Items tagged with Wikileaks
Every so often, WikiLeaks publishes top-secret documents outlining various hacking tools and malware used by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Most of the documents we have seen are presumably outdated, but for obvious reasons, the CIA would still like to keep them under lock and key. The agency would also like to arrest the person responsible for providing the documents to Wikileaks, and has identified a possible suspect. That person is Joshua Adam Schulte, a former employee of a CIA group tasked with programming code to spy on foreign threats, The Washington Post reports. Federal prosecutors identified Schulte as a suspect during a hearing in January, noting that he provided...
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The latest documents from Vault 7, a collection of confidential materials related to hacking tools used by the United States Central Intelligence Agency and obtained by WikiLeaks, was made public today by the whistle blowing organization. This newest leak details the CIA's Angelfire project, which is a persistent framework that can load and execute custom malware on computers running Windows XP and Windows 7.Angelfire consists of five components, including Solartime, Wolfcreek, Keystone (previously MagicWand), BadMFS,a nd the Windows Transitory File system. Each of these parts has a distinct job. It starts with Solartime, which modifies the partition boot sector so that when Windows fires up...
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WikiLeaks, the non-profit organization that publishes secret information provided by anonymous sources, released details about a tool that was used by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to ensure that other government intelligence agencies were sharing the biometric information they collected. That includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Security Agency (NSA), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). That's right, the CIA has (or had) a tool to spy on the government's spy agencies. The tool is called ExpressLane and it would be installed and run under the cover of upgrading the biometric software by intelligence officials who visit liaison sites. ExpressLane...
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Here we go again. WikiLeaks, the international non-profit whistleblower that publishes secret information to the web, has been dumping classified documents outlining various hacking tools and malware used by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. These documents are part of what WikiLeaks calls Vault 7, the latest of which contains information on the CIA's "CouchPotato" tool. According to WikiLeaks, CouchPotato is a remote tool for intercepting video streams as either an AVI video file or capturing still images of frames from the stream as JPEGs, presumably to save space. In the latter case, CouchPotato is able to analyze and detect when a frame of video is significantly different from...
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Another hacking tool used by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been revealed by WikiLeaks, the non-profit organization that often publishes secret documents obtained by anonymous sources. The latest set of documents comes from Wikileaks' Vault 7 collection of CIA malware tools and describes a utility for access webcams and microphones on certain Windows systems. Called Dumbo, the tool was not developed for spying on targets but to corrupt recordings from webcams and microphones where the deployment a special group within the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence could be compromised. It essentially allows an agent to cover his or her tracks. One of the documents related to...
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For the past several months, WikiLeaks has been publishing information related to exploits and hacking tools that had been used by the United States government at some point. The project is known as Vault 7 and seems to contain mostly older exploits, though it is not clear if some of the malware has been updated for modern platforms. Not all of it is aimed at Windows. In fact, the latest documents reference macOS and Linux hacks that were part of the US Central Intelligence Agency's Imperial program.Image Source: Flickr (Tony Webster)The first of these is called Achilles. According to the documentation, it is a capability that gives an operator the ability to infect a target's OS X disk image...
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WikiLeaks has published another set of leaked documents from the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). This latest leak is part of WikiLeaks' Vault 7 batch and details a malicious app for Android devices called HighRise. Also called TideCheck, this app allows a remote hacker to redirect or intercept SMS text messages that are sent to a target's cellular phone, and have those communications forwarded to a remote web server.This appears to be an old tool that was used by the CIA, or at least the version described in the leaked documents is an older piece of malware. The accompanying manual is dated December 16, 2013, and describes a tool that was designed to work on mobile handsets running...
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Another day, another government spying exploit rises to the surface courtesy of Wikileaks, this time originating from the CIA. This WikiLeaks data dump specifically lets us know of a CIA-engineered spying tool called OutlawCountry (no space), which, interestingly enough, explicitly targets Linux users. You know, those digital freedom loving passionate penguin peeps that appreciate having great control over their computer? But don't worry, the CIA has targeted Windows users en masse in the past as well; absolutely no one has proven safe and they obviously don't discriminate. OutlawCountry starts out as a Linux kernel module (nf_table_6_64.ko) that gets loaded into the system and...
