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WikiLeaks Doc Dump Reveals CIA Tools For Hacking Air-Gapped PCs (bleepingcomputer.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the open-window dept.

An anonymous reader writes: "WikiLeaks dumped today the manuals of several hacking utilities part of Brutal Kangaroo, a CIA malware toolkit for hacking into air-gapped (offline) networks using tainted USB thumb drives," reports Bleeping Computer. The CIA uses these tools as part of a very complex attack process, that allows CIA operatives to infect offline, air-gapped networks. The first stage of these attacks start with the infection of a "primary host," an internet-connected computer at a targeted company. Malware on this primary host automatically infects all USB thumb drives inserted into the machine. If this thumb drive is connected to computers on an air-gapped network, a second malware is planted on these devices. This malware is so advanced, that it can even create a network of hacked air-gapped PCs that talk to each other and exchange commands. To infect the air-gapped computers, the CIA malware uses LNK (shortcut) files placed on the USB thumb drive. Once the user opens and views the content of the thumb drive in Windows Explorer, his air-gapped PC is infected without any other interaction.

74 comments

  1. Damn by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Once again, no love for macOS, Linux and BSD.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Dude, RTFM. all you have to do is:

      ls -l /dev/disk/by-path/ and find the stick's device.
      mkdir /tmp/usb
      mount [device node from first step] /tmp/usb
      cd /tmp/usb
      sudo ./ciamalware.sh

      They do have Linux support. It's not that hard.

    2. Re:Damn by Spazmania · · Score: 1

      ROFL. Mod this guy up.

      --
      Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
    3. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no

    4. Re:Damn by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      If an interesting Mac, Linux or Unix user is found in the wild, new code will be requested.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    5. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude, RTFM. all you have to do is:

      ls -l /dev/disk/by-path/ and find the stick's device.
      mkdir /tmp/usb
      mount [device node from first step] /tmp/usb
      cd /tmp/usb
      sudo ./ciamalware.sh

      They do have Linux support. It's not that hard.

      Dude, RTFM. all you have to do is:

      ls -l /dev/disk/by-path/ and find the stick's device.
      mkdir /tmp/usb
      mount [device node from first step] /tmp/usb
      cd /tmp/usb
      sudo ./ciamalware.sh

      They do have Linux support. It's not that hard.

      so you saying that code that I've copy pasted from stackoverflow doesn't give me free netflix?

      damn hipsters!

    6. Re:Damn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thankfully there's no chmod +x before the last line.

    7. Re:Damn by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 1

      I use Solaris :(

      --

      "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    8. Re:Damn by thomn8r · · Score: 1

      I'm getting an error from ld that it wants libbigbrother2.0.so but I'm running 1.3

  2. Leveraging stupidity by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If this thumb drive is connected to computers on an air-gapped network, a second malware is planted on these devices.

    If you work at a company that has an air-gapped private network for security reasons and you actually do this, then you are a moron and deserve to be fired. I've worked for a defense contractor. We were all trained to not do stupid things like this; basic OPSEC.

    1. Re:Leveraging stupidity by sconeu · · Score: 1

      How do you get AV updates onto said airgapped machine/network? When I was trying to set up a red network, one of our requirements (out of the DoD manual) was to have AV that was regularly updated.

      Of course, back then, we didn't use USB.... we used CD-R (not CD-RW).

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    2. Re:Leveraging stupidity by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      OPSEC

      Kinda like Manning walking in with a Lady Gaga CD, erasing it, and populating it with shit, and walking out.

      Kinda like Snowden walking in and out.

      Kinda like WikiLeaks getting hold of secret, well-guarded CIA stuff.

      CaptainDork's 1st Corollary: "When it becomes digitized, it's in the public domain."

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    3. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obviously most users are not allowed to transfer data between an unsecured network and a secured network or vice versa, but how would the secured network get database, software and security updates/installations? Same with declassifying data for use on other networks?

    4. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You used the safest solution - a CD or DVD. If malware were to try and install itself on a CD or DVD, the spin-up would be noticed. Keeping the OS on an image file that is stomped onto the OS partition every night is another way.

      https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/10/air_gaps.html

    5. Re:Leveraging stupidity by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 2

      We were all trained to not do stupid things like this; basic OPSEC.

      Yes, and yet we're all aware of hacks successfully targeting defense contractors, and Chinese war planes which strikingly resemble next-generation American designs. I wonder how they got the plans?

      I'm sure RSA trained their employees not to do "stupid things like this" too, and yet they managed to get thoroughly owned several years ago.

