Pyra + CIA


netcat

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can i be sure the cia is not inside my pyra?
openness is the right track to freedom, privacy, dignity, etc
open source software is easy to inspect,
zero day exploits being really the only way in (i think)
but what about the hardware?
 
Well, ED isn't manufacturing his own SoC (and other components), so no, you can't be 100% sure what's embedded inside the chip dyes
If you use WiFi or the 3G module in your Pyra, you will be potentially trackable without them getting inside your box
 
For one I doubt anyone from the CIA can fit inside the OMAP5, unless they developed shrinking technology or something like TRON.

But seriously, there are network monitoring tools for the paranoid. Also could line the carrying case with lead and perhaps heavy water just to be sure.
 
FWIW, I've noticed in recent reports on this that they've developed approaches for everything from Mac to android, but apparently not Linux. Mind you, Linux is mostly a piece of piss to crack if you've got physical access, so perhaps they don't need anything fancy.
 
FWIW, I've noticed in recent reports on this that they've developed approaches for everything from Mac to android, but apparently not Linux. Mind you, Linux is mostly a piece of piss to crack if you've got physical access, so perhaps they don't need anything fancy.

Their tools claim to work with Linux, too.

CIA malware targets Windows, OSx, Linux, routers
[...]
The CIA has developed automated multi-platform malware attack and control systems covering Windows, Mac OS X, Solaris, Linux and more, such as EDB's "HIVE" and the related "Cutthroat" and "Swindle" tools, which are described in the examples section below.

[...]
Improvise (JQJIMPROVISE)
'Improvise' is a toolset for configuration, post-processing, payload setup and execution vector selection for survey/exfiltration tools supporting all major operating systems like Windows (Bartender), MacOS (JukeBox) and Linux (DanceFloor). Its configuration utilities like Margarita allows the NOC (Network Operation Center) to customize tools based on requirements from 'Fine Dining' questionairies.

HIVE
HIVE is a multi-platform CIA malware suite and its associated control software. The project provides customizable implants for Windows, Solaris, MikroTik (used in internet routers) and Linux platforms and a Listening Post (LP)/Command and Control (C2) infrastructure to communicate with these implants.

https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/
 
None of these methods require shady hardware designs and hidden blobs... typically the user is the fail point.
 
Random thoughts on the subject...

Pyra + CIA? Sounds like a good fit to me for any clandestine organization. They can load an access controlled OS and data storage onto a relatively well hidden but still swapable encrypted microSD that doesn't even show up unless 'in the know' on a reboot. It can be connected to any random open/guest/unprotected WiFi briefly to send mission results and receive instructions. The on-device coms can be turned off while the device retains functionality. With a USB3 to gigabit adapter and a pair of 1TB SD cards, it could siphon data off of a network. Or, with the same USB to ethernet adapter and physical access it could be used to install a replacement OS on a switch. Great spy tech. Clearly the CIA and other clandestine organizations should buy them by the thousands.

Of course that all goes bad when considering what happens after government agencies decide to start considering all Pyra consoles as 'suspect' and we all get them confiscated for forensic analysis every time we cross an international border. So, don't let your Samsung TV or your phone know.

Of course with all of the permissions overreach by apps these days, spying has to be an easy gig. I have a game, "Bad Piggies HD" on a Android device for my kids to play with. It's most recent update is now demanding full access to the Camera and Microphone for no realistic purpose.

Theoretically, the OS and hardware are a difficult spy vector by comparison to simply convincing/paying popular application software companies to get users to give them permissions to gather everything.

A popular solution to security concerns is to tell the users to keep their Android and iOS phones operating systems updated.
AT&T locked the boot loader on my phone so I cannot do updates. They have also stopped providing OS updates for my phone that I purchased from them 2 years ago. New should be rule: If a company is going to choose to lock the bootloader, they are responsible for providing security patches and OS updates until such a time as they release the bootloader lock. If only...
 
I really don't think anyone can be CIA-proof (^^) I don't think so.
 
Let's assume that there is nothing inside chips and we have no connectivity. I've used PDA without connectivity for 10 years and it's not a problem if data is managed wisely.

Russian Enigma-like ciphering machine - Fialka - had a device inside power supply unit which turned set of high-power resistors on to couple power changes with internal relays. It was definitely made to bypass attacks based on analysis of power consumption. Every student of electronics can think about peaks analysis, but it was late 1950s, oscillograph was the most sophisticated device they had.
Few months ago I found a document, probably on Priyom or large Simon Mason's Number Stations site (currently in quite big neglect), which was a set of instructions for covert agents from 1960s maybe. To sum up, radio receiver tuned to some frequency can be located by locating its internal middle-frequency generator and it can be located by power interferences it introduces. There is a shielding mechanism for computer, it is called TEMPEST.

