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NEWS: Episodes of Anime from Crunchyroll's Spring Season Leak Online Ahead of Official Premiere


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MFrontier



Joined: 13 Apr 2014
Posts: 11494
PostPosted: Fri Apr 05, 2024 11:39 pm Reply with quote
I keep seeing people talking about episodes and discussion threads turning up and I'm like...what!?
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Яeverse



Joined: 16 Jun 2014
Posts: 1141
Location: Indianapolis
PostPosted: Fri Apr 05, 2024 11:48 pm Reply with quote
Need to go back to the old days and having screening episodes at cons on a single computer by a single employee on a computer lacking internet connection to display.
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paulchaested



Joined: 04 Oct 2016
Posts: 259
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2024 12:29 am Reply with quote
Yeah… pretty much everything leaked were pre screened at various cons.

How do distributors actually pre screen it? Give a video file to a con staff member for them to project it? Or Do they simply just plug their laptop into the projector with the video file and just play it?

It’s unlikely but I imagine CR might consider to not even bother to pre screen shows anymore since a leak this big happened.
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Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5531
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2024 12:45 am Reply with quote
Яeverse wrote:
Need to go back to the old days and having screening episodes at cons on a single computer by a single employee on a computer lacking internet connection to display.


Computers lacking internet connection literally just don't exist anymore. Even if you deny password to the Con Wi-Fi, they can just use a hotspot lol. There's no stopping this unless they stop screenings entirely
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Ermat_46



Joined: 14 Apr 2008
Posts: 726
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2024 12:49 am Reply with quote
paulchaested wrote:
Yeah… pretty much everything leaked were pre screened at various cons.

How do distributors actually pre screen it? Give a video file to a con staff member for them to project it? Or Do they simply just plug their laptop into the projector with the video file and just play it?

It’s unlikely but I imagine CR might consider to not even bother to pre screen shows anymore since a leak this big happened.


Given that the leaks are all with similar filesizes and all are hardsubbed (from what I've heard since I did not watch the leaks), then yes, the source is just a single convention. At the very least, I expect they'll avoid doing pre-screening for that convention in the future.
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SaitoHajime101



Joined: 31 Mar 2013
Posts: 283
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2024 1:37 am Reply with quote
Kougeru wrote:
Яeverse wrote:
Need to go back to the old days and having screening episodes at cons on a single computer by a single employee on a computer lacking internet connection to display.


Computers lacking internet connection literally just don't exist anymore. Even if you deny password to the Con Wi-Fi, they can just use a hotspot lol. There's no stopping this unless they stop screenings entirely


I disagree as an IT professional. It really comes down to the company, the IT department and the approach both sides take to securing their systems and data. A pretty quick and least annoying step is to rip out the wireless card out of the laptop, disable the ethernet port via device manager and make sure the user account used by the marketing employee is a standard account (just one of many solutions to this issue). There's not a one-glove-fits-all solution. It is just a matter of finding one that best fits your company and provides the best mitigation.

At the end of the day, we're talking about smaller media companies (in comparison to big ones like Disney). How much stock do they truly put into their security? It's pretty well-known that, unless your company has money to spare, IT security is usually an after-thought to smaller businesses.

That is to even say this was a case of an external bad actor getting data off of a company device. Insider threats are more common than external (insider threats are not necessarily malicious in nature).
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Zomb1e13



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 51
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2024 1:46 am Reply with quote
I think people are giving Crunchyroll way to much credit. They half-arse everything and I am willing to bet they just hosted these files on their own servers. Someone either already knew an exploit to access them or one of the people running the convention just went home and ripped the files.
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Ermat_46



Joined: 14 Apr 2008
Posts: 726
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2024 2:53 am Reply with quote
Zomb1e13 wrote:
I think people are giving Crunchyroll way to much credit. They half-arse everything and I am willing to bet they just hosted these files on their own servers. Someone either already knew an exploit to access them or one of the people running the convention just went home and ripped the files.


(1) The file sizes (and bitrates) of the leaks are lower than what CR typically servers to their paying customers. The file size of the 1080p leaks are ~400 to 500 MB in contrast to CR's typical 1.3 GB filesize.

(2) Correct me if I'm wrong, but based on what some redditors have posted, the leaks have hardcoded subs. CR never serves hardcoded subs to their paying customers since they have subtitles for different languages.

