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WikiLeaks Releases New CIA Secret: Tapping Microphones On Some Samsung TVs (fossbytes.com)
FossBytes reports:
The whistleblower website Wikileaks has published another set of hacking tools belonging to the American intelligence agency CIA. The latest revelation includes a user guide for CIA's "Weeping Angel" tool... derived from another tool called "Extending" which belongs to UK's intelligence agency MI5/BTSS, according to Wikileaks. Extending takes control of Samsung F Series Smart TV. The highly detailed user guide describes it as an implant "designed to record audio from the built-in microphone and egress or store the data."
According to the user guide, the malware can be deployed on a TV via a USB stick after configuring it on a Linux system. It is possible to transfer the recorded audio files through the USB stick or by setting up a WiFi hotspot near the TV. Also, a Live Liston Tool, running on a Windows OS, can be used to listen to audio exfiltration in real-time. Wikileaks mentioned that the two agencies, CIA and MI5/BTSS made collaborative efforts to create Weeping Angel during their Joint Development Workshops.
According to the user guide, the malware can be deployed on a TV via a USB stick after configuring it on a Linux system. It is possible to transfer the recorded audio files through the USB stick or by setting up a WiFi hotspot near the TV. Also, a Live Liston Tool, running on a Windows OS, can be used to listen to audio exfiltration in real-time. Wikileaks mentioned that the two agencies, CIA and MI5/BTSS made collaborative efforts to create Weeping Angel during their Joint Development Workshops.
in effect Samsungs ToS says that if you need to have a private conversation you should leave the room.
My living room and I'm supposed to no longer have a realistic expectation of privacy...
Short term solution ensure no connection to internet for TV
Longer term - got rid of the Samsung junk and replaced it with something else...
News Flash!
If it has a microphone, camera, receives RF, or transmits RF, you can bet that the CIA, NSA, GCHQ, GCSE, ISI, etc., have figured out how to spy on and/or surreptitiously activate the device or have at least given it a serious try.
Why do people continue to be surprised by these revelations?
About the only new information here, I suppose, is the specific devices targeted and the degree of success which they have achieved. Still, if you are concerned about espionage, then treat every electronic device as compromised and you won't have a problem.
So, does the television get closer to you every time you blink?
This should not be that tough. I am of the thought that anything electronic cannot survive the CIA and the like.
U.S. citizens aren't protected from dishonesty and sneakiness. Rich corporations and people are allowed to do what they want.
There are exceptions: Volkswagen to pay $2.8 billion in US diesel emission scandal
Do you really, really need a laptop?
And if you're paranoid, you can install a switch on the speaker so that it cannot be turned into a microphone.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
I feel safe and secured as CIA listens if something bad would happen for me
I thought one of the previous releases mentioned Weeping Angel (or at least weeping something) and that it turned Samsung TVs into room bugs. So I assumed this one was more details on it.
But the media seems to be talking about it as if it's new with this release and a big surprise.
Did they just notice it now, or am I misremembering the earlier stuff? (Either way, it's good that it's finally getting public attention.)
(Sorry to bother others with the question. But I've been too busy to plow through it all personally and would appreciate info from people who have done some deep-diving.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Yup, all those Chinese hotels send a repairman up as soon as you physically unplug the hotel room TV
The cure is tape over the camera and a dob of blutack over the mike, or one earphone connected to mp3 player playing a porno., or a bad TV soapie.
Eventually who is ever listing in, is going to become very socially maladjusted.
The fix Samsung should make is to display a firmware checksum and display a box or shape on the screen, calculated by the number of instructions executed since a timer set in some nonvolatile non readable protected eeprom memory. Any monkey business will have to be a lot cleverer than hooking service mode. or someone writes a USB stick program to dump out the firmware for forensic checking.
A TV with a built in Canary. What is the IOT coming to.
Jesus.
I'm convinced.
If someone can sneak a USB stick into a television, he can sneak a microphone and a transmitter into the room. Or put the microphone on the stick and use USB just for power - no need to rely on the target having a specific old model of television.
You are doing it wrong. Like this:
The average American citizen is bwing managed or maintaned by an administrative executive function intended as as a government for the aliens. Actual civil government functions are a political function and not a body corporate executive function. That federal entitity with a EIN U.S. Goverment and it's subsidiaries such as STATE OF CALIFORNIA are alien constructs.
Considering the Congress of The United States of America each signed die (dye) and began the AMERICAN Civil War, would explain the arrival of the non-American U.S. CONGRESS.
Also explaining predominance of Uniform Commercial Code in resolving disputes in the Vehicle Codes of the corporate STATES, the change of confederate plural Civil Flag Title 4 US Code from standing stripes and blue stars to fallen stripes and white stars, then the mock of Admiralty Jurisdiction on land by no oaths and seizures and of'course the tampering of flag etiquette by a gold fringe, what do you expect of a foreign occupier?
All Birth Certificates are footnoted AMERICAN BANKNOTE COMPANY. Internal Revenue Service on successful court challenge admits protection orders for not disclosing how it asseses and collects taxes on U.S. persons dwelling abroad or otherwise known as 14th Amendment citizens of the United States moving private credit or debt of which is curreny-property not entitled to collection of tax since falls outside The Coinage.Act.
