2 January 2014

Jacob Appelbaum on Der Spiegel NSA/GCHQ Reports 

Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2014 00:37:45 +0000
From: Jacob Appelbaum <jacob[at]appelbaum.net>
To: "liberationtech[at]lists.stanford.edu" <liberationtech[at]mailman.stanford.edu>,
        cpunks <cypherpunks[at]cpunks.org>
Subject: Recent Der Spiegel coverage about the NSA and GCHQ

Hi,

I wanted to write to highlight some important documents that have
recently been released by Der Spiegel about the NSA and GCHQ. We worked very hard and for quite some time on these stories - I hope that you'll enjoy them.

Inside TAO: Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html

Part 1: Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html

Part 2: Targeting Mexico:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969-2.html

Part 3: The NSA's Shadow Network:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969-3.html

NSA's Secret Toolbox: Unit Offers Spy Gadgets for Every Need:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nsa-secret-toolbox-ant-unit-offers-spy-gadgets-for-every-need-a-941006.html

Shopping for Spy Gear: Catalog Advertises NSA Toolbox:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/catalog-reveals-nsa-has-back-doors-for-numerous-devices-a-940994.html

Interactive Graphic: The NSA's Spy Catalog:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/a-941262.html

Neue Dokumente: Der geheime Werkzeugkasten der NSA:

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/neue-dokumente-der-geheime-werkzeugkasten-der-nsa-a-941153.html

NSA-Programm "Quantumtheory": Wie der US-Geheimdienst weltweit Rechner
knackt:

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/quantumtheory-wie-die-nsa-weltweit-rechner-hackt-a-941149.html

Der Spiegel 1 / 2014:

https://magazin.spiegel.de/digital/index_SP.html#SP/2014/1/124188114
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/index-7629.html

TAO slides:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-knackt-der-geheimdienst-internetkonten-fotostrecke-105326.html

NSA QUANTUM Tasking Techniques for the R&T Analyst:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-uebernimmt-der-geheimdienst-fremde-rechner-fotostrecke-105329.html

Yahoo! user targeting and attack example with QUANTUM:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-uebernimmt-der-geheimdienst-fremde-rechner-fotostrecke-105329-5.html

QUANTUMTHEORY and related QUANTUM programs:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-uebernimmt-der-geheimdienst-fremde-rechner-fotostrecke-105329-24.html

If you'd like to detect the QUANTUM INSERT, I suggest reading about the race condition details:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/qfire-die-vorwaertsverteidigng-der-nsa-fotostrecke-105358-15.html

Details about the Man-On-The-Side with QUANTUM:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-uebernimmt-der-geheimdienst-fremde-rechner-fotostrecke-105329-3.html

QFIRE (NSA-Geheimdokumente: "Vorwärtsverteidigung" mit QFIRE), TURMOIL,
TURBINE, TURBULENCE:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/qfire-die-vorwaersverteidigng-der-nsa-fotostrecke-105358.html

MARINA:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-uebernimmt-der-geheimdienst-fremde-rechner-fotostrecke-105329-15.html

More MARINA details:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-uebernimmt-der-geheimdienst-fremde-rechner-fotostrecke-105329-21.html

Catalog of equipment covering around ~50 programs:

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/interaktive-grafik-hier-sitzen-die-spaeh-werkzeuge-der-nsa-a-941030.html

Other slides covering FOXACID and more:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-knackt-der-geheimdienst-internetkonten-fotostrecke-105326-2.html

NSA QUANTUMTHEORY capabilities list:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-knackt-der-geheimdienst-internetkonten-fotostrecke-105326-11.html

GCHQ QUANTUMTHEORY capabilities list:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-knackt-der-geheimdienst-internetkonten-fotostrecke-105326-12.html

OLYMPUSFIRE:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-knackt-der-geheimdienst-internetkonten-fotostrecke-105326-13.html

An overview of all of these articles is available in German:

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/quantumtheory-wie-die-nsa-weltweit-rechner-hackt-a-941149.html

Earlier this week, I also recently gave a talk titled "To Protect and Infect: part two" at CCC's 30C3. In the talk I explain a number of these topics - the video is a reasonable complement to the above stories:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0w36GAyZIA

There are quite a few news articles and most of them have focused on the iPhone backdoor known as DROPOUTJEEP - they largely miss the big picture asserting that the NSA needs physical access. This is a misunderstanding. The way that the NSA and GCHQ compromise devices with QUANTUMNATION does not require physical access - that is merely one way to compromise an iPhone. Generally the NSA and GCHQ compromise the phone through the network using QUANTUM/QUANTUMNATION/QUANTUMTHEORY related attack capabilities.

An example of a vulnerable Apple user is shown:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-uebernimmt-der-geheimdienst-fremde-rechner-fotostrecke-105329-24.html

"note: QUANTUMNATION and standard QUANTUM tasking results in the same exploitation technique. The main difference is QUANTUNATION deploys a state 0 implant and is able to be submitted by the TOPI. Any ios device will always get VALIDATOR deployed."

They're not talking about Cisco in that slide, I assure you.

Details on VALIDATOR:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-knackt-der-geheimdienst-internetkonten-fotostrecke-105326-13.html

Welcome to 2014!

The truth is coming and it can't be stopped,

Jacob

Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2014 17:01:56 -0800
Subject: Re: [liberationtech] Recent Der Spiegel coverage about the NSA and GCHQ
From: coderman <coderman[at]gmail.com>
To: liberationtech <liberationtech[at]mailman.stanford.edu>
Cc: cpunks <cypherpunks[at]cpunks.org>

On Thu, Jan 2, 2014 at 4:37 PM, Jacob Appelbaum <jacob[at]appelbaum.net> wrote:

> ...
> I wanted to write to highlight some important documents that have
> recently been released by Der Spiegel about the NSA and GCHQ. We worked
> very hard and for quite some time on these stories - I hope that you'll
> enjoy them.

second only to BULLRUN drop; thank you!

> ...
> OLYMPUSFIRE:
>
> http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-knackt-der-geheimdienst-internetkonten-fotostrecke-105326-13.html

off by one error; this is "VALIDATOR"

the OLYMPUSFIRE doc is at:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-knackt-der-geheimdienst-internetkonten-fotostrecke-105326-14.html

> ...
> There are quite a few news articles and most of them have focused on the
> iPhone backdoor known as DROPOUTJEEP - they largely miss the big picture
> asserting that the NSA needs physical access. This is a
>misunderstanding. The way that the NSA and GCHQ compromise devices with
> QUANTUMNATION does not require physical access - that is merely one way
> to compromise an iPhone. Generally the NSA and GCHQ compromise the phone
> through the network using QUANTUM/QUANTUMNATION/QUANTUMTHEORY related
> attack capabilities.

thank you as well for this clarification. keep it up :)

Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2014 01:12:21 +0000
From: Jacob Appelbaum <jacob[at]appelbaum.net>
To: liberationtech[at]mailman.stanford.edu
Subject: Re: [liberationtech] Recent Der Spiegel coverage about the NSA and GCHQ
Cc: cpunks <cypherpunks[at]cpunks.org>

coderman:

[Message above omitted.]

Whoops - thanks!

I'm curious if anyone has yet spotted which well known programs are tied to OLYMPUSFIRE? I'd guess you probably figured it out, if it is possible to link it?

The QUANTUM programs are extremely powerful but largely because our systems are so weak. Imagine if the NSA informed Apple and helped them to fix their products rather than sabotaging American companies?

All the best,

Jacob