ImageShack Torrent Hack : Get Download Resuming In a Roundabout Way
A bit of background : when ImageShack added their new torrent download service (beta) a few months ago I didn’t pay it much attention. However, the wealth of available torrents was just too tempting (and my connection just too crappy to download them myself), so I I figured I’d give the ImageShack service a try, legal risks be damned (I’m not from USA anyway :P).
The Problem
After a few minutes fighting the buggy interface that kept telling me I’m not logged in (though I obviously was) I managed to get ImageShack to download a 3.5 GB torrent for me. However, it turned out the HTTP download links it generates for the downloaded files
- Can only be accessed by logged-in users.
- Don’t support download resuming.
Given my unreliable connection, downloading several gigabytes in one go is simply impossible. So I had to find a way to get download resuming working, which I’ve described below.
The Roundabout Solution
Download the files to another server (that supports download resuming), then download them to the PC using any download manager. You will need a server with shell access, a fast network connection and admins that don’t mind/notice huge and possibly illegal downloads.
Assuming you have somehow found such a wonder, the rest is easy. First, you need to get the session cookies your browser sends to ImageShack when you are logged in. Use your favorite network sniffer or the Live HTTP headers addon to get them. The cookie looks like this :
myid=11540240; myimages=3fg2e7471aef5fea5zfd982597262a5c; isUSER=someone; PHPSESSID=2348ab036488733311154564d82feabe; imgshck=aea228794abba9c9fe9ac9bab29f9138; un_cookie=1; latest=img66; countrytabs=0; __qca=1648678751-39134354-9534555; __qcb=887515614
Next, find the URL for the file you want to download. In Firefox you would right-click on a file and select “Copy Link Location”. The URL might look similar to this :
http://img125.imageshack.us/tor/browse/?id=5681&rel=Totally_Legit_Download_Isqd%2Fits_linux_I_swear.iso
Now just ssh to your server and use wget to download the file :
wget --header "Cookie: myid=11540240; myimages=3fg2e7471aef5fea5zfd982597262a5c; isUSER=someone; PHPSESSID=2348ab036488733311154564d82feabe; imgshck=aea228794abba9c9fe9ac9bab29f9138; un_cookie=1; latest=img66; countrytabs=0; __qca=1648678751-39134354-9534555; __qcb=887515614" "http://img125.imageshack.us/tor/browse/?id=5681&rel=Totally_Legit_Download_Isqd%2Fits_linux_I_swear.iso"
Finally, move the resulting file to somewhere inside the webroot and download it with FDM or whatever 
September 8th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
how’s it going ws?
August 26th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
I’m testing this now. Seems to be going okay for the time being - manually pausing and resuming worked fine.
I mainly use WinXP on my own PC, but I used the Linux server in this case because (being a webserver) it has a fast and stable connection. My home connection is still lousy.
Thanks for the tip by the way
August 26th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
100% sure. downloading right now. been doing this for weeks now. also works with multiple streams. I see you’re using Linux. Flashget works with wine as well if you want to try. I’ll keep in touch. I download dvdrips mostly but yesterday downloaded a 1.8 gig file and last week a 3.3 gig file. my connection is also unstable and maxes out at about 150 KB/s.
August 26th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Hmm, are you sure about that? I’ve tried a similar approach with ReGet and it din’t work; I guess I’ll have to try Flashgot now.
August 26th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
You can also just Flashgot (Firefox extension) the link to Flashget (awesome free d/load manager) then even if you logout it’ll continue to download.
Resuming also works in Flashget. If for some reason the d/load stops midway or you’re unable to resume the download then just reactivate the download in imageshack ISdrive and then the download in flashget will resume perfectly.
August 21st, 2008 at 10:55 pm
The best thing ever