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Former Tor Developer Created Malware To Hack Tor Users For The FBI (dailydot.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the insider-information dept.

Patrick O'Neill writes: Matt Edman is a cybersecurity expert who worked as a part-time employee at Tor Project, the nonprofit that builds Tor software and maintains the network, almost a decade ago. Since then, he's developed potent malware used by law enforcement to unmask Tor users. It's been wielded in multiple investigations by federal law-enforcement and U.S. intelligence agencies in several high-profile cases. The Tor Project has confirmed this report in a statement after being contacted by the Daily Dot, "It has come to out attention that Matt Edman, who worked with the Tor Project until 2009, subsequently was employed by a defense contractor working for the FBI to develop anti-Tor malware." Maybe Tor users will now be less likely to anonymously check Facebook each month...

72 comments

  1. Less Facebook? by Gr8Apes · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes, please. Anonymous or otherwise, FB needs to be removed as a main gatekeeper for the masses.

    --
    The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    1. Re:Less Facebook? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Gatekeeper? What are they keeping us from?

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    2. Re:Less Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're keeping all duh masses inside.

    3. Re: Less Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like they're providing a great service then. Keeping us from the dumbasses is fine.

    4. Re: Less Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shhh... we are not supposed to let them know they are dumbasses, and yes, they are in /. also

    5. Re:Less Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shouldn't you be there too, twitface?

      No matter the intelligence and life choices, people are still people.

      Broad generalisations like yours out you as one of those you describe =)

    6. Re:Less Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Gatekeeper? What are they keeping us from?"

      Real life.

  2. Oh please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cornhusker used a Flash application to deliver a user's real Internet Protocol (IP) address to an FBI server outside the Tor network.

    Really, you'd have to be next-level, monumentally stupid to use Tor and allow ANY kinds of plugins to run. Like holy shit, my general browsing habits are more secure than these retards.

    1. Re:Oh please by SumDog · · Score: 2

      > Cornhusker used a Flash application to deliver a user's real Internet Protocol (IP) address to an FBI server outside the Tor network. Cornhusker—so named because the University of Nebraska's nickname is the Cornhuskers—was placed on three servers owned by Nebraska man Aaron McGrath, whose arrest sparked the the larger anti-child-exploitation operation.

      So they took control of this guy's servers somehow, and then placed a flash object on all of them. So the only people it would catch are people who proxied their standard browsers via tor or used the tor package ... and installed Flash anyway.

      This isn't .. even an exploit really. You could just put a fucking flashed based video player on a .onion and watch the logs.

    2. Re: Oh please by meerling · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And you're just the type of person they want to hire. Someone who believes that the ends justifies the means, just like Stalin, and Hitler, and Mao, and Pol Pot, and so many others... Sure, they were a bit more violent, but they didn't start off with murdering people they don't like in the dark, they started off by convincing people that the ends justified the means.

    3. Re: Oh please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      and fucking JUDAS.

      The only way this shitstain keeps his head if I meet him is if he convinces me they were going to send his mom and sisters to federal PIMA prison if he didn't comply.

      Otherwise, there is a special circle in Hell for moral cripples like this.

      Hope those 40 pieces of silver bought you a whole lot of new shiny for your broken ego.

    4. Re: Oh please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lol internet tough guy. If you meet him, you will try to sneak your way out of a confrontation. Nerds, always so belligerent when safe behind a keyboard. Are you trying to make up for all the humiliations you have been put through?

    5. Re: Oh please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Stalin, and Hitler, and Mao, and Pol Pot,
      >Sure, they were a bit more violent

      I think this is the funniest understatement I will come across in my lifetime!

    6. Re: Oh please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Says the anonymous coward.

      Post your name and we'll see how non confrontational I am mother fucker.

    7. Re:Oh please by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 1

      "This isn't .. even an exploit really. You could just put a fucking flashed based video player on a .onion and watch the logs."

      It's entirely possible that Matt said the exact same thing to his bosses.

      It makes the ethics of what he did a bit less clear to me. He spent years telling people how to be secure on Tor, then spent a few more unmasking those who didn't listen.

    8. Re:Oh please by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      It makes the ethics of what he did a bit less clear to me. He spent years telling people how to be secure on Tor, then spent a few more unmasking those who didn't listen.