(3) If the leaker actually grabbed the files on CR servers, then explain why all the leaks were titles that were shown on Puerto Rico Comic Convention. The leaker could've leaked titles like Salad Bowl of Eccentrics or Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru, but they did not because they could not.

Seriously, people should just do the bare amount of research before spouting their half-assed opinion here.
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Zomb1e13



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 51
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2024 3:42 am Reply with quote
Ermat_46 wrote:
Zomb1e13 wrote:
I think people are giving Crunchyroll way to much credit. They half-arse everything and I am willing to bet they just hosted these files on their own servers. Someone either already knew an exploit to access them or one of the people running the convention just went home and ripped the files.


(1) The file sizes (and bitrates) of the leaks are lower than what CR typically servers to their paying customers. The file size of the 1080p leaks are ~400 to 500 MB in contrast to CR's typical 1.3 GB filesize.

(2) Correct me if I'm wrong, but based on what some redditors have posted, the leaks have hardcoded subs. CR never serves hardcoded subs to their paying customers since they have subtitles for different languages.

(3) If the leaker actually grabbed the files on CR servers, then explain why all the leaks were titles that were shown on Puerto Rico Comic Convention. The leaker could've leaked titles like Salad Bowl of Eccentrics or Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru, but they did not because they could not.

Seriously, people should just do the bare amount of research before spouting their half-assed opinion here.


Ahh a crunchyroll white knight arrives.

1 and 2) This is easily explained from the fact that we have no clue as to the original file size and if the subs were soft or hard coded. It is quite common for pirates to re-encode the files to match what they like to release(mkv, mp3. ect) and hardsubbing it would prevent others from putting their own flair on it, as currently, there are no raw files for these episodes.

3) Salad bowl and jiisan weren't being previewed at any convention so they didn't need to be accessible to anyone. The titles shown at the Puerto Rico Convention had to be accessible and therefore open to a 3rd party if there was an exploit and there are always exploits unless you have a really good it team. I highly doubt crunchyroll has a decent it team.
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Ermat_46



Joined: 14 Apr 2008
Posts: 726
Location: Philippines
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2024 4:54 am Reply with quote
Zomb1e13 wrote:
Ermat_46 wrote:
Zomb1e13 wrote:
I think people are giving Crunchyroll way to much credit. They half-arse everything and I am willing to bet they just hosted these files on their own servers. Someone either already knew an exploit to access them or one of the people running the convention just went home and ripped the files.


(1) The file sizes (and bitrates) of the leaks are lower than what CR typically servers to their paying customers. The file size of the 1080p leaks are ~400 to 500 MB in contrast to CR's typical 1.3 GB filesize.

(2) Correct me if I'm wrong, but based on what some redditors have posted, the leaks have hardcoded subs. CR never serves hardcoded subs to their paying customers since they have subtitles for different languages.

(3) If the leaker actually grabbed the files on CR servers, then explain why all the leaks were titles that were shown on Puerto Rico Comic Convention. The leaker could've leaked titles like Salad Bowl of Eccentrics or Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru, but they did not because they could not.

Seriously, people should just do the bare amount of research before spouting their half-assed opinion here.


Ahh a crunchyroll white knight arrives.

1 and 2) This is easily explained from the fact that we have no clue as to the original file size and if the subs were soft or hard coded. It is quite common for pirates to re-encode the files to match what they like to release(mkv, mp3. ect) and hardsubbing it would prevent others from putting their own flair on it, as currently, there are no raw files for these episodes.

3) Salad bowl and jiisan weren't being previewed at any convention so they didn't need to be accessible to anyone. The titles shown at the Puerto Rico Convention had to be accessible and therefore open to a 3rd party if there was an exploit and there are always exploits unless you have a really good it team. I highly doubt crunchyroll has a decent it team.


(1) CR rippers do not encode the files that they get from CR. If the leaker actually obtained it from CR's server, there's 0 reason to re-encode it.

(2) Why would CR have a dedicated separate server for shows that they'll be screening? Even if your assumption that CR has a separate server that stores the episodes for screening is true, the fact that they weren't able to leak Salad Bowl and Jiisan means that only that server has an exploit and that doesn't mean that CR's main server for storing the episodes that are meant to be served to paying customers have the same exploit as that hypothetical seperate server that CR has.

