Enhanced Carnivore To Crack Encryption Via Virus

suqur writes: "MSNBC has a story about a new Carnivore feature, dubbed 'Magic Lantern,' which arrives on a victim's computer in the form of a virus through email or well-known vulnerabilities. Magic Lantern uses keylogging to extract keys typed in, and sends them off to the FBI. This is similar to a story reported on previously, but taken one step further, allowing computers to be compromised remotely."

Comments

In other news...

[Violet Null]

In other news today, the FBI was arrested en masse for violating numerous newly legislated anti-terrorist laws prohibiting compromising remote computers...

This only works if....

[intensity]

a) The FBI kicks in your door and installs Outlook

b) You always open email with the subject "Snow White and the 7 FBI Agents"

c) You run the attachment called "FBILOVESYOU.VBS" (and you run Windows, Outlook, etc)

Blah, dumb communist FBI

Way to go, FBI!

[fobbman]

Thanks to the FBI, a whole new market is now being pushed into exploring the world of alternative operating systems.

Talk about a boon to the Open Source movement! Show the people (not just the bad guys) that Microsoft's numerous vulnerabilities can be used by Big Brother to monitor them. I can't think of a better way to boost Linux distro sales.

DCMA violation?

[Anonymous Coward]

The first thing that comes to mind is a flagrant violation of the DCMA.
How does the government expect to work around this one? There are so many things that can go wrong...

1. Probably OS-dependent. Remember: virii for one platform (i.e., Win) will probably not work for others. That was not hard to get around

2. Human link involved. This virus will presumably be propagated via email, or some other form of trojan. Those who tend to use encryption tend to block this type of thing from happening to their machine anyway. Yet another reason not to open email/attachments from an addresser named "CIA" :P. That was easy to get around.

3. Network link involved. Those who use encryption are usually savvy enough to detect extra packets flying from their machine to some unknown address, which would easily be identified in a reverse-lookup.

My goodness, they are getting desperate, aren't they.

Virus Email

[mESSDan]

The virus can be sent to the suspect via e-mail -- perhaps sent for the FBI by a trusted friend or relative. The FBI can also use common vulnerabilities to break into a suspect's computer and insert Magic Lantern, the source said.

Email Template:

From: Bill@Slashdot.org
To: Fred@Slashdot.org

Subject: Magic Lantern.doc.pif

Hi! How are you?

I send you this file in order to have your advice.

See you later. Thanks

Re:Encryption program name

[mikeee]

Better yet, rename it 'Quake', so you'll get better 3D acceleration for your PGP.

You have got to be kidding.

[Elwood P Dowd]

I'm sure that this is (-1, Redundant) by now, but...

Are there any cases involving damage done to personal property in eavesdropping operations? That is, legal taps? Any lawyers here? I gotta imagine that this would be a very very dangerous thing for the government to get into. Not only could it cause damage to personal property, but if the suspect is smart enough to encrypt their stuff, they're going to be smart enough to know when they've been h4x0red by an email virus.

This story makes a lot more sense if you remove every reference to "our sources" and replace it with "my little brother."

"The FBI is developing software capable of inserting a computer virus onto a suspect's machine and obtaining encryption keys, my little brother told MSNBC.com."

I believe *that*.

I've got no problem with this...

[MrResistor]

...as long as it requires a warrant before it can be used.

Of course, anyone who would be vulnerabe to this is either a moron or doesn't feel that they have anything to hide, so it seems kind of pointless.

Of course, the truely paranoid communicate with their computer using morse code with their space bar and scroll lock LED. I can see it now:

Head of Investigation: "What have we got from the J Random Hacker log file?"

Computer Specialist: "84,365,928 spaces, sir"

Don't rename it Quake!

[roystgnr]

After it's renamed and loaded with the ATI drivers, PGP will encrypt things twice as fast, but side-by-side inspection will reveal it's algorithm to have switched to XOR.

They sent it to me!

[camusflage]

I received an email with the subject "Good Times", and I opened it. My browser popped open, and sent me to a site that had the headline, "See what really happens 'behind closed doors' when John Ashcroft and George Bush get together." My firewall picked up something weird, but I don't know anything about that, because I was already getting ready to format my disk.