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WikiLeaks has posted its latest release from the Vault 7 series of CIA-related leaks that exposes a tool dubbed “Athena”, which acts as a beacon on compromised Windows-based systems and gives the agency remote loader capabilities as well.Athena and its associated tools function on all versions of Windows from XP through Windows 10. There is a secondary implementation named “Hera” for Windows 8 and newer systems, due to some underlying changes Microsoft made to the OSes, which offers all of the same capabilities. All told, Athena / Hera provides a beaconing capability with remote configuration and task handling. The tools also provide memory loading / unloading of NOD Persistence Specification...
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WikiLeaks isn’t done exposing the CIA’s arsenal of hacking tools used to infiltrate computer systems around the globe. Last month, we told you about Weeping Angel, which targeted select Samsung Smart TVs for surveillance purposes. Today, we’re learning about Archimedes, which attacks computers attached to a Local Area Network (LAN). Although we have no way of knowing whether Archimedes is still in use by the CIA, the details of how it is unleashed on unsuspecting parties has been revealed in full. In its teaser announcing the exploit, WikiLeaks writes, “It allows the re-directing of traffic from the target computer inside the LAN through a computer infected with this malware and controlled by...
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Back in early March, WikiLeaks gave the world an early glimpse into just a small sample of the hacking arsenal at the disposal of the CIA. As part of WikiLeaks’ “Vault 7” dump, we were made privy to software hacks that targeted Android- and iOS-based smartphones, Windows- and OS X-based PCs and even Samsung smart TVs. Today, WikiLeaks released the CIA’s actual user guide for “Weeping Angel”, the exploit use to hack Samsung smart TVs. We’ve also learned that Weeping Angel is actually based on another piece of malware, “Extending”, that was developed by the British MI5 spy agency. Weeping Angel (and Extending) are capable of tapping into a Samsung smart TV’s internal microphone, where it can then...
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The latest bombshell to come out of WikiLeaks’ Vault7 series of leaks from the CIA, exposes a tool codenamed “Grasshopper”, which allows operatives to deploy persistent surveillance and hacking payloads on target Windows-based computer systems and remain undetected from popular anti-malware and anti-virus tools.WikiLeaks has an array of documentation on-line, including an in-depth user’s guide for Grasshopper. The user’s guide explains that Grasshopper is “a software tool used to build custom installers for target computers running Microsoft Windows operating systems”, which seems straightforward enough, and quite frankly the kind of thing you’d expect an intelligence agency to have...
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WikiLeaks dropped a huge bombshell over two weeks ago when it revealed that it gained access to a treasure trove of the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA’s) hacking tools. Documents detailed numerous tools at the agency’s disposal including viruses, trojans, zero-day exploits and other avenues to monitor or infiltrate devices ranging from iPhones to Smart TVs to computers running Windows or Mac operating systems. In the case of Apple devices, the CIA has its own dedicated team within the Mobile Device Branch (MDB) that specializes in exploiting iOS-based devices like the iPhone and the iPad. “The disproportionate focus on iOS may be explained by the popularity of the iPhone among social,...
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Are you worried about the CIA cyber-espionage toolkit that was just revealed on Tuesday? Well, Julian Assange apparently has your back. Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, recently promised that his organization would help companies like Apple, Google and Samsung to defend themselves against the hacking tools -- the very tools that the organization is set to unleash in full to the world. Assange remarked that "We have decided to work with them, to give them some exclusive access to some of the technical details we have, so that fixes can be pushed out." Many of the exploits are currently under wraps so that they do not get into the wrong hands. Smaller exploits could take a few days...
