Eye Security Pushed Over 2 Million Updates to Disable a Popcorn Time Updater
The Dutch firm says it sent updates to machines it did not own between November 2025 and March 2026 to switch off a background updater in an abandoned Popcorn Time copy.
Between November 2025 and March 2026, the Dutch security firm Eye Security pushed more than 2 million updates to computers it did not own, according to a report by The Hacker News. The updates switched off a background updater that the firm said could have allowed an outsider to take over the machine.
The updater belongs to Time4Popcorn, described as an abandoned copy of Popcorn Time, a free app that streamed pirated films and TV over BitTorrent. Because the software is no longer maintained, the update channel itself becomes the weak point: whoever controls it can reach every installed copy.
The report does not name the vulnerability, give a severity score, or say how many machines were affected. It also does not describe how Eye Security obtained the ability to send updates, or whether the operator of the updater objected. Those details matter before treating the intervention as a model.
For defenders, the practical lesson is about abandoned software on endpoints. Unmaintained apps that keep a self-update mechanism can leave a remote code path open long after the vendor walks away. Inventory what is installed, flag titles with no active maintainer, and remove them where policy allows rather than assuming an idle app is harmless.
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