Researchers Push Over 2 Million Updates to Remotely Disable Popcorn Time Updater That Could Fuel a Botnet

A Dutch security firm, Eye Security, has taken action to disable a potentially vulnerable updater associated with an abandoned version of the Popcorn Time app. The firm pushed over 2 million updates to computers to shut down the background updater, which it believed could be exploited to gain control of the machine. This updater belonged to Time4Popcorn, a copy of the Popcorn Time app that streamed pirated content over BitTorrent. The action was taken between November 2025 and March 2026. The goal was to prevent the possible use of the updater in creating a botnet. The original Popcorn Time app was known for streaming free, pirated films and TV shows.