Slashdot Mirror
The FBI Is Infecting Tor Users With Malware With Drive-By Downloads
Advocatus Diaboli (1627651) writes For the last two years, the FBI has been quietly experimenting with drive-by hacks as a solution to one of law enforcement's knottiest Internet problems: how to identify and prosecute users of criminal websites hiding behind the powerful Tor anonymity system. The approach has borne fruit—over a dozen alleged users of Tor-based child porn sites are now headed for trial as a result. But it's also engendering controversy, with charges that the Justice Department has glossed over the bulk-hacking technique when describing it to judges, while concealing its use from defendants.
...and that's how and WHY they get away with this. This is against any human rights, but shout "won't anyone PLEASE think of the Children", and these agencies can get away with murder.
...without a harddisk! Use it to connect with TOR on a different network, preferably in a different city than where you live. You can't get much safer than that....IF...you apply the other 8 rules above.
So that said, to any whistleblower out there who doesn't have the tech savvy that we have, I'd offer a little bit of advice, read it - and don't forget it, you might just be next if you do:
1) Download Tails. Install it preferably on a CD.
2) Remove your hard disk connection (removing the power is enough) when you intend to boot from Tails.
3) Shut down your WiFi. And only use WIRED connections.
4) Boot tails, and when you start Iceweasel - make sure to turn NoScript ON for ALL sites. It's not on by default, when the SHIELD shows...it's on!
5) Never - ever use an acronym you'd use with your normal ISP (IP address), this WILL unmask you.
6) Do NOT use FLASH or JAVASCRIPT.
7) Do NOT do any banking business or anything that would identify the real you using TOR. Tor is like walking into an underworld of the worst place you could imagine in a bad movie (except Darknet is very real, and can be a VERY dark place, it has freedom...but freedom is precious there, and there's someone waiting on every corner to con you, and remember - this threat is VERY REAL!), so don't be a fool. Do what you have to, but stay safe.
8) Do NOT brag to friends that you're safe with Tor. As far as you know, you don't even know what Tor is.
9) If you can, use Tor with a laptop that has never been used on a wired or wireless KNOWN network with you, but only used for TOR
10) Don't SURF TOO LONG AT ONCE - People are working to unmask TOR users all the time with Injection attacts, and they succeed often! Notice that when the chain of relays break (refreshes)...always keep looking at the NETWORK MAP...ALWAYS, DISCONNECT LIKE THE WIND and find another time to connect short sessions. Keep things brief, and as many clusters as you can.
11) Always make sure that the TAILS CHECKSUM IS MATCHING! I've downloaded TAILS TWICE from their so called official server and had CHECKSUM MISMATCH, this could be as simple as a faulty packet...but it could also be much more serious than that, imagine the rest yourself - BE PARANOID! It's your life!
Information is the only power we have left!
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Never trust open sores software written by amateurs.
You have a few too many words in there.
Never trust software.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
The same thing as what happened to unicorns and leprechauns.
Government is above the law. You do as they say, not as they do.
Unless you're one of the elite, you're not allowed to participate in computer fraud, destruction of property, and accessing an electronic device with malicious intent.
How the hell do you turn a discussion over the FBI compromising TOR into a fucking offtopic Apple/MS pissing contest?!
And "slashdot" is not a valid answer.
More to the point, never trust the FBI.
I know this won't be a popular position here, but the problem here isn't with what the FBI is doing, but rather the fact that they can do it. The problem is with the technology: it just isn't as secure as it's supposed to be. When a hacker finds a vulnerability in a security system, most people on Slashdot say don't blame the hacker, but rather fix the underlying vulnerabilities in the system. Instead of pointing the finger at the FBI for using vulnerabilities in TOR, web browsers, and/or operating systems, we should be glad that they're making this public, so the vulnerabilities can be fixed. After all, if the FBI can do this, so can criminals, governments hostile to free speech, and many other malicious parties. Let's learn from what the FBI is doing and harden the systems, to make legitimate users of Tor and similar services safer.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
But the freetards tell us that Tor is so secure!! Open sores fails again.