      No, I think that's actually perfectly valid.

      Because if you want to protect your anonymity, you have to take steps to do so. Tor is not a magic bullet, it has known flaws since the beginning (e.g., exit nodes) and doing stupid things will make you readily identifiable.

      In fact, too many people are using Tor as a tool improperly - it's like using encryption improperly. You get a false sense of security when in reality you're making yourself plainly visible. Or using HTTPS and storying your passwords in plain text

      No, "just use Tor" will not make you magically anonymous, especially if you immediately go and log into Facebook and Amazon and everywhere else. But too many people believe it will and blithely continue using the 'net as if Tor magically anonymizes them.

      So demonstrating that people are stupid isn't a crime - in fact it should be published far and wide so people using it know what people can get at.

    9. Re:Oh please by bmo · · Score: 1

      This isn't .. even an exploit really. You could just put a fucking flashed based video player on a .onion and watch the logs.

      Prisons are generally full of people who aren't smart enough to cover their tracks well enough, or not run Flash.

      Catching enough low-hanging fruit as a cop makes you look efficient.

      --
      BMO

  3. Privacy by Smiddi · · Score: 1

    All your privacy are belong to us - "the" FBI

  4. Despicable traitor by ptaff · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Acting for your own paycheck instead of thinking about what's best for humanity, Matt? You're a despicable little traitor, Matt. Let's hope you like the surveillance society you contributed to, Matt, and I hope you already know you'll be stalked by the FBI for the rest of your life, Matt.

    1. Re:Despicable traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Technically, any security software should be made with the assumption, and hardened or designed against, any of it's developers working for another team. Nothing security wise can make assumptions based off human social standing.

    2. Re:Despicable traitor by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 2

      the only time I could excuse such traitorous behavior is if you had NO other choice but to go work for the enemy.

      I've been in life situations where I could not find a job (almost at that point, now, sad to say) and if I was on my last month's savings and faced homelessness, I'd do whatever I had to, to keep a roof over my head. I'm over 50 and in the software field, its now 20x as hard to get a job as it was when I was just 20 years younger. I could see myself having to take just ANYTHING to keep income flowing.

      but this guy - is he like that? is he on the 'do not hire because he's too old and expensive' list? is he of the 'wrong' race for the area of country he lives in?

      I kind of doubt that he's in my situation, having to think long and hard about taking ANY job offered, just to stay alive.

      I think of people who choose to work for evil corps as traitors (google is a shining example; google steals your info and no one knows where, exactly, it ends up). anyone working for google is helping the enemy in more ways than one. and I doubt there is a single 'hard luck case' at google who HAD to take the google job just to keep a roof over his/her head. its laughable, when you think of this example.

      but I do see people my age and of my race who simply will take any job offered since the job offers come only a handful of times a year, if even that, and the 'contract to perm' promise that is all the rage for my age group never pans out and we're always back on the job search in just a few month's time.

      my heart goes out to people like this who have no choice.

      and I dispise, deeply, those who had a choice and still chose to work for the bad guys.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    3. Re:Despicable traitor by inode_buddha · · Score: 1

      remember back when l0pht got bought out? Or CDC? Yeah, stuff like that is why I didn't pursue security as a career.

      --
      C|N>K
    4. Re:Despicable traitor by rmdingler · · Score: 1

      I think they worked it out in Live Free or Die Hard.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    5. Re:Despicable traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lol, so basically what you are saying is that your opinion is the right one and anyone that disagrees is a traitor.

      This is exactly why debating on slashdot is stupid... 99% of the comments espouse some sort of black-and-white view of the world while simultaneously insulting all other views.

    6. Re:Despicable traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Developing open source software doesn't always put food on the table.

    7. Re: Despicable traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I disagree with your stupid comment.

    8. Re:Despicable traitor by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      I don't think the FBI is the big fear.

      It's a big world out there and stuff.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    9. Re: Despicable traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "What's best for humanity?" LOL. Who appointed you as the speaker for all humanity? Go ask the man in the street his mind, little nerd. THAT is humanity. And traitor to whom or what? There is no war. There are no battles, no soldiers, no weapons. The law is simply evolving and so is law enforcement. Don't like it? Then confront it on the only field that matters: politics. Techno-toys will never cut it.