I've personally seen something like a TEMPEST-ready server, Pentium-II class machine used to process data which well.. definitely should not leak. I could even buy it from junk without drives, BIOS and RAM, yet I had no manpower to move it to my house... and my attic would definitely collapse then. Everything covered with metal plates, 0.5-1mm thick. CD and floppy disk drives in a metal container accessible with metal doors on hinges. On all sides of doors, rotatable U-shaped "locks" filled with some elastic, conductive thing contacting doors for better grounding. Power fed through built-in UPS. Most I/O ports connected through small, sealed coil units (no idea what are they for). And... NO VGA. VGA connector was literally desoldered from graphics card PCB (like BNC from network adapter), only composite output survived and it seems that it has been used.

So assuming there is nothing in chips, it would be needed to shield everything with quite large amount of metal to prevent RF going in and out. I read a blog (in Polish, who knows Virut botnet, knows who I'm talking about) written by a man who is a bit more paranoid about data leaks than average user :), and he experimented with shielding displays using glass panels with some chemicals inside.

To check the chips, it would be needed to perform etching and coloring (authors from e.g. ZeptoBars blog do it to share shots of different chips dies) and reverse-analyse it against documentation.
So if both low-level layers: RF and silicon, are checked, silicon can be audited against backdoors (RAM flipping, etc.) and then research can go slowly towards software.

Anyone knows a computer which has such audits realized in 10%? OK, not counting 74-based CPUs.
 
Lead glass should be relatively resistant to RF leakage, I'd have thought. The attack vectors around air-gapped computers do rely on RF decoding sometimes, but perhaps more often on USB sticks - the floppy disc based virus of today's tech. That's how stuxnet infected air-gapped computers at Iranian centrifuges, for example. You can even pull data off air-gapped machines, although the baud-rate would be rather low if it relied on users connecting USB drives alternately to air-gapped machines then networked machines.

BIOSes are the main problem when it comes to securing networked machines, as we've already seen Lenovo accidentally implanting a security hole in their bios as part of their attempt to install crapware to their machines.
 
BIOSes are the main problem when it comes to securing networked machines, as we've already seen Lenovo accidentally implanting a security hole in their bios as part of their attempt to install crapware to their machines.

Didn't they smuggle a keylogger installer for Windows within their UEFI ?
Working on memory here, was unable to find a valid source. :=(

To be fair, Lenovo also seems to be the main brand to get rid of ME/AMT.
Even for (Sandy|Ivy)Bridge Core i[357] these days. :=)))
The cradle of the best && of the worst.
 
I would like to see the Pyra as a Q Gadged in a new Bond Movie :)

bondpyra.jpg
 
there are network monitoring tools for the paranoid

i log #bytes transmitted on my lan for each distinct host:port every 15 minutes
but this is not exhaustive

Linux is mostly a piece of piss to crack if you've got physical access

thank you for suggesting the cia could be inside my house
i chose the wrong week to stop smoking

Theoretically, the OS and hardware are a difficult spy vector

theoretically

Let's assume that there is nothing inside chips and we have no connectivity.

actually i assume the opposite

Pyra as a Q Gadged in a new Bond Movie

yeah dude
pyra = octopussy
[doublepost=1489155172,1489155021][/doublepost]

try retro gaming as an alternative to vodka martinis :cool:
 
thank you for suggesting the cia could be inside my house
i chose the wrong week to stop smoking
:D

But yeah, the CIA is the US's spy agency. If you're a target they'll throw everything at you (all under concealment of course). This is not the NSA which is interested in mass surveillance.

@kabaiakh, I gave you a like for that photoshop, even though you used the wrong Bond by almost anyone's metric.
 
I've found it fascinating how the English substitute new actors into the same roles and just go with it.

As for using the Pyra in movies & media, there is precedence for obscure handhelds showing up in series and movies. For example, the Tapwave Zodiac was in several Stargate episodes.

For a bond film, though, it would be even cooler to put a hydra logo in the lid and have the bad guys using Pyras as their modern equivalent of Enigma machines. Then James & Q can go on a world wide quest to acquire a Pyra and dissect it's secrets. Obviously the device is capable of mesh networking - transferring encrypted information between agents who pass within 1KM of each other allowing 'live drops' between agents and controllers who have never met. A simple walk through a park could pass reports and orders between agents. Any public gathering place would work. Sporting event, airport terminal, subway/train platform, walking down the street while an elevated train passes overhead could be enough time for a few encrypted texts to synchronize. The key to reliable clandestine communications is to never transmit them over the internet after all.

Of course, any real "Q division" would already be capable of doing those same feats with any modern cell phone.
 
bondtrio.png

[doublepost=1489188910,1489187558][/doublepost]@matzesu asked for a *new* Bond movie.
If I had the time, I would have used this nerd-looking Q:

_newq.jpg


With this 007 to be:

_new007.jpg


Anyway, this thread was about CIA, not MI6.
[doublepost=1489189122][/doublepost]
I've found it fascinating how the English substitute new actors into the same roles and just go with it.

Tried-p DrWho ? ;=)
[doublepost=1489189688][/doublepost]
I gave you a like for that photoshop gimp.

FTFY: ;=p
Thanks for the like.
 
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