Up to 350,000 Macs exposed by a forgotten Popcorn Time updater
An abandoned Popcorn Time updater left up to 350,000 Macs vulnerable to remote takeover, giving potential attackers a way to execute malicious code with full system privileges. Popcorn Time Security researchers at Eye Research detailed the discovery in an October 22, 2026, research report about Operation IXIM. The vulnerability affected Time4Popcorn, an abandoned fork of the popular BitTorrent streaming application that continued circulating under the Popcorn Time name after the original project shut down in 2014. Some users had stopped using Popcorn Time, but its updater kept running. Eye Research discovered attackers could hijack it to install malware and intervened between November 2025 and March 2026. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
What happened?
An abandoned Popcorn Time updater left up to 350,000 Macs vulnerable to remote takeover, giving potential attackers a way to execute malicious code with full system privileges. Popcorn Time Security researchers at Eye Research detailed the discovery in an October 22, 2026, research report about Operation IXIM. The vulnerability affected Time4Popcorn, an abandoned fork of the popular BitTorrent streaming application that continued circulating under the Popcorn Time name after the original project shut down in 2014. Some users had stopped using Popcorn Time, but its updater kept running. Eye Research discovered attackers could hijack it to install malware and intervened between November 2025 and March 2026. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums
Story details
An abandoned Popcorn Time updater left up to 350,000 Macs vulnerable to remote takeover, giving potential attackers a way to execute malicious code with full system privileges.
Popcorn Time Security researchers at Eye Research detailed the discovery in an October 22, 2026, research report about Operation IXIM.
The vulnerability affected Time4Popcorn, an abandoned fork of the popular BitTorrent streaming application that continued circulating under the Popcorn Time name after the original project shut down in 2014.
Why it matters
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