    10. Re:Despicable traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You guys are hilarious.

      >and I hope you already know you'll be stalked by the FBI for the rest of your life, Matt.

      Yeah, don't think so.

      http://www.thinkbrg.com/professionals-matthew-edman.html

      Dr. Edman previously worked as a lead cyber security engineer for a federally funded research and development center, [probably MITRE] where he provided specialized computer network security research and development to federal law enforcement on a number of cases. He has been recognized within law enforcement and the United States Intelligence Community as a subject-matter expert on cyber investigations related to anonymous communication systems, such as Tor, and virtual currencies like Bitcoin [helped take down Silk Road guy]. As part of his work, he assembled and led an interdisciplinary team of researchers that developed a state-of-the-art network-investigative technique that was successfully deployed and provided critical intelligence in multiple high-profile law enforcement cyber investigations.

    11. Re:Despicable traitor by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 1

      I suspect you're overlooking a more likely possibility on the grounds that you wouldn't like it - maybe he decided to turn on Tor because he eventually realised he didn't agree with how it was being used or run. A guy with his skills could clearly get well paid work in other fields, after all.

    12. Re:Despicable traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, it's not like he used his position to sabotage Tor itself. Exploited knowledge not many others have, maybe, but that means one less hidden vulnerability that would otherwise have remained unfixed for longer.

      Part of accepting an idealised, anonymous world is that you need to give up the idea of trusting individuals and rely on the design of the system. It's irrational to get angry about someone working for both sides.

    13. Re:Despicable traitor by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

      I think of people who choose to work for evil corps as traitors (google is a shining example; google steals your info and no one knows where, exactly, it ends up).

      You can't betray a cause that you never chose to join in the first place. Traitor is not a synonym for "people who never pretended to care about my principles."

      I could see myself having to take just ANYTHING to keep income flowing.

      Yeah... you have no business throwing stones.

      I dispise, deeply, those who had a choice and still chose to work for the bad guys.

      Well there's an inconsequential thought to start my day.

    14. Re: Despicable traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I completely agree with your comment about the prior comment being stupid. However I disagree with your disagreement about the prior stupid comment.

  5. Why are people willing to give up anonymity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Even on Slashdot, I'm startled by the people willing to give up anonymity.

    When the FBI wanted Apple to unlock the terrorist's phone, people pointed out that encryption wasn't the problem. They said that terrorists evaded detection with burner phones. The response, of course, is to require identification to use a prepaid sim card. It's trading away anonymity to retain privacy.

    I'm also disappointed at how many people would like to get rid of anonymous posting. There are people who abuse anonymity, sure, but is it worth giving up anonymity to silence trolls?

    Free speech often isn't free. The only kind of speech that needs protection is the kind of speech that offends someone. If nobody is offended, the speech won't be censored and the person speaking won't face retribution. The most threatened type of speech is the kind that benefits most from anonymity.

  6. How all conspiracies fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A single Judas in your midst, and it all falls down.

    While this tends to mean no networks are immune from the government intrusion, it also means no government network is secure either.

    Your move.

  7. Anonymous attack? by tezbobobo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder if he'd be less likely to continue the work is a hacker collective attacked and destroyed his personal privacy.

    1. Re: Anonymous attack? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wonder if that hacket collective would be the same that went against Amazon and lost, went against credit cards companies and did no damage, went against Trump and nobody noticed, declared war on the Zetas only to back down immediately, then did the same with IS and nothing came of it. :) Nothing, that is, but some members of that "collective" arrested. They ratted out before they could even get hold of a judge. :)

  8. They would be fools not to by rmdingler · · Score: 2
    It is a pretty safe assumption that the governors have employed a crap ton of former industry specialists to their advantage in every era, and during every new wave of opportunistic technology.

    In the same vein that you have a right to employ secure encryption, the spooks have a duty to decrypt it. There really is a national security interest in this now that every nation on earth is involved in it or interested in being so.

    The trick is to constantly remind the folks with the unlimited budgets that they work for us.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  9. Compartmentalize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Is IF/WHEN you're hired to write either ONLY interfaces OR portions of a ware (as in a subsystem) BUT NOT THE ENTIRE THING...

