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Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

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Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#251

Post by dredmorbius »

kungtotte wrote: post #214
dredmorbius wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look up, whilst you're comparing badnesses: 1. The Catholic Church, particularly the 30 Years War and Huguenots (themselves not entirely blameless). 2. The Spartans and Helots. 3. England / Britain: North America, India, China, and Australia. 4. Belgium and the Congo. 5. Japan, and ... pretty much everyone in their neighborhood: Korea, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, etc., etc. 6. The Mongols. 7. Nazi Germany. 8.…

The real issue with the US (and also the Catholic Church) is how underhanded and manipulative they are. They don't launch armies and run around conquering things, but they throw their money and power around to make others do their dirty work for them which means that there won't be any kind of effort to stop them. When Nazi Germany tried to take over the world, the world banded together to stop them. If the US funds…

The Catholic Church did plenty of dirty work. (I've been spending a few hours researching heresy and various permutations of burning at the stake).

Again, the real question here is Wikileaks increasingly glaring bias problems. The point isn't that Wikileaks have falsified information concerning real evils done by the US. It's that they've been conspicuously, and I have to say, having dug deeper, INEXCUSABLY quiet (if not silent) on the activities of others.

I absolutely grant that the US is, by virtue of its power and capabilities, deserving of extreme scruitiny. What we're looking at goes beyond that.

Wikileaks has a credibility and bias problem. The more so as its actions now appear petty and vengeful based on personal animus between Assange and Clinton.

And yes, Wikileaks are actively soliciting leaks -- against Britain's Labour party:

https://wikileaks.org/WikiLeaks-offers-award-for-LabourLeaks...

But not on Russia. Or China. Or Syria. Or North Korea. Or Venezuela. Or Marie le Pen. Or Rupert Murdoch.

(So far as I am aware.)

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#253

Post by k-mcgrady »

travmatt wrote: post #213
k-mcgrady wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what's the solution? Stop publishing until they've caught up on Russian and Chinese leaks? Why just Russia and China? Should each country get a leak until we get back to the start of the cycle again? Why should Wikileaks care who's interests any leaks serve? They should leak interesting material they are given - that's their purpose.

If Wikileaks didn't actively censor and threaten leakers of Russia related information you'd probably have some validity to your argument.

Source?

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#254

Post by AnkhMorporkian »

bluejekyll wrote: post #207
asimpletune wrote: post #161

How about instead of talking about whether Wikileaks is good or bad or whether you support them or not, let's talk about the content of the post. From what I've read so far, this is pretty freaking cool. It's super interesting to read these docs and see their thought process involved, especially since the product their building is so different from what people are making on a day to day business. It actually looks pr…

Ok. In that vain, here's a question; should you use any of these tools as an American citizen, beyond what you use them for, are you breaking any laws? That is, could you be guilty of something like sedition or something like it by using these thing illegally gotten?

Not unless they have a security clearance or are in the military and have been ordered not to access them. For an ordinary citizen, it isn't illegal to have classified information as long as you weren't a party in their theft.

It's hairier for people with clearances. Technically you could have your clearance revoked for accessing classified information despite the fact that it's public. I don't know if that's ever happened, but it's a possibility.

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#255

Post by bluejekyll »

ethbro wrote: post #225
bluejekyll wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok. In that vain, here's a question; should you use any of these tools as an American citizen, beyond what you use them for, are you breaking any laws? That is, could you be guilty of something like sedition or something like it by using these thing illegally gotten?

For that idiom, it's "vein". https://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/in+that+vein.h...

Gah... thanks. You can speak the damn language for 36 years, and still screw it up all the time.

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#256

Post by sneak »

oxide wrote: post #149
elemenopy wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree: I think there is a reasonable case to hold WikiLeaks and the NYT to different standards. I think WikiLeaks holds itself out as a much more anarchic news organisation than traditional outlets like the NYT. WikiLeaks isn't connected or have allegiance to any particular country, and will publish, let the facts speak for themselves and damn the establishment and any particular national interests that are harm…

I agree. Why is anyone holding a site meant for whistleblowing and leaking of confidential information and the website of a newspaper to the same standard? Apples and oranges, IMO: It's not really fair to get mad at an orange for not giving you apple juice. >Therefore, for WikiLeaks to become highly partisan is a radical departure from their original mission; moreover, it has happened without WikiLeaks acknowledging…

Well, there is that whole thing about their founder being illegally indefinitely detained and denied due process. There are no MRI machines in that embassy.

