Slashdot Mirror
WikiLeaks Reveals Grasshopper, the CIA's Windows Hacking Tool (thenextweb.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Next Web: In case you haven't had your dose of paranoia fuel today, WikiLeaks released new information concerning a CIA malware program called "Grasshopper," that specifically targets Windows. The Grasshopper framework was (is?) allegedly used by the CIA to make custom malware payloads. According to the user guide: "Grasshopper is a software tool used to build custom installers for target computers running Microsoft Windows operating systems." Grasshopper is designed to detect the OS and protection on any Windows computer on which it's deployed, and it can escape detection by anti-malware software. If that was enough for you to put your computer in stasis, brace yourself for a doozy: Grasshopper reinstalls itself every 22 hours, even if you have Windows Update disabled. As if this wasn't alarming enough, the Grasshopper user guide even states upfront that Grasshopper uses bits from a toolkit taken from Russian organized crime.
malware removed:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ntfs
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
FTFY
Fortunately, all software authored by the federal government is automatically in the public domain, so perfectly legal to reverse engineer, copy, etc.
a minced oath for "Jesus Christ"
Just like Windows updates whether you want them or not.
I think someone misspelled Stasi. Also, cue something about it lying heavy.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
... the CIA got a job to do.
I'd feel better about them if they could keep a secret, but let me restate CaptainDork's corollary:
For every motherfucker out there with a computer, there's another motherfucker out there with a computer. ~ © 2017 CaptainDork
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Ok so if the CIA knows everything about me, including what kind of porn I like, can the CIA help me to find a date?
No?
Well now I'm outraged.
with government support.
goat
you see this is why linux sucks.
is there any evidence of the description being genuine? this looks so blatantly staged as a last straw for the orange one and his gang to climb out of the Russian collusion quagmire that I had to laugh hard when I read this
The GNU Project told us about Microsoft malware long ago, including what is accurately listed "Microsoft Windows has a universal back door through which any change whatsoever can be imposed on the users" pointing to a mainstream media news reference from 2007 and another link indicating when this was used, and a pointer to a Condé Nast article talking about the (apparently ongoing) forced Windows Updates. Microsoft is also the first PRISM partner with the NSA joining on September 11, 2007, according to an internal NSA document so they have quite a long history of being untrustworthy but the underlying power they're leveraging comes from proprietary software.
Other proprietors are no more trustworthy. Apple didn't fix an intentional back door for 4 years, Apple didn't fix an iTunes backdoor through which others could have gained control of systems running the software. Apple joined PRISM in October 2012. Other proprietors with names you know (Yahoo, Facebook, Google, YouTube, etc.) joined in between the Microsoft and Apple partnerships.
The theme remains the same: it doesn't matter who the proprietor is (Microsoft in this case), proprietary software is always untrustworthy and this doesn't change even after applying lots of updates from the proprietor. Just because a new version is out, or a patch released does not mean the back door is shut or that you can verify their work (or even get someone more technically skilled to verify it on your behalf).
Now we have more confirmation of how the threats come from other directions, not just the proprietor, and that the threat is more organized than we commonly knew. Evidence like this immediately advances the discussion beyond the distraction of calling someone a 'tinfoil hat wearer' or other such nonsense, as did the Snowden documents. And WikiLeaks maintains their perfect record for authenticity in their publications—as far as we can tell these documents are what WikiLeaks claims they are. Proprietary software is always a threat. Software freedom is no guarantee of safety, but you're better off having software you can inspect, run, share, and modify (AKA control) than not. You simply can't trust proprietors to do right by you and all computer users deserve software freedom.
Digital Citizen
The GNU Manifesto by Richard Stallman (01 Jan 1985)
In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the post-scarcity world, where nobody will have to work very hard just to make a living. People will be free to devote themselves to activities that are fun, such as programming, after spending the necessary ten hours a week on required tasks such as legislation, family counseling, robot repair and asteroid prospecting. There will be no need to be able to make a living from programming.
Whatchagonnado when your hardware spooks on you?
You can bet that any large OS developer or security product staff has been penetrated by US agents and probably has covertly placed them on staff. The very products that you use to protect your systems probably grant access to US agents.
I figured Putin would be releasing that today
Your first though is that you're jealous of how good their documentation is.
I will admin I am typing this on a Windows machine, but this Grasshopper won't hop on my lawn, I don't have python installed.
Most of your email, and online services are provided by the USA so you kid yourself that CIA is more a threat to the US than other countries.
Google? USA, Facebook? USA, Microsoft? USA. Most of your data runs over USA owned fibre on its route, how many of your local apps are actually run on Amazon cloud?
Then there's all of the third country stuff that depends on the US market, and thus complies with US demands. e.g. Samsung?
And USA has essentially been hacked by Russia, it's so blatant, that Trump *informed* Russia ahead of the air-raid in Syria so Russia could remove Russian and Syrian military people and equipment. (CONFIRMED by the Pentagon!! Go read their press report yourself). He blows up two helicopters, convieniently placed in the middle of *AIRPLANE* landing strip. Seriously go look at the footage, there is one helicopter placed slap bang in the middle of a long landing strip, one on each landing strip. There is no way that is the normal landing strip, the helicopters would be blocking the landing of aircraft. So these cheap targets have been placed there.
Given Russia were informed and they informed Syria, Trump is a confirmed traitor.
So even if you don't fear incompetent Trump, do you fear competent Putin??
thats what i have been thinking this whole time lol
...
Why is this link being routed through a twitter account and then going to thenextweb.com, rather than just going to wikileaks. This is the link without the spyware tracking and the pointless intermediate article:
https://wikileaks.org/vault7/#...
That is my preferred name for this malware, regardless of the name master Po uses.