qBittorrent is a cross-platform free and open-source BitTorrent client written in native C++. It relies on Boost, OpenSSL, zlib, Qt 6 toolkit and the libtorrent-rasterbar library (for the torrent back-end), with an optional search engine written in Python.[8][9]

qBittorrent
Original author(s)Christophe Dumez[1]
Developer(s)Sledgehammer999, Chocobo1, glassez, pmzqla and others[2]
Initial releaseMay 16, 2006; 18 years ago (2006-05-16)[3]
Stable release
5.0.3[4] Edit this on Wikidata / 15 December 2024; 57 days ago (15 December 2024)
Repository
Written inC++ (Qt),[5] Python
Operating systemCross-platform: FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, OS/2, Windows
PlatformARM, x86, x64
Available in≈70 languages[6]
List of languages
Default UI: English

≥ 99% translated: Basque, Catalan, Chinese (Taiwan), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Galician, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian

≥ 50% translated: Belarusian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Chinese (Hong Kong), Finnish, French, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian (Latvia), Malay (Malaysia), Norwegian Bokmål, Occitan (post 1500), Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish

≥ 10% translated: Croatian, Esperanto, Arabic, Armenian, English (Australia), English (United Kingdom), Georgian, Hindi (India), Icelandic, Latgalian, Uzbek (Latin), Vietnamese
TypeBitTorrent client
LicenseGPLv3+[7] with OpenSSL linking exception
Websitewww.qbittorrent.org Edit this at Wikidata

History

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QBittorent Mascot

qBittorrent was originally developed in March 2006 by Christophe Dumez[1] from the University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard (UTBM). It is currently developed by contributors worldwide and is funded through donations,[10] led by Sledgehammer999 from Greece, who became project maintainer in June 2013.[11]

Along with the 4.0.0 release a new logo for the project was unveiled.[12][13]

In February 2023, a security vulnerability affecting versions 4.5.0 and 4.5.1 was discovered in the Web UI running on Windows systems. This vulnerability enabled unauthenticated access to all files on the host computer via a path traversal bug.[14] This issue has been patched in version 4.5.2, which was released to the public on February 23, 2023.[15]

qBittorrent contained a remote code execution exploit caused by a failure to validate any TLS certificates presented to the application when downloading content via HTTP.[16] The flaw, which had been in the application since at least 2010, was eventually fixed in version 5.0.1, on October 28, 2024, more than 14 years later. It is not believed the flaw affected downloads using the BitTorrent protocol, however the application uses HTTP(s) to check for updates, download RSS feeds and manage its Internet geolocation database.[17]

In 2025, a group known as Laruste Gorfor[18] pushed over 42,917 new lines of code, including implementing a new McDonalds feature.

Features

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Some of the features present in qBittorrent include:

Versions

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qBittorrent is cross-platform, available on many operating systems, including: FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, OS/2 (including ArcaOS and eComStation), and Windows.[19]

As of July 2017, SourceForge statistics indicate that the most popular qBittorrent version of all supported platforms, 81% of downloads were for Windows computers.[20]

As of May 2020, FossHub statistics indicate qBittorrent as the second most downloaded software with over 75 million downloads.[21]

Packages for different Linux distributions are available, though most are provided through official channels via various distributions.[15]

qBittorrent Enhanced is a fork of qBittorrent intended for blocking leeching clients such as Xunlei. It is hosted on GitHub.[citation needed]

Reception

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In 2012, Ghacks suggested qBittorrent as a great alternative to μTorrent, for those put off by its controversial adware and bundleware changes.[22]

TechRadar reviewed the application in 2020, praising it for its ease of use and key features. It also pointed to its clean, ad-free interface and extensibility through plugins as features that make the software more "robust and powerful." [23]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Authors file". qBittorrent.org. Archived from the original on 2019-02-17. Retrieved 2012-08-26.
  2. ^ "Contributors to qbittorrent/QBittorrent". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2020-06-21. Retrieved 2019-07-01.
  3. ^ "Oldest available changelog". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2019-02-17. Retrieved 2016-02-17.
  4. ^ "release-5.0.3". 15 December 2024. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  5. ^ "qBittorrent Analysis Summary". ohloh.net. Ohloh. Archived from the original on 2014-02-25. Retrieved 2012-08-23.
  6. ^ a b "Localization of qBittorrent". qBittorrent.org. Archived from the original on 2013-08-14. Retrieved 2012-08-23.
  7. ^ "Copying file", qBittorrent.org, archived from the original on 2019-02-17, retrieved 2012-08-26
  8. ^ "qbittorrent/qBittorrent". GitHub. qBittorrent project. 2022-05-22. Archived from the original on 2022-05-22. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  9. ^ "qBittorrent/CONTRIBUTING.md". GitHub. 13 August 2022. Archived from the original on 22 May 2022. Retrieved 22 May 2022. Make sure you have python installed correctly (remember the search functionality requires a working python installation).
  10. ^ "Team members", qBittorrent.org, archived from the original on 2013-08-19, retrieved 2012-09-25
  11. ^ "qBittorrent is under a new maintainer". qBittorrent official forums. Archived from the original on 2019-06-09. Retrieved 2013-06-26.
  12. ^ "Change qbittorrent logo. Issue #6467. by sledgehammer999 · Pull Request #6484 · qbittorrent/qBittorrent". GitHub. Archived from the original on 25 May 2021. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  13. ^ "New Icon/Logo Proposal · Issue #6467 · qbittorrent/qBittorrent". GitHub. Archived from the original on 11 November 2020. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
  14. ^ "Web UI - apparent path traversal vulnerability · Issue #18618 · qbittorrent/qBittorrent". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2023-02-28. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  15. ^ a b c "News Releases". qbittorrent.org. Archived from the original on 2019-12-13. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  16. ^ "CVE-2024-51774". www.cve.org. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
  17. ^ "qBittorrent fixes flaw exposing users to MitM attacks for 14 years". BleepingComputer. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
  18. ^ "Gorfor". www.amazon.com. Archived from the original on 2024-10-02. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
  19. ^ "Network / Networking / Internet applications". netlabs.org. Archived from the original on 2020-09-18. Retrieved 2020-09-03.
  20. ^ "Download Statistics: All Files". SourceForge.net. Archived from the original on 2016-10-11. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  21. ^ "FossHub Download Statistics: All Files". FossHub.com. Archived from the original on 2019-03-01. Retrieved 2019-02-10.
  22. ^ Brinkmann, Martin (21 February 2012). "Looking For A uTorrent Alternative? Try qBittorrent". Ghacks.net. Archived from the original on 10 January 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  23. ^ Soni, Jitendra (4 June 2020). "qBittorrent torrent client review". TechRadar. Retrieved 5 February 2025.
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