      People do stupid things all the time - even people who've received proper training. Yes, they deserve to be fired... but at that point the damage is done.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    6. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How do you get AV updates onto said airgapped machine/network?

      No need? The machines are not on the net, you don't update software at all. No sw changes, no way in for a virus.

      And if you need airgapped computers - surely you wouldn't run an os vulnerable to viruses on them anyway? They surely aren't for windows-based accounting packages?

    7. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obviously most users are not allowed to transfer data between an unsecured network and a secured network or vice versa, but how would the secured network get database, software and security updates/installations? Same with declassifying data for use on other networks?

      There are a variety of ways to do this. If you're going for a completely physically airgapped network, then you have a single "point of entry" machine which is kept extra locked-down away from the vast majority of users. You use this machine for nothing beyond reading in the payload from a USB, but a CD is far safer since there's no way to hide extra chips inside it. You can run a much more secured/locked-down/sandboxed OS and environment on this box, since all it's doing it acting as a gatekeeper to validate/sanitize the data before pushing it farther into the network.

      For those who are still paranoid but not AS paranoid, you can also do things like have a storage array which connects to two different networks. Data can be pushed to a staging section of the array from the 'untrusted' side, and then the 'trusted' side can validate the data before pulling it the rest of the way in.

      For the truly paranoid, nothing ever physically enters the trust network. If you need to bring in data, you print it out and then scan it in after you pass through the twelve layers of vaults and security guards. But even then, no network can ever be 100% secure. At some point you have to replace, upgrade, or add new hardware, and someone may find a way to tamper with chips or boards during the supply pipeline.

      In short, there's a damn good reason there are people who work full time to constantly refine, update, and develop security methods.. if it was as easy as saying "Oh, just set it up like this..." then everyone would set it up like that from the beginning, and be done with it.

    8. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you have an air-gapped network, probably for a some reason, you would want to plug those USB holes in PCs. With a hot-melt gun that should be quick work.
      PC's are designed for a friendly environment, and by default assumes everything it makes contact with is not going to create harm, if you got something precious you want to protect, you need those 8" floppies.

    9. Re: Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Let me assure you, there's still a need for updates. You don't explicitly need to use USB sticks for it to happen, but you will still need to cross security Ts and dot security Is.

      At a defense contractor, I've needed to bring over instructions, man pages, scripts I wrote, stuff a customer emailed me, or a variety of data files. I've never used a USB drive to do it, but instead a CD (check your policy to see if you can use rewritable CDs- otherwise just get used to shredding those bastards). Occasionally, I've needed to bring over a binary, but that goes through a lot more drama as you would expect.

      The point is that there's a need for this, and while proper procedure should prevent malware from transferring over... you never know.

    10. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Out of all these different leaks I have not a single thing that was not already known to a good amount of regular people but also all the foreign intelligence agencies. Snowden's revelations about domestic spying did not include a single thing that was not already known for anyone paying attention. Of course the biggest problem today is the lunatic mob who never listens to anything that might upset their little world of self importance. Manning's information caused a few political embarrassments while also showing the clueless morons an example of what actually happens in a shooting war. All these "Secret" CIA hacks are dated and defended against by the more intelligent US adversaries.

      These data dumps are nothing more than political attacks against the US. It's not about a citizens right to know when you are talking about covert intelligence agencies. Those arguing that the public should know everything about how the governments intelligence agencies defends itself against foreign threats. You would need to believe that there are no actual threats to US national security to justify asking for total transparency in the NSA or CIA. The US, including the regular citizens, are under attack non-stop by foreign intelligence agencies trying to worm their way into the US computer infrastructure. The US is the juiciest target on the planet and this includes the military, political, commercial, and individual sectors of the US.

      And the people releasing this information in this article should probably start looking over their shoulder about know. This particular leak contains information about tools and methods that were most likely abandoned years ago or never deployed in the first place. What if the CIA allowed this information to be stolen just to see how the information is being distributed. Close surveillance, both physical and electronically, on the person who walked the data out of the building would reveal the first hand off and then they just watch. The people clamoring about the government invading their privacy is over blown. Even the NSA and CIA have a limit on their resources and need to prioritize their efforts on things that actually count as threats. Bulk data collection has already been determined by the intelligence agencies to be a waste of resources and of little value in trying to identify threats before they happen. This was spelled out several times in some of the Snowden documents but ignored by the dulling masses who have already decided the NSA and CIA are parked in a van in front of their house listening to their endless conspiracy theories.

