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Fun with Red Star OS

sizeof.cat

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Re: Fun with Red Star OS

#41

Post by simonebrunozzi »

jeroenhd wrote: post #34

> Spoiler, he doesn’t give a fuck about your hentai porn. These operating systems do actually contain code that add a signature belonging to your install of the machine to pictures and video files, so be wary if spreading your hentai porn in Kim's country because it can be traced back to you. That said, there's a lot of panic about fears of having it reach out across the internet and infect your entire network withou…

> add a signature belonging to your install of the machine to pictures and video files

But why?

Re: Fun with Red Star OS

#44

Post by pndy »

Florian Grunow and Niklaus Schiess, Lifting the Fog on Red Star OS - A deep dive into the surveillance features of North Korea's operating system [1]

[1] - https://media.ccc.de/v/32c3-7174-lifting_the_fog_on_red_star... (it's also available on YT which for some reason I couldn't link in this comment - perhaps some anti-spam measurment?)

The bit more detailed view, I'd say

Re: Fun with Red Star OS

#45

Post by Latty »

dheera wrote: post #16
_adamb wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This could be true, or it could recognize that it is running in a VM and change its behavior. This is a somewhat common trait of malware meant to throw off security researchers.

Why are VMs so bad at virtualizing? An ideal VM should be indistinguishable from a real machine. For example a virtualized system running Android should generate fake IMU data, not sit at 0 linear acceleration all the time. And have a real-looking fake IMEI, not a string of 0s.

> An ideal VM should be indistinguishable from a real machine.

Ideal for what purpose?

virtio is a good example of where that breaks down. For a lot of use cases, directly exposing an explicitly virtual device rather than emulating real hardware can be much more efficient and avoid bugs.

For example, it may help a virtualised system avoid some layers of caching or optimisation if they are redundant because they are nested inside a system already doing that.

Making your VM indistinguishable from real hardware is nice for some use cases, absolutely, but in many it isn't what you want.

Re: Fun with Red Star OS

#46

Post by [deleted] »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #37
netsec_burn wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Red Star 4.0 (2017). Good luck finding it, I haven't.

So far, even though we know Red Star 4 exists and has for years now, it's very elusive with (AFAIK) no disc images yet found. I think that there was a rumor that it was FreeBSD based instead of Linux based but don't quote me on that.

[deleted]

Re: Fun with Red Star OS

#47

Post by jraph »

glitchc wrote: post #8
dannyw wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple would never write software that scans your files and reports material your XOR USG does not like, without your knowledge.

This must be sarcasm.

This is an instance of "X would never do Y" with Y a quite specific thing.

Which I usually take for sarcasm.

Here I'm quite sure it is a reference to a quite recent event.

Re: Fun with Red Star OS

#48

Post by sodality2 »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #41
jeroenhd wrote: post #34

> Spoiler, he doesn’t give a fuck about your hentai porn. These operating systems do actually contain code that add a signature belonging to your install of the machine to pictures and video files, so be wary if spreading your hentai porn in Kim's country because it can be traced back to you. That said, there's a lot of panic about fears of having it reach out across the internet and infect your entire network withou…

> add a signature belonging to your install of the machine to pictures and video files But why?

> > add a signature belonging to your install of the machine to pictures and video files

> But why?

Any media negative about the regime can be traced back to its source so they can be suicided.

edit, more specific info from https://www.reuters.com/article/northkorea-computers-idUSKBN...:

>Red Star also addresses a more pressing concern: cracking down on the growing underground exchange of foreign movies, music and writing.

>Illegal media is usually passed from person-to-person in North Korea using USB sticks and microSD cards, making it hard for the government to track where they come from.

>Red Star tackles this by tagging, or watermarking, every document or media file on a computer or on any USB stick connected to it. That means that any file could be traced back to anyone who had previously opened or created the file.

Re: Fun with Red Star OS

#49

Post by thriftwy »

emteycz wrote: post #43
steviedotboston wrote: post #36

this always looked surprisingly well polished to me.

Why is it surprising that the top 1% programmers of an entire country (many of them probably with western education) can produce quality software when put under deadly threat?

I don't think that any programmers in the DPRK will have access to western education.

People who do are many, many tiers up.

Re: Fun with Red Star OS

#50

Post by gjsman-1000 »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #37
netsec_burn wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Red Star 4.0 (2017). Good luck finding it, I haven't.

So far, even though we know Red Star 4 exists and has for years now, it's very elusive with (AFAIK) no disc images yet found. I think that there was a rumor that it was FreeBSD based instead of Linux based but don't quote me on that.

According to Wikipedia, a South Korean magazine got a copy, but they never uploaded the disc images.

However, they did takes a few screenshots. Red Star OS 4 is still MacOS-inspired but with a little more modern of a Mac look - think Mavericks (Red Star OS 3 inspiration) -> Yosemite (Red Star OS 4.0 inspiration). With a touch of Chrome OS and GNOME in there for good measure.

https://www.nkeconomy.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=3191

https://www.nkeconomy.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=3213

https://www.nkeconomy.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=3292

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