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Snowden leak: Cavium networking hardware may contain NSA backdoor

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Re: Snowden leak: Cavium networking hardware may contain NSA backdoor

#561

Post by jacquesm »

b112 wrote: post #550
jacquesm wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wiping for no reason: that could well be a difference between the view of the firmware of the world versus your view and I guess they just decided to err on the side of caution? And low power alarms may well be a variation on that theme. Glitching the power supply has been a tool in the arsenal of reverse engineers for a long time so that sort of sensitivity may well make sense. Voltage spikes and drops can be very s…

Wiping for no reason: that could well be a difference between the view of the firmware of the world versus your view and I guess they just decided to err on the side of caution? No. I said I've been in touch with technical support, and the manuals, docs, and their support is clear. It should not be wiping, it has a backuo battery too. We've spent hours and hours testing, to validate the issue, and cause. They likely…

Hehe, ok! Clear case of faulty product then. Thanks for the extra context.

I'm not so much playing devils advocate as that I'm aware how hard making such devices is and the difference between 'user error' and 'incompetent staff/faulty product' can be hard to distinguish in a comment.

Re: Snowden leak: Cavium networking hardware may contain NSA backdoor

#562

Post by Aerbil313 »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #275

For anyone wondering "what's the big deal" it's worth remembering the NSA has a bad track record of keeping their own hacking tools secure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_Brokers It infuriates me the NSA actively works to undermine American security. Their brief is to protect us, not plant backdoors and then lose the keys.

Hahaha. That “concern” is only for you guys in the US. I live in a state which has conflicting interests with the US.

Re: Snowden leak: Cavium networking hardware may contain NSA backdoor

#563

Post by Proziam »

sim7c00 wrote: post #559

Didn't read all the leaks but it seems a bit wild to conclude a vendor implemented a backdoor purposefully. There's some been found ofcourse, but simply being SIGINT capable, why does that imply 'backdoor'.? If they have a nice exploit for the device it would also make it SIGINT capable no? without the vendor's cooperation (apart perhaps from a buggy implementation.) If you have the chip, you can find the backdoor...…

[1] Everyone gets asked to implement backdoors in this game. This includes games companies like [2] Riot Games and the popularly recognized cases of apps like [3] TikTok and [4] Snapchat. It's also worth noting, people assume (wrongly) that only China wants access to this data, the Feds are more than happy to strong arm people via [5] NSA letters (or other means as in [3]).

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwRYyWn7BEo

[2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-you-play-videogames-china-ma...

[3] https://gizmodo.com/tiktok-cfius-draft-agreement-shows-spyin...

[4] https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/30/politics/army-tiktok-banned/i...

[5] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/19/us-tech-giants...

Re: Snowden leak: Cavium networking hardware may contain NSA backdoor

#564

Post by wil421 »

ilyt wrote: post #206
JanSolo wrote: post #6

The tweet seems to imply that the entire Ubiquiti Networks line of network hardware could be compromised. That's a shame; I was thinking of installing some in my house. I'm sure that Ubiquiti's customers will not be happy if they find out that the US Govt can access their private data.

Flashing openWRT on some boxes is probably your best bet; Or, alternatively, treat your LAN/WiFI like public internet and don't send anything unencrypted thru it

Unifi lets you flash custom firmware? I thought they started singing all firmware years ago to stop it.

Re: Snowden leak: Cavium networking hardware may contain NSA backdoor

#565

Post by jacquesm »

pyinstallwoes wrote: post #555
jacquesm wrote: post #535

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Post Snowden the first group has some formidable ammunition.

Now apply that to every other "conspiracy.."

That's not how this works. Plenty of conspiracies are just that: idiots pretending they have special knowledge or that believe that behind everything that doesn't quite mesh with their worldview there is someone pulling invisible strings. Those people have a mental issue. The big trick is to be able to tell the two apart, not to categorically assume that because some conspiracies that had a whole bunch of evidence to go with them turned out to be true that all conspiracies, even those that have no evidence to go with them are true as well. That's just faulty logic.