      However, if you actually do something to put yourself on their threat board you are pretty much fucked. If they target a person they do not need to waste resource collecting all this bulk data they can just get the information from those who do collect and store personal data. Cellphone companies, internet providers, financial records, and the number one source of information the IRS. The IRS makes the CIA and NSA look like pikers when it comes to collecting data on any tax paying individual. And the best part is the government doesn't need a warrant of any kind to get data from the IRS.

    11. Re:Leveraging stupidity by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      The security services usually have some story about been from head office, another department, security or a contractor.
      A short conversation with management and staff will allow any stranger to use usb sticks as needed.
      The other method is to place usb sticks to be found or swap the usb sticks of trusted staff.
      If a company or government orders a lot of office supplies online from a trusted US brand? That shipment might be a be altered on the way.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    12. Re: Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then your machine is not air gapped, it's 'sometimes' air gapped. With a proper air gap the only way to trasfer data to it is to print out everything on the unsafe machines and ocr scan them back on the gapped machine.

    13. Re: Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lol no

    14. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Our WSUS (Windows update) server has multiple Ethernet interfaces, and the internal-only machines update from it. That was great, until that Windows server was broken into...

    15. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dance faster, Wizzy, you're starting to repeat yourself.

    16. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Minupla · · Score: 2

      I'm sure RSA trained their employees not to do "stupid things like this" too,

      To be fair, the RSA attack had less to do with a user making a dumb mistake and more a case of poor architectural choices (critical data on the same network as a low-level user, insufficient network segmentation, and honestly, there should have been an airgap between the RSA key secrets and the HR person whose system was compromised, or the admin user's workstation that the attack escalated too.

      All that having been said, it was a VERY sophisticated attack by a well funded actor, and likely would have occurred in spite of countermeasures eventually (at the end of the day, if you're a well funded state actor, 'kinetic' (to use the favored euphemism) options are available when the cyber options prove ineffectual.

      If you're interested this account is, as I understand it from other sources, fairly accurate:

      https://www.slideshare.net/Kun...

      Min

      --
      On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
    17. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      welp here usb ports are like floppy drives, only the boss has one or two. the rest of us? just webapps vpn and shit

    18. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you have an airgapped PC which employees are not allowed to use external media devices in (injecting hotglue into the USB ports helps with that), then why would you need to run antivirus?

      I know most IT departments would, because IT, like so much of business these days is all about blindly following procedure to the letter. God forbid someone think for themselves in the area of expertise for which they were hired and do what's best for the company.

    19. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have a dedicated machine for producing and downloading those updates. that machine has zero access to any other website or address and is firewalled off with zero access to the machine from the web. The machine is also quarantined and has dedicated USB sticks or even does it via burn't CD's. Anyone with a reason for air gapped networks should be doing at least that. we have additional intermediate steps of specialized machines that scan the USB sticks prior to them being allowed on the air gapped network to ensure they only contain the expected files.

    20. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still use CDs to update AV, which are always virus checked on a computer inside the secure area that isn't connected to any computer network before being inserted. The CDs get logged and shredded after use as well.

    21. Re:Leveraging stupidity by chihowa · · Score: 2

      Yeah... you're not describing an airgapped network.

      --
      If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
    22. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Calling large groups of people stupid might make you feel better about yourself, but it doesn't fix the problem.

      I was trained to never move USB sticks between networks, as was everyone else in my organization, but people still do it all the time; people with PhDs, people with 30 years experience and training, and people who work in IT and infosec full time. In certain networks where I work, all the USB ports are physically removed to prevent people from doing it, because the people who wrote the security training knew that training will never be perfectly effective. It has nothing to do with stupidity. It's a function of convenience, time management, confusion, and in some cases pure laziness.

    23. Re: Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually I remember a tech news where an air-gapped network at a US Airbase in Afghanistan was infected when IT staff (enlisted marine personnel) connected a 1TB external drive into one of their workstation. They didn't install or click anything on the 1TB drive, they just connected it to a USB port and the autorun did its job in compromising the Win7 system and the whole network.

    24. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You missed an easier way to transfer data from an internet based machine into an air-gapped one. Both the OS should be using different OS like Windows > Linux, or Linux > WIndows is an example but there's variety because there's MacOS, Solaris, BSD, DOS, Linux, OS/2 options too. Simple logic, a binary compiled for one OS won't run on another OS. Unless of course if there are dangerous scripting tools which is common for both OS like PowerShell, Bash or Java and JavaScript.

    25. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except there's no 8" floppies in the history of computing.

    26. Re: Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To duh? That was busted back in the 80s. Some of the fist viruses were planted on CD's " in extra tracks" and " invisible to the naked eye tracks". Even on rewritable material. Part of the problem with computer security is, no one records or teaches historical background. They concentrate on names, like snowden, not the context of how it was done. Another security fail.

