APPLE, CIA, LEAKS, and iPhones
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Posted on 03/23/2017 7:34:38 AM PDT by Enlightened1
A new WikiLeaks Vault 7 leak titled “Dark Matter” claims that the Central Intelligence Agency has been bugging “factory fresh” iPhones since at least 2008 through suppliers. The documents are expected to be released after a 10 a.m. EDT “press briefing” that WikiLeaks promoted on its Twitter.
And here is the full press release from WikiLeaks:
Today, March 23rd 2017, WikiLeaks releases Vault 7 "Dark Matter", which contains documentation for several CIA projects that infect Apple Mac Computer firmware (meaning the infection persists even if the operating system is re-installed) developed by the CIA's Embedded Development Branch (EDB). These documents explain the techniques used by CIA to gain 'persistence' on Apple Mac devices, including Macs and iPhones and demonstrate their use of EFI/UEFI and firmware malware.
Among others, these documents reveal the "Sonic Screwdriver" project which, as explained by the CIA, is a "mechanism for executing code on peripheral devices while a Mac laptop or desktop is booting" allowing an attacker to boot its attack software for example from a USB stick "even when a firmware password is enabled". The CIA's "Sonic Screwdriver" infector is stored on the modified firmware of an Apple Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet adapter.
"DarkSeaSkies" is "an implant that persists in the EFI firmware of an Apple MacBook Air computer" and consists of "DarkMatter", "SeaPea" and "NightSkies", respectively EFI, kernel-space and user-space implants.
Documents on the "Triton" MacOSX malware, its infector "Dark Mallet" and its EFI-persistent version "DerStake" are also included in this release. While the DerStake1.4 manual released today dates to 2013, other Vault 7 documents show that as of 2016 the CIA continues to rely on and update these systems and is working on the production of DerStarke2.0.
Also included in this release is the manual for the CIA's "NightSkies 1.2" a "beacon/loader/implant tool" for the Apple...
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
The FBI, et al, no longer needs Apple to break into their devices....................
That fact will come out as will the fact that it wasn't some rogue individual who gave them that access, it was a corporate decision made in exchange for considerations unspecified.
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Apple controls everything about the iPhone and there are no backdoors. Some Android phones have such backdoors in them, not all.
The opportunity to add that code to the firmware was closed by Apple last year. Now, the Firmware can no longer be updated or changed by any peripheral plugged into an ethernet, USB, or Thunderbolt port, which is what the CIA's software was designed to do. Even a SuperUser cannot update the firmware without an additional beyond SuperUser passcode to prevent just this kind of scenario and that passcode must be input manually from the keyboard.
I hate to tell you this, but that is probably the last iPhone this exploit would actually work on. . .
Wikileaks and the CIA documents are very explicit about how this is done and it is NOT at the Apple assembly plant. It's being done before the target receives the device, while in shipment.
Quoting from the Wikileaks website summary:
"Also included in this release is the manual for the CIA’s “NightSkies 1.2” a “beacon/loader/implant tool” for the Apple iPhone. Noteworthy is that NightSkies had reached 1.2 by 2008, and is expressly designed to be physically installed onto factory fresh iPhones. i.e the CIA has been infecting the iPhone supply chain of its targets since at least 2008.
While CIA assets are sometimes used to physically infect systems in the custody of a target it is likely that many CIA physical access attacks have infected the targeted organization’s supply chain including by interdicting mail orders and other shipments (opening, infecting, and resending) leaving the United States or otherwise."
There is nothing in Wikileaks about any Apple employees being involved in the compromising of the devices. US postal, FedEx, UPS, and other delivery company employees may have been compromised, but it doesn't look as if Apple employees had a hand in it.
They would have to break the seals on the boxes and replace them with exact copies.................
"While CIA assets are sometimes used to physically infect systems in the custody of a target it is likely that many CIA physical access attacks have infected the targeted organization’s supply chain including by interdicting mail orders and other shipments (opening, infecting, and resending) leaving the United States or otherwise."
