Infinity Bugs--A new can of worms?

[Eugene Leitl]

On Fri, 10 Aug 2001, Tim May wrote:

> * The alleged use of "registration sniffers" which Microsoft was
> alleged (probably wrongly) to have used a few years ago to scan the
> hard disks of users of its products and then this information--it was
> alleged--could be retrieved by MS at some point. (I say probably
> wrongly for reasons discussed a few years ago. Still, it suggests some
> possibilities, which is why I mention it now.)

I would be indeed very surprised if Redmondware wasn't backdoored. It
would be trivial to slip several hard-to-detect buffer overruns by putting
a programmer mole on the team. It would be about as easy to slip such
backdoors into an open source system, and be it in application layer.

> * There were some cases years ago where Webcams, often built into
> monitors or left sitting on top of monitors permanently, could be
> turned-on remotely. Even more the case with built-in microphones. It'd
> be a hoot if the Feds are finding ways to turn on Webcams and
> microphones in homes and businesses. Even to leave trojans on a system
> for storing compressed snatches of audio.

If h4x0r d00dz can do it
	http://douglas.min.net/~drw/mirrors/altern.org/bo2kfun/best.html
why can't feds do it? Given that NSA allegedly hires top of the crop,
especially.

> Maybe something like this is the bugging technology the FBI doesn't want
> to disclose in open court?

This would be rather reserved for *rare* cases involving heavy artillery,
as stray packets leaking out would be intercepted by a smart firewall.

Anyone knows to put sensitive materials on an air-gap protected
low-emission machine (LCD instead of CRT, preferably a wearable with a
private eye type of display), right?

-- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://www.lrz.de/~ui22204/">leitl</a>
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