    27. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      how are you supposed to get any data to your air-gapped private network? type the binary of all the software manually into a hex editor?

    28. Re:Leveraging stupidity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No?
      Different size floppy disks

    29. Re:Leveraging stupidity by sconeu · · Score: 1

      What part "requirement from the DoD manuals" are you having a problem understanding?

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  3. Just don't call it 'shocking' please. by mdkathon · · Score: 1

    When there is a will there is a way.

  4. Cool but... by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    ...any computer that can run software isn't secure. Mind blown.

    1. Re:Cool but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's why I use a Chromebook ;)

  5. Old story... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Years ago there was an article about USB malware dongles that are so small that you couldn't see that they were there... and could still plug another USB device into the same port.

  6. Wow, what a crazy tool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    virtually unstoppable

  7. A word to the wise: by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Never create a weapon that you wouldn't want to fall into the hands of your worst enemy... because it will.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:A word to the wise: by AHuxley · · Score: 2

      Ex staff, former staff, contractors, other nations staff, other random people in other trusted governments. Cults and faiths placing their staff deep into gov/mil.
      The politics of trusted staff.
      The staging servers that interesting people finally noticed..
      The use of plain text and no crypto so contractors can make profits working on gov networks.
      Too many secrets is now too many contractors.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    2. Re:A word to the wise: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good advice as long as your worst enemy follows suit.

    3. Re:A word to the wise: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's okay, tools like this will only ever be used against pawns and scapegoats. If it ever affects someone or something more important we'll just invent another scapegoat.

      Translation: The only people that suffer from this are civilian low-life pond scum. We don't need those anyway, see "AI" for details.

    4. Re:A word to the wise: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Certainly. Many of the spies who passed nuclear weapons info to the Soviets said that they believed it was morally the right thing to do, because no one group should have so much power over the rest of the world. More or less the same arguments Snowden and many other recent spies ("leakers", if you prefer) have used.

  8. So don't use windows explorer, use an alternative? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some other file manager instead of windows explorer might not trigger the exploit, assuming autoplay is disabled? Maybe?

  9. Re: So don't use windows explorer, use an alternat by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    You were so close to understanding the solution. If only you hadn't added the word "explorer" to your sentence.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  10. Re: So don't use windows explorer, use an alternat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I get that part. I'm saying if you use a non-explorer file browser and disable autorun, does that defeat the vector used here - not all vectors, dip.

  11. Told you by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Next time, listen.

    I blame the router and modem manufacturers for this, actually.

    "Oh, what harm could ever come from releasing source code to the Russians, it's not like they would subvert the elections in all Western nations"

    Sure.

    oh, and you should totally trust your anti-virus security to Russian firms too.

    The surprising thing is you've pretty much only realized the tools we designed a few decades ago, until we realized how deeply the Russians had burrowed into you.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re:Told you by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Oh, what harm could ever come from releasing source code to the Russians, it's not like they would subvert the elections in all Western nations"

      just the usual harm of realizing that you didn't have a perfect solution, and as time goes you have to patch and fix bugs that were too costly in time for a delivering due date.

      Being cocky and not having a plan B or a damage control plan it's just plain stupid

  12. Impressive by Hentes · · Score: 1

    So they managed to create a network requiring no persistent connections? They should claim their 2 mil prize!

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

      Welcome to the 1970s and any BBS or Dial-up based network system from the 80s. FIDOnet, cc:mail, etc.

  13. Re: So don't use windows explorer, use an alterna by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    Great point ... because when you have an air-gapped computer for security reasons, the last thing you want to do is eliminate as many attack vectors as possible.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  14. Traitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whoever released these tools to Wikileaks is absolutely a traitor.

    This is a weaker example of our atomic secrets being leaked to Russia. These are legitimate weapons in the modern era and someone is leaking them to all of our adversaries. These are not examples of government overreach like with the mass collection of call metadata.

  15. Re: So don't use windows explorer, use an alterna by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You really are so close to understanding the basic *(minor) point I was making, but your overlarge head got stuck in your ass on the way.

  16. Re: So don't use windows explorer, use an alternat by that+this+is+not+und · · Score: 1

    Midnight Commander might be a good alternative. It's not just GPL, it's an official GNU project. Windows binaries are available if you don't want to build it from source.

    It's a clone of the classic Norton Commander.

