Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#1

Post by moyix » Mon, Aug 15, 2016, 2:27 PM UTC

Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction
theshadowbrokers.tumblr.com

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#2

Post by ajdlinux » Mon, Aug 15, 2016, 2:36 PM UTC

Interesting discussions happening on Twitter, eg https://twitter.com/thegrugq. Looks like this could be at least somewhat legit.

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#3

Post by moyix » Mon, Aug 15, 2016, 2:38 PM UTC

ajdlinux wrote: post #2

Interesting discussions happening on Twitter, eg https://twitter.com/thegrugq . Looks like this could be at least somewhat legit.

Some other twitter accounts to watch:

https://twitter.com/pwnallthethings

https://twitter.com/msuiche

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#4

Post by hardlianotion » Mon, Aug 15, 2016, 2:39 PM UTC

Sounds important. What does it all mean?

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#5

Post by philippnagel » Mon, Aug 15, 2016, 2:44 PM UTC

Wikipedia link for the lazy folks like me that didn't know the Equation Group: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_Group

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#6

Post by moyix » Mon, Aug 15, 2016, 2:45 PM UTC

hardlianotion wrote: post #4

Sounds important. What does it all mean?

Equation Group is the name given by AV vendors to a group of attacks thought to be carried out by NSA. This is, apparently, a dump of internal files (mostly exploits and command & control scripts) that someone got ahold of. They're now apparently trying to auction them off.

If it's a fake, it's a very good one – the code words match up to things we've seen in the Snowden leaks, e.g. Jetplow (https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/01/jetplow_nsa_e...). Matthieu Suiche has a good initial writeup here:

https://medium.com/@msuiche/shadow-brokers-nsa-exploits-of-t...

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#7

Post by omgitstom » Mon, Aug 15, 2016, 2:47 PM UTC

Auction information is here: https://github.com/theshadowbrokers/EQGRP-AUCTION

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#8

Post by moyix » Mon, Aug 15, 2016, 2:49 PM UTC

omgitstom wrote: post #7

Auction information is here: https://github.com/theshadowbrokers/EQGRP-AUCTION

Yep, I bungled the link. The tumblr has all of the information but it's split into separate posts:

https://theshadowbrokers.tumblr.com/

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#9

Post by danielvf » Mon, Aug 15, 2016, 2:56 PM UTC

The structure of this auction is amazing!

1. All bids are paid up front, and you never get your money back, even if you aren't the highest bidder. So if people bid $50, $70, and $100, they collect $220.

2. No one can verify what is actualy up for sale before the auction.

3. There is no way for the world to know that they actualy delivered the goods after the auction.

4. There is no way for the highest bidder to know that they will actually receive the goods.

5. There is nothing stopping the auctioneers from bidding. This not only raises the price, but they still get to keep every bidders money even if the high bid is their own.

Everything about this auction is lined up to incentivize a scam.

Re: Equation Group Cyber Weapons Auction

#10

Post by valine » Mon, Aug 15, 2016, 2:56 PM UTC

If this is real and has anything that can link the files to the NSA, it has the potential to be a major humiliation for the US.