Re: Snowden leak: Cavium networking hardware may contain NSA backdoor

#566

Post by Clubber »

throwawayq3423 wrote: post #377
Clubber wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The twitter files showed government agencies were coercing Twitter into suppressing information. I would find it hard to believe they don't also coerce at newspapers, particularly with the cozy relationship they already have with "anonymous sources" from said agencies.

> The twitter files showed government agencies were coercing Twitter into suppressing information. They very much did not. Twitter's own lawyers when pressed in court (the place where there are consequences for lying) admitted that nothing in the "Twitter Files" cited by Donald Trump actually show that the social media platform was a tool of government censorship. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.…

The 5th circuit court of appeals found that there was coercion. Read the first 5 or so pages and the last 5 or so pages, specifically that it upheld the unconstitutionality of provision 6 and at the end it lists the offending agencies.

https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/23/23-30445-CV0.pd...

Re: Snowden leak: Cavium networking hardware may contain NSA backdoor

#567

Post by unaindz »

Aerbil313 wrote: post #562
NelsonMinar wrote: post #275

For anyone wondering "what's the big deal" it's worth remembering the NSA has a bad track record of keeping their own hacking tools secure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_Brokers It infuriates me the NSA actively works to undermine American security. Their brief is to protect us, not plant backdoors and then lose the keys.

Hahaha. That “concern” is only for you guys in the US. I live in a state which has conflicting interests with the US.

So what if you are not in the US?

If they manage to put a backdoor in any software or hardware you use you are affected. They could spy on you and trade that with your government or just lose the keys and now anyone can do it.

PD:Also from outside US btw

Re: Snowden leak: Cavium networking hardware may contain NSA backdoor

#568

Post by Obscurity4340 »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #529
Obscurity4340 wrote: post #251

Just want to point out that iMessage makes a lot more sense in this regard. iMessage is that skeleton key that was requested years ago in San Beradino

That was low stakes, they already had the shooters. What if that was theater?

That's the really annoying part and the massive cultural red herring: they already have such insane levels of access to the latest toys and technology or equipment plus institutional access to records and documents they can subpeona and warrant from a judgethat will basically yield everything after it is aquired, why the fuck do they need that remaining 0.00000001% of evidence that constitutes everybody's private data when they already have a slamdunk case because of said totalitarian access described above?

Re: Snowden leak: Cavium networking hardware may contain NSA backdoor

#569

Post by isykt »

Minor49er wrote: post #430
isykt wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% agreed. If you’re concerned about privacy, being tracked online by corporations is a bigger concern than the the NSA. If you’re the target of an NSA investigation, you’re already fucked. Changing your network equipment is not going to help.

On the contrary, changing equipment may actually help quite a bit when dealing with the NSA. The 2016 documentary "Zero Days" which was centered around the creation of Stuxnet showed that the NSA targeted specific hardware models to look for security holes. They had to buy matching hardware themselves and rigorously try to break it which took time and wasn't trivial to do

So you’re saying that no matter what hardware you have, the NSA will buy that specific hardware and take the time to break it.

Re: Snowden leak: Cavium networking hardware may contain NSA backdoor

#570

Post by TheRealDunkirk »

sofixa wrote: post #536
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea what you're on about. The Founders of the US absolutely intended the press to be the last counterbalance on government overreach. It's literally why it's the First Amendment. Getting bogged down by terminology is perfect HN pedantry. Well done, sir!

Few counterpoints: * it's an amendment, so not part of the original text * "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" . I don't know, it doesn't sound to me like the freedom of the press was the most pressing matter when that amendment was written considering the ordering, and again, the fact that…

They got the Constitution ratified based on the promise of the first ten Amendments to be passed later. The fact that they weren't part of the original document was just the political process they used. I don't know; maybe read a book.
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