  17. Re:So don't use windows explorer, use an alternati by AHuxley · · Score: 1

    Once the CIA, MI6, GCHQ and NSA get interested they will find out what consumer grade OS the interesting site is using.
    The question is then to risk a network detecting the data moment and blame "malware" with another nations code litter.
    Or to walk, post the USB stick using some cover story.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  18. Whoever believes this is absolutely an idiot. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whoever believes this is absolutely an idiot.
    Yes I said it again.

  19. BadBIOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This sounds a lot like the BadBIOS malware that was reported by Dragos Ruiu in 2013.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BadBIOS

  20. this is stupid shit by strstr · · Score: 0

    the NSA/CIA have methods beyond this. they use satellites and ground based radar to literally focus laser beams into computers/people remotely, allowing them to copy DRAM, CPU, hard drive, brain, and the like. the system uses interferometry to do it. the system can even flip polarity states of electrons, flip bits in DRAM, and alter hard drives.

    capabilities include: deleting a file, and adding a file to any type of file system or storage medium.
    reading/'writing encryption codes from DRAM, or reading a certificate from a hard drive.
    reading/writing out Trusted Computing Platform codes directly from the chip.
    reading/writing memory, passwords, thoughts, and feeling from human beings.

    they can even watch you type, or corrupt and crash computer systems.

    all of this is possible thanks to the Electromagnetic Pulse from infinite distances.

    they are flooding the market with these lower tech methods they don't rely on very much. Snowden, and now the CIA dumps from WikiLeaks, are the low-tech side they don't rely on very much.

    I know this. I am secretly running with people with higher clearance than Edward Snowden had. I'm even personal friends with the CIA/NSA/DOD/NASA/US DOJ whistleblowers.

    https://www.trumpsweapons.com/
    https://www.drrobertduncan.com...

    when will the public catch up.

  21. Re: So don't use windows explorer, use an alternat by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I get that part. I'm saying if you use a non-explorer file browser and disable autorun, does that defeat the vector used here - not all vectors, dip.

    just use another OS, as a multimedia producer I can only deliver an autoplay (with minor popup window accept thingy) in "some" windows versions, other OSes had drop that thing like 15 years ago.

  22. Re: So don't use windows explorer, use an alternat by Teckla · · Score: 1

    I second Midnight Commander.

    It's an amazing application. One of its best features is it looks and works the same on Windows, macOS, Linux, and *BSD. Once you learn it (which isn't hard at all -- it's pretty darn self evident), you've boosted your productivity in all of the aforementioned operating systems.

    Bonus feature: No Microsoft OneDrive advertisements built into the application!

  23. Just imagine by Snotnose · · Score: 1

    What if we had a TLA that searched for ways the Bad Guys could Fuck Us Up. Now imagine we had a TLA that searched for ways the Bad Guys could Fuck Us Up, but it turns out our TLA are The Bad Guys.

    This shit needs to stop. Hopefully the NSA and whomever have figured out they aren't the smartest kids in the room and decide to make us all more secure.

    Damn, meds are wearing off and I'm back to reality. Shit, real life really sucks ass.

  24. Fill the usb slots with epoxy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Open machines and cut the fucking wires.

  25. I guess Wikileaks saw the Window$ core leak too by TheOuterLinux · · Score: 1

    Ha!....

  26. Simple solution: stop using Windows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    if you're a branch of government or municipality, or in industry and finance, just get rid of the Windows machines.

    The only place where it may prove difficult is certain parts of manufacturing and design that depend on f.ex. Autocad, but there's a lot of maneuverability here in isolating machines from the Internet or other networks they don't really need to access.

    Ultimately, you have the upper hand in this, not Microsoft or the U.S. agencies that are attacking and sabotaging your government and industry.

  27. Re: So don't use windows explorer, use an alterna by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    I got your phenomenally stupid point dumbfuck.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  28. Why should public or oppresive, hostile govs know? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What purpose does this serve except to inform governments that want to cause harm, build weapons, and improve intelligence countermeasures? Were any civil liberties of Americans violated, or any paranoid people think that the government will use this against them?

  29. Re:So don't use windows explorer, use an alternati by LinuxIsGarbage · · Score: 1

    Some other file manager instead of windows explorer might not trigger the exploit, assuming autoplay is disabled? Maybe?

    If I'm forced to use Windows, I like to use Far Manager. It's a text mode file manager so I can stroke my neckbeard while I use it.

  30. USB is insecure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Remember, USB requires *absolute* trust. Any USB device plugged into the bus can rewrite the low level firmware and plant itself inside the USB controller on your motherboard. There is no authentication to defeat, all physically present USB devices own the entire box if they wish. If you've gone to the trouble of air-gapping your PC I assume you knew to glue-gun the USB ports too. If not, then yes, you will be pwned.