    * "Been there, done that" in my career & I wondered WHY things were done that way during them (& when I asked/complained since knowing the BIG PICTURE helps too? I was told I didn't need to know)...

    APK

    P.S.=> You build a piece of a larger whole but you never see the ENTIRE 'machine' (ware) @ work OR what it's for... apk

    1. Re:Compartmentalize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No offence APK but you're actually making sense today. Whatever you're doing (meds, yoga, whatever), keep doing it!

    2. Re:Compartmentalize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, asshole APK, you just don't work for those motherfuckers. Ever.

      I could have earned a lot more money over the last 40 decades coding for the military industrial/security complex, but I have too much self-respect. I started out during the military buildup of St. Reagan the Senile, when they were giving away massive salaries (with caviar; literally true) at the job fairs while his ilk invented the US homelessness problem to balance the budget (that they never bothered to balance).

      If you take their nickel, you're complicit. Get it?

      If that isn't clear to you, go look up "agentic state" and see if you are one of the few who can save yourself from that state. The best way is not to get there in the first place.

      "Humanity was my business!" "I wear the chain I forged in life." - Jacob Marley

  10. We are all bounty hunters now by bretts · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Whoever pays the highest rate wins our (temporary) loyalty. Welcome to society where no one agrees on a set of values.

  11. old news is old by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Tor has always been funded by the CIA/Navy.. It has been infiltrated since day 1

  12. Hang him as a traitor. by thedarb · · Score: 2

    Subject says it all.

    --
    This sig intentionally left blank.
    1. Re:Hang him as a traitor. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One of my favorite lines in World of Warcraft was a simple "Get a rope."

    2. Re:Hang him as a traitor. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do realize he was working to expose Child Porn scumbags, right?

  13. Audit Time! Time to audit Tor! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just as there was an audit (or two) for TrueCrypt, I say it's time for an audit of Tor!

    The same goes for the mysterious developer's project known as "Tails".

  14. Is Sabu still on daily dot? by zedaroca · · Score: 1

    I stopped reading the daily dot because they started paying Sabu (the anonymous snitch that put Hammond in jail). Did they kick him out? Even with adblockers I don't feel comfortable entering their domain.

    It's disgusting to see an article about a traitor in a website that has one in their payroll.

  15. Be careful what you ask for. by westlake · · Score: 0

    I wonder if he'd be less likely to continue the work is a hacker collective attacked and destroyed his personal privacy.

    I wonder how difficult it would be to penetrate a Slashdot alias to make life a little more miserable for the agent provocateur.

    The "hacker collective" is, by the way, widely despised beyond the inbred circles of Slashdot. When one is torpedoed the sound you are mostly to hear is applause. I don't expect that to change no matter which way the elections go this fall.

    The victim of the retaliation you suggest could be drawn into something like the witness protection program. That would set a precedent that could cost the geek dearly somewhere down the road.

  16. Lock'im up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He hacked, so he's a hacker, so a criminal, so must be locked up. It's the law.

    1. Re:Lock'im up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He'll go to jail when Tommy Tongyai goes to jail. Which is to say never, because punk asshole spies get protected by the mothership. Not trusted, but protected.

      Go read up on how Benedict Arnold made out in England after he sold out West Point. Brief answer: not well, his own handlers hated and distrusted him.

  17. Re:Tor users... have something to hide by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    Said the AC.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  18. Re:Tor users... have something to hide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Really, I get the whole "mah privacy" thing, but if you use tor, it's obviously because you have something to hide.

    Well, depends on what you mean by hide..
    The last couple of times I've fired up the tor browser, I've used it to access a site which is geoip blocked here, so yes, I'm hiding the fact that I'm in country x where the owners of the site, for whatever reasons, don't want me to see its content based on where I live.
    Prior to that, mainly used tor to access to torrent search engines which have been blocked by ISPs here at the behest of the MAFIAA via court orders.

    So yeah, something to hide, really deep scary dark secrets and all that shit..

  19. This scumbag? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who, this man? http://www.thinkbrg.com/professionals-matthew-edman.html#Overview

  20. Re:Tor users... have something to hide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I use it to access The Pirate Bay.

    The ISPs here null-route it thanks to a lawsuit.

