Posted on 03/23/2017 8:33:48 AM PDT by Swordmaker
A new WikiLeaks Vault 7 leak titled “Dark Matter” claims, with unreleased documents, that the Central Intelligence Agency has been bugging “factory fresh” iPhones since at least 2008. WikiLeaks further claims that the CIA has the capability to permanently bug iPhones, even if their operating systems are deleted or replaced.
The documents are expected to be released after a 10 a.m. EDT “press briefing” that WikiLeaks promoted on its Twitter.
Watch a livestream of the Julian Assange led event here.
WikiLeaks has shared a link to watch the livestream about today's CIA document leak, titled "Dark Matter." Watch the Julian Assange led event here.Click here to read more
A summary of the documents has been released on the WikiLeaks website. It reads:
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 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.
Obviously, this requires the physical possession of the device prior to delivery or access to the device when after it is in the possession of the targeted person.. This type of attack has been known about for years —It was described in the 2007 NSA paper released by Edward Snowden—and involves installing malware at a root level in any computer. It is a personally targeted attack and not a remote attack, capable of targeting spur of the moment individuals, but has to be planned in detail, requiring identifying and intercepting the target's computer or iPhone before delivery, or finding that person's device(s) when unattended for a sufficiently long period of time, and dismantling them to gain access to the chips necessary to either re-program or replace them with the spyware installed.
With modern Apple iPhones requiring internal registration of no less than four security components, such invasion becomes much more problematic. One of those is a test of component integrity for the firmware. While the iPhone would still work post installation, it would "brick" at the next update giving the infamous "Error 53" when the registered components fail their integrity checks.
Another area addressed in the Vault 7 was modification of the Computer Firmware from peripherals at boot up. Just this past year, prior to the revelation of the Vault 7 exploits, Apple closed the ability of any peripheral device to modify the firmware of newer Apple computers and pushed out the update.
These newly revealed vulnerabilities used by the CIA have already been closed by Apple or require physical possession of the targeted device to accomplish, which is impossible to defend against, as spychips can be hidden any where in a device if the agency can get access to the device.
Are these the phones Rush gave away?????
The United States is occupied buy a rarely seen, parasitic, smaller country with its own values, laws and personnel.
The British are coming?
No, they’re not British and they’re not coming because they are already here and have been here occupying us for quite some time, it’s just a little bit more clear, now.
Ever noticed that it’s typically Samsung or Apple when these topics come up....never Blackberry?
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Only if the CIA has intercepted them and installed a new firmSPYware on them. It won't be that way from Apple.
What do you think about “Carrier IQ”?
Hand me the Sonic Screwdriver, please...
It’s more about the prevalence of devices in the market.
Crackberry phones constitute very little in the marketplace but, make no mistake, every phone has a backdoor installed.
If the technology, methodology or ability to do something exists it is almost a certainty that someone in the federal government is doing it no matter what laws or rules or ethical standards it may violate.
If anyone believes that our government can be trusted on any matter at all they haven’t been paying attention the last 8 years.
Duplicity, lying, cheating and criminal behavior within the government is nothing new, but Barack Obama elevated it to levels previously never even imagined.
And he set the example that criminality and unethical conduct were not only acceptable but encouraged if it advanced his agenda.
I believe that, unlike Obama, President Trump does want to run a law abiding, constitutional, ethical administration.
But he is sadddled with a bureaucracy, legislature and judiciary that is riddled with people who are accustomed to doing things the Obama way.
Didn’t Stuxnet use a firmware virus?
Blackberries are now all Android. The security offered by Blackberry is the same as all Androids. . . which is not very secure.
The reason you don't see as articles come up on Blackberry is that the number of users on that make is now minuscule compared to Samsung and Apple phones. Blackberry worldwide market share shrank to less than 1% in the second quarter of 2014 and has been shrinking more since then. That's just the fact of the matter.
Your claim that ever phone has a backdoor is false. A backdoor is a deliberately installed method to get into a device installed by the manufacturer.
No, Vendome, Apple iPhones do not have a backdoor deliberately installed on them. Why do you think that the CIA has to intercept them and install one of their own design to get one on there? Apple has been fighting legislation to require such a government mandated backdoor because once you require one, it is NOT SECURE AT ALL, it will be found by hackers.
Didn’t know they still made Blackberrys...
This is spin. These devices are being bugged at the factory! When you open it you get the bugged version. I’m sure the Chinese do this as well since that’s where many electronics are made and that’s how they work.
This doesn’t just impact apple but it does impact apple and there is no spin that can nullify that.
I used to use Blackberries because of their security. When Blackberry decided they no longer wanted to remain competitive in the market, creating devices with the features all their competition had, it was a fairly easy decision for me to switch to an iPhone. Now, iPhone leads the way in security features.
Few buy them anymore
hmm.....connect the dots.
The CIA bugs factory fresh iPhones.
Rush Limbaugh gives factory fresh iPhones away to his listeners.
Therefore.....RUSH LIMBAUGH IS A SPY!!!
Carrier IQ is software installed on some makes of cell phones for use of the phone service carriers and manufacturers which handles handset diagnostics and sends data about those specific things. It supposedly does not send data about users information, voice recordings, emails, passwords, etc. It is intended to be used to aggregate data to provide information that would aid in improving service, cut costs, maintenance of networking, etc. It is, however, "leaky" of individual data that could be used to track the location and movement of users. It was also found that some carriers and others were using it for accessing webpage viewing data and info on individual user's browsing habits.
For this reason, and other privacy issues, Apple discontinued use of Carrier IQ in September of 2012 with the release of iOS 5 on the iPhone 4. Apple is now on iOS 10 and iPhone 7. It has not been used on any Apple product since the iPhone 3GS on any carrier, regardless if the carrier required it or not. The remnants of the application's databases were scrubbed from all Apple devices in later updates to assure nothing was left of Carrier IQ on Apple devices.
Apple uses its own proprietary application for diagnostics on its devices and users must opt-in to report such diagnostics to Apple when they activate their devices. Apple maintains a page on their website that enumerates what kind of data is reported and what Apple does with it, if they do opt-in. Apple specifically states it will not share the data with anyone outside of Apple.
As I recall, sometime in 2015, it was discovered that the Carrier IQ app on Android phones was turning on the GPS, even on phones where it was disabled, and reporting the locations and movements of those devices.
Given all that, I think both the carriers and manufacturers are entitled to some feedback from their devices for diagnostic purposes. . . but not to the level that third-party Carrier IQ was putting their app to doing in the interests of monetizeing their investment in Carrier IQ. It was nefarious in practice, if not the original intent of the software. Apple came to the same conclusion and opted out.
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