A land where laws dont apply because none file an Apostille, and no ne luve in the country since any denizens havent an affidavit of Domicile, is perpetually regulated and administered by private laws of code and no use of citizenship.
open source is no safer than Shamsung.
If we [society] really cared about privacy, we would require that ALL devices that contain a microphone or camera contain HARD switches that can cut them on/off at will. Not soft switches under software/firmware control. The reality is that ANY device with hard switches that contains a computer and a mic or camera can be broken into and used as a spy device. Be it a TV, phone, monitor, laptop, car, Echo, refrigerator, toy, whatever. And often there is no easy way to really/truly turn "off" the device (and then, of course, you can't use any other function).
Although it is relatively easy to disable cameras by sticking tape over them.... the same is not true for microphones. Of course, the manufacturers would scream about it, since it would add $0.25 to their $800+ devices and increase the mass by 0.0001%.
And regarding microphones, it isn't just about what you might be saying- sophisticated software can be used to detect all kinds of things like when you are present, where you might be, who you are with, what you are doing, even what you might be typing.
Nothing a dollop of cyanoacrylate can not fix to disable the ability to microphone from picking up anything. If I wanted my TV to hear me, I will tell it with the remote or better yet, unplug when not in use. The latter seems more frequent these days as there is nothing really worth watching anymore.
the malware can be deployed on a TV via a USB stick after configuring it on a Linux system.
Well if the attacker has physical access then you are fucked no matter what kind of TV you have. This doesn't do anything that could not already be done with physical access.
It would be much more worrying if it was a remote exploit.
With physical access, they are in your living room. That means they could also just stick a tiny microphone at the back of the TV, or underneath your coach, or .. drill a hole in your walls, insert microphone, fix the hole with some material that doesn't block sound too much and repaint the fixed wall. Endless possibilities.
I'm more concerned when the smartTV can be remotely turned into a listening device. Which, btw, wouldn't surprise if also that would be possible. Either way, my TV ain't online. Nexflix, if I ever want it, will go via another device to the TV.
Wikileaks may be defiled by the CIA, but their leaked document releases show what determined foreign governments have also probably done and maybe done before the CIA did it. So, it is likely the Russians hated the release of these documents as much as the CIA & NSA!
The whole affair has given all who came to the Electronic Party a big wake up call.
Do you want a gizmo in your kitchen or living room listening to everything that is said?
Worse yet, do you want to have it recording and maybe issuing commands? What if your kid screams "I am going to kill you." and the SWAT team shows up?
Then probably the worst case is a teenager saying something unprintable, and the child social services shows up with law enforcement.
Whoever leaked this is a traitor. It is no different from informing Kriegsmarine, their Enigma codes have been broken.
Yes, the "Weeping Angel" could be used against civilians. But the same was true about Alan Turing's crypto-breaking machinery and their listening for any and all radio-traffic as well.
Like any other weapon or tool It could be abused, but publicizing it defeats its effectiveness against the intended — and perfectly legitimate — targets and is thus bona fide treasonous.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
for some fun, desolder the mic, and solder a line-in connector. Connect that to a raspberry pi playing random clips, or even some good text-to-speech programs, saying a few key phrases:
"I hope my Samsung TV doesn't explode, like my Samsung phone exploded".
"I hope my Samsung TV doesn't self destruct, like my Samsung washing machine did".
"I hope Samsung has better quality in this iteration..."
"I wish Samsung would increase their quality"
"I wish Samsung would increase quality instead of spying"
"Why does Samsung choose spying over quality?"
This is hardly news, it was mentioned by the mainstream TV media a couple of months ago. Whenever I hear the buzzword "smart" in association with consumer electronics, I just automatically assume the advertised device was designed from the ground up to spy on the consumer.
I can't understand why they just don't disconnect the camera or mic when they are not using it on a PC. The smart phones I understand - Its integrated - shove it in a box when you are not using it, or put a radio, or run the built in radio with the phone in the box. The TV can stay a TV.. I don't need Web service on my TV. If you want to talk to someone, use your PC. Unplug any other thing when you are not using it. Buy simple things that only do the task they were assigned.
bqing
being
bring
bting
bying
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Geico.
Knowledge of the capabilities of a large-scale deployment technology that affects such a large proportion of the populace can hardly be construed as sabotage, especially when there is such potential for abuse.
As an analogy, it would be one thing to leak the specific movements of a police investigative team. ("Psst! There's a bunch of cop cars headed toward your warehouse where you keep the stolen cars.") But it would be perfectly legitimate to give the capabilities of the police. ("Psst! There are over 100 police officers in this city who are going to keep an eye out for stolen cars.")
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
On the other hand, you don't know who has physical access to your TV before you buy it, do you?
Especially at Best Buy, where we already know the goon squad works for the FBI..
Regardless of the device!
I remember hearing about how this was possible way back when they first started putting microphones and cameras on TV's. Is it a surprise the CIA was paying attention?