  21. false assumptions here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    people here are assuming that this guy has sacrificed ethics for money.

    those who are assuming this are assuming it from a belief that their own ethical discernment is the one true way.

    that sounds a bit religious to me, i don't think it's that clear cut. i can see a good argument for both sides of this debate.

    "The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth." ~nils bohr

  22. Not my point - more detail now... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: Doing compartmentalizing no 1 man "knows it all" about a program IN DETAIL, so those looking to hire away a developer of such a program in order to subvert it CANNOT DO SO AS EASILY, if at all.

    * Typically in software development that's NOT how it's done since it's GOOD for anyone on a larger project that has teams writing it to KNOW what the other parts do & in a GOOD software shop, you do code reviews of othes' work too & do get familiar with it that way also, PLUS, since you often have to interact with others' code routines also anyhow & LEARN what they're doing (you have to in order to work with it effectively + correctly).

    (MAYBE only 1 guy does (who sometimes codes, sometimes not) - a Business/Systems Analyst OR team lead (that would be the WISEST to go after imo IF he can code himself - anyone else is useless for "reverse engineering" or vulnerability exploitations, imo) - but again... to stop this happening? What I noted DOES help...)

    I also don't write wares to hurt others. I do QUITE the opposite in fact.

    I write wares to empower people speeding them up, securing them better, making them more anonymous (to a degree), + more reliably connected online -> https://news.slashdot.org/comm... & I do it absolutely gratis, no strings attached.

    Lastly - Imo @ least based on calling me a-hole?

    You seem to THINK I did things like this article to WRECK security of a ware or 'hack it' etc. - no, I have not.

    I have, however, done work in code for the "Military Industrial Complex" or their contracted companies @ times on contracts.

    I have, however, been part of teams over a 23++ yr. long career professionally as a software engineer/programmer-analyst where I saw it done (hindered me imo) compartmentalizing with GOOD reasons now that I think about it putting myself in the companies' shoes that did it this way to protect their investments OR personal data of others, by being given datasets to work on that made little sense to me minus having knowledge of what it was doing OR for what (largely to do with personal data of others like payrolls that was 'faked' playground stuff to test if the code worked right @ all OR just a subsystem portion that was more 'tech' in nature for hardware interfaces - to protect intellectual property the way I said in fact)... that was the point of it being done thus.

    Additionally: "40 decades"? What's your secret, "Highlander"??

    APK

    P.S.=> BOTTOM-LINE: Perhaps I didn't express myself as well as I should've that you misunderstood my point thus, per my subject... but, I'm no asshole to point out how to stop what happened to TOR by doing that - I don't even use TOR myself by the way (too slow when I tried it LONG ago just to see how it was) but I do NOT agree with it being done (other than it can help shore up deficiencies in it to correct them IF they are made public knowledge, this article says they're not) - yes, morons & "terrorists" & sickos + troublemakers use TOR quite often (nothing I can do about that) - yes, I don't like that either but that's how it goes quite often... good things get abused too for "the bad" (purely relative terms depending on what point of view you have)... apk

    1. Re: Not my point - more detail now... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're an asshole for saying "wares" a million times.

  23. Probable Quote by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 1

    "Yeah, it runs in the family; grandma turned in Anne Frank's family, so my decision was a no-brainer. The law is the law, you know."

  24. Former Tox Developer Created Malware too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Former Tox Developer Created Malware To Hack Tox Users For The FBI

    https://slashdot.org/submissio...

    https://github.com/Tox/tox.cha...

  25. Former "Tox" Developer Created Malware too! by aatestaa · · Score: 1

    https://slashdot.org/submissio... https://github.com/Tox/tox.cha...

    1. Re:Former "Tox" Developer Created Malware too! by aatestaa · · Score: 1

      https://github.com/Tox/tox.cha...

  26. Despicable propaganda "story" by gweihir · · Score: 1

    First, why would any activity to break Tor cause people to use it less? Is the submitter implying that it is better to keep your mouth shut and cower in a corner? Seems to me he is.

    Second, anybody that accesses FB via Tor is already known and identified when they log in because FB knows how they are. Keeping that in mind, the last sentence of the "story" could not be any more stupid, unless the submitter is actively trying to spread fear. Again, I think he is.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.