It's not TOR itself, sure...Tor isn't perfect, but today you really don't have many other options. In fact...I can't think of a single one. But it's the users that fails to understand that TOR really isn't the solution to all their anonymity wishes. I'd say 90% safety is up to the users themselves, I've written a little list a few posts below (look it up if you care), it's mostly about common sense. You don't walk into a dark alley with an open wallet telling everyone that you won big on the casino tonight, right? Same thing applies to Tor usage, don't reveal your name, use no-script religiously, don't use flash or any other app/software that can see your IP locally and forward it anywhere. Don't use your real name. Don't even use your nickname (unless it's anonymous coward of course), because everything that ties you as a user to a user on TOR...is bad for you.
Tor is actually pretty damn good, why do you think it's such a pain in the ass for the feds? Heck...it's even KNOWN to be a giant wart on NSA's butts simply because it's so good at WHAT it does. But it's not 100%, you need to apply common sense to the rest, and learn of it's flaws and the things TOR can not do for you. If you do...there really is no better alternative to freedom of speech out there.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
That would be the CFAA and the Fourth Amendment (but who gives a shit about the Fourth anyway?)
I hate to say it, but this is pretty smart. They seem to have realized that using their new techniques against child porn is the best way forward for them because the issue has stigma to spare that can help quell dissent, then, once the practice is firmly established, they can quietly expand it to everything else they desire.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
In a nutshell, they simply had any computer that contacted the web site send back the computer's real IP address and its MAC address. The actual security of the Tor wasn't affected. Just that compromising information was sent through the Tor network. Just as any other data would be sent through the Tor network.
Now I suspect the MAC address was sent so that they could identify the actual computer when they seized it via a warrant. That way the suspect couldn't claim that it wasn't their computer since the IP address was on the other side of a NAT and there were multiple computers using NAT. And the IP address was simply to make identifying the physical location easier.
Which raises an interesting question.... ... difficult ... without that MAC address.
What if someone alters their MAC address and then enters the Tor network via a public wifi hotspot?
The connection is encrypted so the fact that the hotspot is publicly accessible shouldn't be a problem.
And when the computer is turned off, the MAC spoofing goes away so even if the computer is seized, they don't have a matching MAC address to prove it's the computer they hacked. And of course, since access was via an open hot spot, there's plenty of computers that could have been connected. Proving which one would be rather
They consider finding out about a dozen alleged USERS of child porn sites a big win?
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
I wouldn't be surprised a bit to learn they are related:
https://firstlook.org/theinter...
Snowden docs, exceptional description of the Turbine program that seeds malware to non-targeted individuals - goal by the NSA (then) was millions of infections.
The logical extension of this is, in the end, to compromise all personal and business computer systems - so anything is available when needed.
It would be a shame if hackers retaliated with drive by hacks of autopiloted cars using small RC vehicles mounting range extended telecom connectors.
But, those who live by the unconstitutional spying on their own citizens deserve what blowback they get.
If you don't have anything to hide, you don't understand what metadata is.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Wow. The NSA got here quick. They're on top of things today.
Probably has to do with them realizing there are two leakers in the NSA.
I don't have the heart to tell them it's a Gang of Four.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Freenet uses a very different model - it's basically a very elaborate distributed key-value store. It's good for dissemination and publication, but by design it can't be used for real-time communication - there's a delay of minutes to days for a message to become available to all nodes. It's all compromise: The same design that prevents real-time communication also makes Freenet a lot more resilient.
They did it to all sites hosted by Freedom Hosting. Most notably, they did it to Tormail -- not a kiddie porn site, a webmail provider.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
On the surface this sounds valid, but you completely miss the obvious. The FBI, as well as other 3 letter agencies, are _creating_ software for the purpose of hacking into people's computers _illegally_. The FBI is not taking over some criminal botnet to harvest data, they are not intercepting malware C&C data to find things, they are creating their own malware for the purposes of performing illegal activities.
That fact alone should exemplify how wrong this is, since they are not only breaking laws regarding Constitutional issues. They are also breaking US and International law covering hacking, wire tapping, and computer espionage. You know, the same shit they were trying to slap Aran Schwarts with 70 years in prison for laws.
To use a drug analogy, the FBI can not start producing cocaine to find and arrest buyers. That is illegal, and repeatedly been reinforced as illegal.
Computer vulnerabilities don't exist by nature, people must create methods of making computers vulnerable. A program with a buffer overflow exploit would not be vulnerable without the code to exploit the program deficiency. If you truly believe computers should be fair game, then you should also believe that it's perfectly fine for someone to steal your car because locks are imperfect and can be bypassed. (Had to throw in the tried and tested car analogy also..)
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.