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Source Code Similarities Between NSA Malware and 'Regin' Trojan

spiegel.de

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Re: Source Code Similarities Between NSA Malware and 'Regin' Trojan

#91

Post by efdee »

danielweber wrote: post #82
Flip-per wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you serious? I wonder what Barrett Brown would say about this topic, if he wouldn't sit in prison right now: http://boingboing.net/2015/01/22/barrettbrown.html Are you aware that (h)activists from around the world do not travel to the USA because they fear the consequences, having their equipment seized or being imprisoned? Do you know why Laura Poitras is living in Berlin right now?

Being a "journalist" is not, and shouldn't ever be, a magic get-out-of-jail-free card. In Brown's own court motions, he agreed that he had threatened the lives and families of FBI agents, and that he had hidden evidence during a warranted search. I ought to face jail for doing those things. So should Brown.

What would have happened had he been a politician?

Re: Source Code Similarities Between NSA Malware and 'Regin' Trojan

#92

Post by Flip-per »

raverbashing wrote: post #66
Flip-per wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you serious? I wonder what Barrett Brown would say about this topic, if he wouldn't sit in prison right now: http://boingboing.net/2015/01/22/barrettbrown.html Are you aware that (h)activists from around the world do not travel to the USA because they fear the consequences, having their equipment seized or being imprisoned? Do you know why Laura Poitras is living in Berlin right now?

I am serious and I am aware of the issues you raised. Meanwhile Turkey has to remove pages from FB because they're "offensive", not to mention other issues that happens in the ME. I am certainly not saying the US has the better situation, and Europe looks good, unless you "offend" some groups of people... And if you think censorship by DMCA is bad in the US you should know the German GEMA. Please note that freedom fr…

"in any other country" reads a bit different than "turkey and some middle-east countries".

This is rather about free speech than about copyright issues which GEMA and the DMCA deal with.

Have a look at the Freedom of Press Index, where the USA are behind Botswana and El Salvador: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index

Re: Source Code Similarities Between NSA Malware and 'Regin' Trojan

#93

Post by lotsofmangos »

raverbashing wrote: post #34
virtualritz wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define 'democratic government'. This term is a euphemism nowadays in the West. E.g.: http://www.salon.com/2013/08/17/chomsky_the_u_s_behaves_noth...

I wonder if Chomsky would have that liberty of critique in any other country...

Have a look at the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index

There are 45 countries that journalists rank as having better press freedom than the USA.

edit - For comparison, I just looked at the "Freedom of the Press" report by US NGO Freedom House. It has 21 countries with a better rating than the USA.

Re: Source Code Similarities Between NSA Malware and 'Regin' Trojan

#94

Post by [deleted] »

cyphunk wrote: post #38
thu wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not related to this thread, but to your comment about the Maple Leaf: http://www.newsweek.com/why-rebel-groups-love-toyota-hilux-7... Edit: Sorry, I didn't see it was paywalled (I'm not a subscriber of that site). I now see that it counts your visits and disable itself after a few times. "Private" browsing seems to solve the problem.

that link is mostly paywalled. do you have another source?

[deleted]

Re: Source Code Similarities Between NSA Malware and 'Regin' Trojan

#97

Post by barryfandango »

MichaelGG wrote: post #72
bigfoot wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that a NSA dev team was well aware that the spyware would be discovered and disassembled at some point in time, it was reasonable to intentionally leave behind evidence that points to countries other than the US. I'm not saying that's what happened, but I'd not take the cricket references too serious either.

Using that logic, what would constitute evidence? That's like the senator in favor of the Japanese interment camps saying that the fact that no Japanese Americans had committed a crime was just even more evidence they were planning something. Edit: More clearly written than my comment: http://lesswrong.com/lw/ih/absence_of_evidence_is_evidence_o... But basically, people have already come to a conclusion. If the comme…

So I can clearly not choose the drink that is in front of you!

Re: Source Code Similarities Between NSA Malware and 'Regin' Trojan

#98

Post by GrinningFool »

bjackman wrote: post #44
th0br0 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the PDF (who's ever shipped binary as text in a pdf btw?) [1] they argue that it might be related to Australia; who knows... [1] http://www.spiegel.de/media/media-35668.pdf

Also "source code"... This is clearly not source code.

I'd argue that it's source code at the lowest possible level...

Re: Source Code Similarities Between NSA Malware and 'Regin' Trojan

#99

Post by MichaelGG »

jcfrei wrote: post #78

Seeing that this is a keylogger, how complex would it be to enable a sort of SSL protocol between the keyboard and a specific application? The computational overhead should be manageable, the connector (USB) wouldn't need to change and there should be a fallback for any applications which doesn't support it. But if crucial applications like mail and the browser programs could use it, it might deliver another blow to…

If the OS is compromised, then you can't work around that to secure a program inside the OS. You can run the program somewhere else, like on the keyboard itself. Some secure crypto devices have displays, so you can see what you're signing.

The only similar thing I've heard of is the "Secure Attention Sequence" in Windows. That is, pressing CtrlAltDel before entering credentials lets you be sure an application is not mimicking the logon prompt. But of course if the OS is compromised (like by loading a driver that intercepts such keystrokes, like VMware Enhanced Keyboard) all bets are off.

Think about it, the OS is executing all the code for the app, and storing all the memory.

This is also why there is a push for trusted computing. Being able to have your processor, OS, etc be able to verify they are running a trusted configuration is a powerful thing. It makes the owner of the computer in control. (The downside is when the user is not the owner, but would like to be, then they get upset at restrictions.)

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