have enabled machines to be taken over, ransomware to be installed, saved passwords to be stolen, or computers to be added to a botnet.