How The Intercept Outed Reality Winner

Errata Security ^ | 6 Jun 2017

[mandaladon]

Today, The Intercept released documents on election tampering from an NSA leaker. Later, the arrest warrant request for an NSA contractor named "Reality Winner" was published, showing how they tracked her down because she had printed out the documents and sent them to The Intercept. The document posted by the Intercept isn't the original PDF file, but a PDF containing the pictures of the printed version that was then later scanned in.

The problem is that most new printers print nearly invisibly yellow dots that track down exactly when and where documents, any document, is printed. Because the NSA logs all printing jobs on its printers, it can use this to match up precisely who printed the document.

In this post, I show how.

You can download the document from the original article here. You can then open it in a PDF viewer, such as the normal "Preview" app on macOS. Zoom into some whitespace on the document, and take a screenshot of this. On macOS, hit [Command-Shift-3] to take a screenshot of a window. There are yellow dots in this image, but you can barely see them, especially if your screen is dirty.

[mandaladon]

~~~~~~~~Meet Reality

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

She?

[Dr.Deth]

The OpSec is lacking with this one

[ctdonath2]

That’s my concern. Publishing this is a crippling blow to the massive infrastructure in place for tracing documents. I’ve known the “secret dots” was there but the lack of details made it easy to ignore. Note lots of people will take the simple steps needed to eradicate the coding.

Not that I’m worked up about it, being a 3rd Amendment violation & all.

[RummyChick]

This is one of the stupidest names i have heard..did her parents give it to her or is it a name change

[Jamestown1630]

Every time I see that name in a headline, I first think it refers to some reality show contestant. Can’t get used to it as a name.

[TangoLimaSierra]

This is one of the stupidest names i have heard..did her parents give it to her or is it a name change

I read that she changed it from Sara to Reality. Not sure if Sara Leigh is better or not.

[Chgogal]

How does an idiot like this get Top Secret clearance?

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks so much for your support to this point... I personally apprecaite it...
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Just $679.00 to 86.00%

[Buckeye McFrog]

This coding has been an open secret for years to anybody who bothered to look it up. This perp is just stupid and lazy.

[Loyalist]

Changing one’s name to make it easier to spell or say is one thing. Changing it to attract attention to oneself is a sign of deeper problems (Ron Artest/Metta World Peace, etc.).

[ichabod1]

cute dyke

[Hatteras]

Oh come on. Nobody doesn’t like Sara Leigh...

[Chaguito]

Good question, although in today’s world, things that would have made one subject to blackmail are no longer a problem (see photo upthread).

[\/\/ayne]

Oh come on. Nobody doesn’t like Sara Leigh...

Now that's hi-larious!

[Fred Hayek]

It’s a feature in commercially available printers and copiers sold to businesses.

[Shark24]

Since I always use a Brownie Hawkeye camera to do my secret squirrel work, I never have to worry about any stinking “secret dots”.

[DonkeyBonker]

Reality LOSER

[VaeVictis]

That.... doesn’t look like a females body at all. Shoulders, arm mass, stomach... I thought people were joking about her being a he.... but that image, erm?

[dps.inspect]

Non-Reality and the left, like terrorists, feel it is their God given right to use any means possible to conquer the enemy. She will be sympathized over and awarded every defense and accolade afforded a martyr of the left.