Sure, call me Crunchyroll """""white knight""""" or something, but that doesn't change that fact that you're just plain wrong and misinformed.
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3457
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2024 6:22 am Reply with quote
Ermat_46 wrote:
(1) CR rippers do not encode the files that they get from CR. If the leaker actually obtained it from CR's server, there's 0 reason to re-encode it.

The leakers put a watermark on the files so they have had to re-encode them. One guess is the re-encoding was a way to obscure the source/original leaker as well.
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Zomb1e13



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 51
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2024 6:51 am Reply with quote
Ermat_46 wrote:


(1) CR rippers do not encode the files that they get from CR. If the leaker actually obtained it from CR's server, there's 0 reason to re-encode it.

(2) Why would CR have a dedicated separate server for shows that they'll be screening? Even if your assumption that CR has a separate server that stores the episodes for screening is true, the fact that they weren't able to leak Salad Bowl and Jiisan means that only that server has an exploit and that doesn't mean that CR's main server for storing the episodes that are meant to be served to paying customers have the same exploit as that hypothetical seperate server that CR has.

Sure, call me Crunchyroll """""white knight""""" or something, but that doesn't change that fact that you're just plain wrong and misinformed.


Thinking that crunchyroll flew a laptop or thumbdrive out someplace with unreleased episodes over hosting it on their own servers in what they thought was a secure manner to be streamed at a convention is just delusional.

1) Normally crunchyroll rippers do just upload the raw file yes, but thats because they are competing against all of the other rippers however some do reencode into other file formats and with different subs.

2) Crunchyroll has 4 servers we know of. Their public facing one, the old funimation one, a work server that employees and translators use, and a payment processing one. Hosting them on the public facing one or the old funimation one is what I was implying. They wouldn't set up a new server just for conventions but set up a special account that has access to those episodes which they thought was secure.
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Sevokevo Royuki



Joined: 15 Jul 2012
Posts: 286
Location: Texas
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2024 7:13 am Reply with quote
SaitoHajime101 wrote:
Kougeru wrote:
Яeverse wrote:
Need to go back to the old days and having screening episodes at cons on a single computer by a single employee on a computer lacking internet connection to display.


Computers lacking internet connection literally just don't exist anymore. Even if you deny password to the Con Wi-Fi, they can just use a hotspot lol. There's no stopping this unless they stop screenings entirely


I disagree as an IT professional. It really comes down to the company, the IT department and the approach both sides take to securing their systems and data. A pretty quick and least annoying step is to rip out the wireless card out of the laptop, disable the ethernet port via device manager and make sure the user account used by the marketing employee is a standard account (just one of many solutions to this issue). There's not a one-glove-fits-all solution. It is just a matter of finding one that best fits your company and provides the best mitigation.

At the end of the day, we're talking about smaller media companies (in comparison to big ones like Disney). How much stock do they truly put into their security? It's pretty well-known that, unless your company has money to spare, IT security is usually an after-thought to smaller businesses.

That is to even say this was a case of an external bad actor getting data off of a company device. Insider threats are more common than external (insider threats are not necessarily malicious in nature).


100% agree on this.. what they also should do is have the video on the computer then when they finish.. they should disable to WiFi like you said.. and also should disable all the USB plugs that’s are not needed to so no one tries and sneaks in with a external hard drive and copy it there.

TLDR: there are many way to prevent this
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WatcherZer



Joined: 29 Dec 2016
Posts: 277
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2024 7:32 am Reply with quote
paulchaested wrote:
Yeah… pretty much everything leaked were pre screened at various cons.

How do distributors actually pre screen it? Give a video file to a con staff member for them to project it? Or Do they simply just plug their laptop into the projector with the video file and just play it?

It’s unlikely but I imagine CR might consider to not even bother to pre screen shows anymore since a leak this big happened.


Usually staff/journalists granted early access for series previews are given login details for a temporary account on the streaming platform with it unlocked or if the journalist already has an account they share their account name with the platform and the series are unlocked early. Sometimes theres also a restriction that the content can only be watched a couple of times before locking.
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ZelosZoidberg



Joined: 23 May 2018
Posts: 645
PostPosted: Sat Apr 06, 2024 10:17 am Reply with quote
Sony and lack of IT security. They never learn it seems.
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