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Several technology firms have issued statements after Wikileaks published a massive cache of documents alleging that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had developed methods to hack popular electronics devices, including iPhones, Android handsets, and Samsung smart TVs. Dubbed "Vault 7," the data dump is considered the largest public reveal of confidential documents related to the CIA.If the documents are real, they contain detailed exploits on popular devices that would allow the CIA to snoop on users and even take control of gadgets. The documents, which are dated between 2013 and 2016, purportedly include a variety of exploits, including those the United States government developed on its...
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It appears that WikiLeaks has struck the motherlode. The non-profit organization, which has gained notoriety over the years for publishing secretive and often classified information, has just revealed a massive information dump of files obtained from within the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). WikiLeaks has named this latest information release ‘Vault 7’ and it includes over 8,700 classified documents that were obtained from the CIA Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI), which is located in Langley, Virginia. The first question that we asked ourselves when presented with this information was simply “How?” Well, you can blame unscrupulous government contractors and hackers that have made...
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This past week has been rife with controversial news related to the U.S. election. Of course, there is always an inordinate amount of news during an election cycle, but this week in particular began with some big stories. First, the U.S. officially accused Russia for the infamous DNC hack that outed the Hillary Clinton campaign's manipulation of the democratic primary. That was followed by WikiLeaks tweeting out an array of cryptic hashes in preparation for its latest data dump, and later the Ecuadorian government admitting it cut WikiLeaks’ founder, Julian Assange’s, access to the Internet in retaliation for previous leaks. Sprinkled amongst all of this drama was the third Presidential debate,...
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Julian Assange, the famous whistleblower responsible for leaking thousands of documents and hacked emails through WikiLeaks, may be wearing out his welcome in Ecuador. Government officials in Ecuador fessed up to disabling Internet access to the WikiLeaks founder at his embassy in London after the site published more hacked emails from Hillary Clinton's camp. A little background information is necessary to fully understand what's going on. Assange has been living at the Embassy of Ecuador in London for over four years. He had sought and received asylum by Ecuador in 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden where he's wanted for questioning over an allegation of rape. Assange denies the charge...
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If you follow WikiLeaks on Twitter, you may have noticed a series of cryptic tweets consisting of strings of numbers and letters. These are hashes or keys of sorts, some of which are calling "dead man's keys." Regardless, they appear to be related to another WikiLeak post on Twitter claiming its co-founder, Julian Assange, is without Internet access after his connection was "intentionally severed by a state party." That action has reportedly activated WikiLeaks' "appropriate contingency plans" in response. Julian Assange's internet link has been intentionally severed by a state party. We have activated the appropriate contingency plans. — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) October 17, 2016 The announcement...
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PBS aired a Frontline episode focused on Wikileaks on May 24, and received retribution as a result. Its site was hacked, late Sunday, by the hacking group LulzSec. Remnants of the site defacing were still around on Monday. The episode, titled "Wikisecrets," didn't sit so well with the hacking group LulzSec. As a result, they hacked PBS' main news site, the PBS NewsHour site, which temporarily reported that Tupac Shakur was alive and well, living in New Zealand some 15 years after he was actually killed. [To be clear, rapper Tupac Shakur died from wounds suffered in a drive-by shooting in 1996.] The following is LulzSec’s "confession" to the hack. “Greetings, Internets. We just finished...
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly condemned "those responsible" and warned that retribution was coming over Wikileak's publication of a quarter of a million leaked documents from United States embassies around the world. She also said that the State Department was increasing its security measures to safeguard its documents. "The United States strongly condemns the illegal disclosure of classified information ... This disclosure is not just an attack on America’s foreign policy interests. It is an attack on the international community – the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations, that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity," Clinton...
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Wikileaks, which has been shuttered by litigation previously, now finds it self shut down by that all too familiar reason: lack of money.The site's mission statement is to allow whistleblowers to anonymously release government and corporate documents, "an uncensorable version of Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis." It's done that in the past, posting leaks from many sources. Now, it needs the help of the public. On their site, they say: To concentrate on raising the funds necessary to keep us alive into 2010, we have reluctantly suspended all other operations, but will be back soon.We have received hundreds of thousands of pages from corrupt banks, the US detainee system,...
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