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Red Star Linux Adds Secret Watermarks To Files
An anonymous reader writes: ERNW security analyst Florian Grunow says that North Korea's Red Star Linux operating system is tracking users by tagging content with unique hidden tags. He particularizes that files including Word documents and JPEG images connected to but not necessarily executed in Red Star will have a tag introduced into its code that includes a number based on hardware serial numbers. Red Star's development team seems to have created some quite interesting custom additions to Linux kernel and userspace, based on which Grunow has written a technical analysis.
>> privacy of potential users (especially from North Korea) may be impacted
I didn't know privacy was a thing in North Korea.
Is this any different that our government forcing printer manufacturers to put secret watermarks on pages printed?
Ken Thompson's C compiler is an interesting read on the subject:
http://programmers.stackexchan...
http://www.reddit.com/comments...
Basically, It's a compiler with a backdoor that injects it's source code when it's compiling itself. pretty interesting idea for 1984.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion. -- Spazmania (174582)
Desktop software is really horrible these days. To preserve your freedoms, use Chrome OS or Android and organize your collaborations and activities over Facebook. Capitalist computing is much more trustworthy than that evil communist Linux thing.
Seriously?
Most North Koreans don't have access to the internet. Most North Koreans don't know a damned thing about Linux. Most North Koreans don't know a damned thing about kernels or spying modules installed on their computers.
Do you really think people are going to compile a custom kernel to get around the brutal dictatorships surveillance and risk their lives for something they probably don't know exists?
Come on, guys, learn a little about North Korea before suggesting the populace just whips up a custom kernel to work around this.
Under a third generation pisspot dictator, the overwhelming majority of North Koreans will only know what they've been told. They're poor, starving, and isolated from much of the rest of the world.
And the suggestion is to go to kernel.org? Pathetic.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Before: https://i.imgur.com/oOoWssF.pn...
Open in Red Star 3.0: https://i.imgur.com/MiORhD3.jp...
After: https://i.imgur.com/uqAvXC6.pn...
The above uses an MS Word document created in Office 2011.
I've tried jpg, docx created in MS Word, docx from LibreOffice, and numerous other random file formats copied onto my thumb drive - the MD5 remains exactly the same in every case.
He particularizes
I don't know what makes me sadder: that he used that word or that it apparently is a word.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
Most North Koreans don't have access to the internet.
This sort of thing is aimed at government employees who might become disaffected and begin working for some western intelligence agency. Your office PC watermarks every document on its way to the thumb drive (or floppy disk). In the event the media is intercepted on its way out of the country, they know whose desk to visit.
Have gnu, will travel.
As far as you know.
Actually we do know, we have the source code, have had it for about 15 years. Its been in the mainline Linux kernel for about 12 years. In case you haven't heard changes to the kernel get, uh, ... reviewed.