Get ready to be upset. See that ". . . or otherwise." According to the Wikileaks summary, the CIA intercepted the shipments of the iPhones and then remailed them. The only problem with that is the only way that could happen is for US destinations. Apple ships iPhones out of China for all worldwide destinations. Apple does not originate any iPhone shipments from the US to foreign nations. So, all of these mail orders are to US destinations. The only time an iPhone would be mailed from Apple to a customer in the US is for warranty repair.
Nope, they've had the capability to bug certain iPhones for specific targets since 2007. Edward Snowden released documents for that. I posted those on FR in 2013. These are essentially the same exploit using the same technique. It requires physical possession or access of the iPhone at some time. It was how they were able to bug Angela Merkel's iPhone.
This is NOT by any means all iPhones nor, do I think, modern iPhones. That would require a completely different attack modality. That is nowhere to be found in these documents. Every iPhone since the iPhone 5s would require a completely different approach.
Read for comprehension, for-q-clinton. Nowhere in these articles does it say that ALL Macs are infected. It merely says that the CIA can, with physical access to a targeted Mac, compromise it. That has ALWAYS been the case with ANY computer. Hell they found hidden spy chips in Sharyl Attkisson's Apple keyboard AND hidden Steganographic files containing classified government documents that some three letter government agency had planted in her Home iMac, as well as running a spurious fiber optic cable line into her house to spy on her, just because she was writing articles critical of Obama!
The same kind of chips were secreted inside her CBS owned Windows PC laptop, so it isn't Apple centric spying. . . That was at least two years ago.
Re-Flashing the firmware takes less than ten minutes. Apple can push out a correct firmware for the computer and have the owner do it if necessary.
Apple just packages iPhones in a very tight cellophane wrap. Easy to replicate. They may now get a bit fancier with a laser seal. . . which the CIA will replicate in a week or so.
Then why didn’t they do that on a regular basis knowing it will protect their users?
Why doesn't Windows or any other tech company do it. It's unnecessary to do it unless you are updating your firmware. This is NOT a huge problem for the vast majority of Mac users who the CIA and NSA couldn't care squat about. I doubt there are more than a few hundred compromised devices in the world, or they would have popped up on the radar of the anti malware labs by now.
Angela Merkel's compromised iPhone was found because it wouldn't update properly. . . As I've commented on other threads about the issues with this working on modern iPhones.
Also, Apple CLOSED this Mac Firmware vulnerability sometime last year before this ever came out and made it impossible to revise Firmware from any of these ports.
If you think your Mac's Firmware has been compromised, you can download an official version from Apple and reflash it yourself. Problem solved!
The CIA was watching you type this.
Huh? It’s a huge issue. Have you not been reading the news. Or better yet why not release a tool that will do a checksum? Also how do you know the CIA didn’t make it so that it reflashes the eeproms? Or that the chicoms didn’t plant something similar.
In a windows environment it’s a lot more difficult with all the hodgepodge of choices of components. I guess Dell and HP could do something like that though...were they on the list of CIA targeted machines?
No, for-q-Clinton, it isn't. You are paranoid if you think it is. . . or just exhibiting your Apple Derangement Syndrome. Keep in mind that the CIA was planting chips in routers and Windows PCs long before they started thinking about Apple devices. . . and it was much easier to get their spyware on Windows and Android devices than on Apple stuff, much easier.
Apple controls the software that goes into every Apple device and does frequent quality assurance checks on random samples. They also check when it arrives here, to assure that nothing they did not create is being added to their products. Contrary to what you WANT to believe, Apple is in control of its products, not the Chinese.
In a windows environment it’s a lot more difficult with all the hodgepodge of choices of components. I guess Dell and HP could do something like that though...were they on the list of CIA targeted machines?
No it's easier. There are reference designs and its a lot easier to make the PC boot what you want.
Not true. There are two chips in the phone AP (application processor) and BP (baseband processor). BP controls antenna and radio and runs RTOS (real time operation system). BP and AP share memory and BP can inject malicious code BEFORE AP loads OS.
BP can be controlled via fake cell tower installed close to the targetted phone.
Only secure custom phones costing $10K are not vulnerable to radio penetration.
Have you ever wondered how come every Hollywood movie and tv show has only Macs in the scenes?it would cost too much to be only a product placement scheme.
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