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CIA malware and hacking tools

wikileaks.org

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Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#351

Post by boomboomsubban »

danielam wrote: post #183
tehwalrus wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If these actions are being done domestically against US citizens, with no just cause sure I will get upset, but that has yet to be seen. May I just ask, why does this distinction matter? Why do you believe the world should be divided into "people who were issued bits of paper by my overlords" and "people who weren't"? I never understood this division in other people's heads. It leads to all sorts of philosophical p…

That some governments use that kind of tribal moral relativism to justify war does not mean that war cannot be waged for justifiable and morally good reasons.

Give one example of a war where both sides had a justifiable and morally good reason.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#353

Post by rfrank »

knz wrote: post #345
luso_brazilian wrote: post #3

This had the potential of being a positive development brought by Trump's election: many behaviors by the US three letter agencies that were glossed over for the past 8 years (due to the party in power being "on the right side of history") are again reprehensible and deemed a threat to be fought by the tech community.

I agree but unless every other nation stops doing this there is little value in being the only "clean" country (assuming somehow we stop). And what are the implications of doing so? We used to believe that free and open societies would naturally prosper compared to authoritarian/totalitarian societies but what if that was all a lie? "Five Eyes" dates back to the 1940's, ECHELON at least the 1980's - none of this is n…

> We used to believe that free and open societies would naturally prosper compared to authoritarian/totalitarian societies but what if that was all a lie?

Then give up your freedom and start advocating for monarchy in America.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#354

Post by doubt_me »

Keyframe wrote: post #301

Is anyone actually surprised? Even military has USCYBERCOM. What do you think their type of 'weapons' are? My only surprise it that this has leaked.

I am surprised it took this long to leak. There is no possible way they didn't expect this to happen eventually.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#355

Post by rev_null »

NoGravitas wrote: post #327
res0nat0r wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately for this we aren't going to get some 1080p video of someone in a mask sneaking into the DNC server room, just the fact that the 17 agencies all agree based on what they've seen believe that to be the case. Unfortunately everyone these days think everything is a conspiracy or has to have HD recordings of something they think happened as public evidence or it is false, but that's not how the world really…

The thing is, "17 agencies agree" doesn't really mean anything, if the evidence that all 17 agencies are relying on is a single report from a private security company hired by the DNC, and not independent investigation. If all of those agencies had looked at the original evidence themselves, the story would be different.

If 30 helens agreed, it would be a different case.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#356

Post by kbenson »

pjc50 wrote: post #226
pimlottc wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously there's a difference between cyber and conventional weapons, but imagine if the same rationale were extended to physical munitions: "We can't drop this bomb on the enemy, it contains classified technology"

While the weapon too secret to use sounds very Dr Strangelove, there have been slightly similar things with real weapons. The one I remember is when radar-triggered proximity shells were invented at the end of WW2 they were only issued for use on ships, so that undetonated shells would fall into the sea, so couldn't be recovered and investigated by the enemy.

Which makes perfect sense. Any weapon leaves some trace (even if only new theory as to what is possible), so its use against a party that does not have that technology but is capable of understanding the technology at some level will always give information to the enemy.

Using a modern missile against an indigenous people will only impart that you are capable of that type of attach.

Using a modern missile against WWII Germany would likely quickly result in refinements to their V2 Rocket program, given enough remains to study.

Using a modern missile against Vietnam era USA would likely result in advancements in miniaturization and computation, given enough remains (even if they did not have the resources/facilities to capitalize on some aspects of those for years, I think it's likely it would advance the fields by a least a few years).

One of the biggest advantages the Allies had in WWII was that they had cracked the "uncrackable" Axis encryption. Even though they were able to decipher enemy messages, they often didn't act on that information because that would tip their hand. The strategic value of reading the enemies messages is enormous when the enemy doesn't know you can do it, and much less so, and possibly even negative when they do know.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#357

Post by y_u_no_rust »

TheHippo wrote: post #323
oakhaven wrote: post #224

TIL that CIA is using Atlassian Stash for internal code hosting. Many references to the stash.devlan.net, would be nice to see some code, I just found some python scripts: https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/cms/page_9535551.html

There are even images here: https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/cms/page_13205694.html

I'm sure the NSA will get a kick out of this one

def dcode(data): key = 20 newdata = '' for i in data: i=ord(i) if i= 256: i = i - (256) newdata += chr(i+key) return newdata

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#358

Post by Bedon292 »

huffmsa wrote: post #312
wildmusings wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classified or not, works of the federal government are all in the public domain. And classification is not legally relevant to anyone except to those entrusted with protecting classified data.

This is often overlooked, but very correct. "Classification" only pertains to how the material should be treated within the government. Once its out, the only penalty can fall on the person who let it out into the wild.

A person with a clearance can get in trouble for knowingly accessing or spreading the data, even after it is already released in the wild. The data is still considered classified, even after the leak. So those who are entrusted with a clearance still have to fulfill their duties to protect it.

But, yes a random citizen has no responsibility or rules they most follow.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#359

Post by nkassis »

teekert wrote: post #244

Had the CIA's efforts been targetted towards improving encryption and security, US citizens and its government may well have had the ability to communicate safely. They may well have been able to trust new smart gadgets such as smart TVs and smart phones. Instead the CIA aided the nefarious people of the world by not reporting and exploiting security holes in devices used by the citizens it should protect. Now it has…

That's part of the NSA's mission.

Re: CIA malware and hacking tools

#360

Post by freeone3000 »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #81
tyingq wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One cause for concern is that the CIA appears to not only have lost control of the documentation, but of the tools themselves: "Recently, the CIA lost control of the majority of its hacking arsenal...and associated documentation. This extraordinary collection...gives its possessor the entire hacking capacity of the CIA." So, now, you get to worry about anybody else that might have this toolset. (Not withstanding your…

>> So, now, you get to worry about anybody else that might have this toolset. You also have to consider who has the capability to actually use these tools - its not like they come with a user manual. Could Joe Schmo download these and start using them tomorrow? Probably not. Also, I'm pretty sure this isn't "the entire hacking capacity of the CIA". If you consider all the stuff that came out with the Snowden leaks, y…

Reading the leak, these are very clearly tool manuals.

Some of the technical documentation is better than the official stuff!

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