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#257

Post by sneak »

contrast wrote: post #242
Natsu wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with holding Wikileaks as "selective" is that you would have to establish that there are true leaks which they have withheld from us. There's this popular misconception that Wikileaks actually hacks to obtain the data, but this is false and no one has ever so much as attempted to prove otherwise. So given that they can't select the sources, the claims of them being "selective" just sound ignorant to anyon…

First of all, if you know how Wikileaks operates, you know that as well as the leaks they generate content and opinions. They are not merely a funnel. Second, if they were trying to be just a funnel but realised that they were only getting information from limited sources with a known agenda, then they would also know that they are facilitating a political agenda. They could be open about this. But they are not. They…

Just because they seem to be doesn't mean that that is their intent.

Being open about sources defeats the whole purpose.

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#258

Post by cormacrelf »

canada_dry wrote: post #216
openasocket wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Self-modifying the underlying machine code isn't what it used to be. Besides the difficulty in writing it, there's lot's of caveats about how it interacts with the cache and the instruction pipeline. It also requires setup, because with modern memory protection all the machine code is read-only. Changing the memory protection for some machine code to be executable and writable at once will set off some alarms (And is…

> Dynamic Analysis. Run the executable and watch the contents of memory as the program unpacks itself Of course nowadays the makers of fine malware detect whether they are running inside a sandbox, and won't activate.

You can always run it on a real, unimportant machine not connected to anything. (And never connect that machine to anything ever again.) That feature just makes it slightly more difficult and costly to compromise program security.

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#259

Post by sneak »

oculusthrift wrote: post #191
sqeaky wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe we shouldn't have systems that are just a password away leak from creating the Apocalypse? Actually, I am pretty sure we don't. Those codes come in pairs and are all subject to two person control. Also, those guys that turn the keys can use their own judgment to veto the launch. In the event a leak was known or an unknown reason to launch came through I suspect they wouldn't. Those codes won't let them re-targe…

pedantry and avoiding the whole logical point. the whole point is there can exist such secrets. how about if they leak seal team 6's location the second they touch down to kill osama? can you honestly not think of such a situation? if you can then why not refute the point instead of dissembling?

Yes, interfering with plans to commit murder is always a legitimate reason for sharing information.

Re: Wikileaks releases CIA's Marble: Malware obfuscation tools

#260

Post by travmatt »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #253
travmatt wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Wikileaks didn't actively censor and threaten leakers of Russia related information you'd probably have some validity to your argument.

Source?

Wikileaks withheld a batch of emails showing a $2.2 billion transaction between the Syrian regime and a Russian government-owned bank, according to a Daily Dot report. If true, the report will likely have a lasting negative impact on Wikileaks’ credibility. The report alleges that the transparency organization betrayed its own core values of “pristine leaking,” and did so in a way that protects Russia’s public image.

...

The report claims batch of emails were not included in the cache of documents Wikileaks published under the name the “Syria Files”in 2012. The emails allegedly show correspondence between the Central Bank of Syria and Russia’s VTB Bank. When the Daily Dot asked Wikileaks for comment, the transparency organization denied removing the batch of emails and vaguely threatened the journalist, saying, “You can be sure we will return the favor one day.”

It’s entirely possible that the hackers removed the email batch from the data dump it provided to Wikileaks. But it also seems very unlikely. As Daily Dot reporters Dell Cameron and Patrick Howell O’Neill point out in their story, they received 500 pages showing every step the hackers went through to infiltrate the Syrian government’s networks. The reporters say, “the court records leaked to the Daily Dot reveal the Moscow bank’s emails were, in fact, part of the larger backup file containing numerous emails currently found on the WikiLeaks site.”

https://www.google.com/amp/gizmodo.com/wikileaks-may-have-wi...

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