Recent Der Spiegel coverage about the NSA and GCHQ

[Jacob Appelbaum]

Hi,

I wanted to write to highlight some important documents that have
recently been released by Der Spiegel about the NSA and GCHQ. We worked
very hard and for quite some time on these stories - I hope that you'll
enjoy them.

Inside TAO: Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html

Part 1: Documents Reveal Top NSA Hacking Unit:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html

Part 2: Targeting Mexico:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969-2.html

Part 3: The NSA's Shadow Network:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969-3.html

NSA's Secret Toolbox: Unit Offers Spy Gadgets for Every Need:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nsa-secret-toolbox-ant-unit-offers-spy-gadgets-for-every-need-a-941006.html

Shopping for Spy Gear: Catalog Advertises NSA Toolbox:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/catalog-reveals-nsa-has-back-doors-for-numerous-devices-a-940994.html

Interactive Graphic: The NSA's Spy Catalog:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/a-941262.html

Neue Dokumente: Der geheime Werkzeugkasten der NSA:

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/neue-dokumente-der-geheime-werkzeugkasten-der-nsa-a-941153.html

NSA-Programm "Quantumtheory": Wie der US-Geheimdienst weltweit Rechner
knackt:

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/quantumtheory-wie-die-nsa-weltweit-rechner-hackt-a-941149.html

Der Spiegel 1 / 2014:

https://magazin.spiegel.de/digital/index_SP.html#SP/2014/1/124188114
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/index-7629.html

TAO slides:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-knackt-der-geheimdienst-internetkonten-fotostrecke-105326.html

NSA QUANTUM Tasking Techniques for the R&T Analyst:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-uebernimmt-der-geheimdienst-fremde-rechner-fotostrecke-105329.html

Yahoo! user targeting and attack example with QUANTUM:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-uebernimmt-der-geheimdienst-fremde-rechner-fotostrecke-105329-5.html

QUANTUMTHEORY and related QUANTUM programs:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-uebernimmt-der-geheimdienst-fremde-rechner-fotostrecke-105329-24.html

If you'd like to detect the QUANTUM INSERT, I suggest reading about the
race condition details:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/qfire-die-vorwaertsverteidigng-der-nsa-fotostrecke-105358-15.html

Details about the Man-On-The-Side with QUANTUM:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-uebernimmt-der-geheimdienst-fremde-rechner-fotostrecke-105329-3.html

QFIRE (NSA-Geheimdokumente: "Vorwärtsverteidigung" mit QFIRE), TURMOIL,
TURBINE, TURBULENCE:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/qfire-die-vorwaersverteidigng-der-nsa-fotostrecke-105358.html

MARINA:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-uebernimmt-der-geheimdienst-fremde-rechner-fotostrecke-105329-15.html

More MARINA details:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-uebernimmt-der-geheimdienst-fremde-rechner-fotostrecke-105329-21.html

Catalog of equipment covering around ~50 programs:

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/interaktive-grafik-hier-sitzen-die-spaeh-werkzeuge-der-nsa-a-941030.html

Other slides covering FOXACID and more:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-knackt-der-geheimdienst-internetkonten-fotostrecke-105326-2.html

NSA QUANTUMTHEORY capabilities list:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-knackt-der-geheimdienst-internetkonten-fotostrecke-105326-11.html

GCHQ QUANTUMTHEORY capabilities list:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-knackt-der-geheimdienst-internetkonten-fotostrecke-105326-12.html

OLYMPUSFIRE:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-knackt-der-geheimdienst-internetkonten-fotostrecke-105326-13.html

An overview of all of these articles is available in German:

http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/quantumtheory-wie-die-nsa-weltweit-rechner-hackt-a-941149.html

Earlier this week, I also recently gave a talk titled "To Protect and
Infect: part two" at CCC's 30C3. In the talk I explain a number of these
topics - the video is a reasonable complement to the above stories:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0w36GAyZIA

There are quite a few news articles and most of them have focused on the
iPhone backdoor known as DROPOUTJEEP - they largely miss the big picture
asserting that the NSA needs physical access. This is a
misunderstanding. The way that the NSA and GCHQ compromise devices with
QUANTUMNATION does not require physical access - that is merely one way
to compromise an iPhone. Generally the NSA and GCHQ compromise the phone
through the network using QUANTUM/QUANTUMNATION/QUANTUMTHEORY related
attack capabilities.

An example of a vulnerable Apple user is shown:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-uebernimmt-der-geheimdienst-fremde-rechner-fotostrecke-105329-24.html

"note: QUANTUMNATION and standard QUANTUM tasking results in the same
exploitation technique. The main difference is QUANTUNATION deploys a
state 0 implant and is able to be submitted by the TOPI. Any ios device
will always get VALIDATOR deployed."

They're not talking about Cisco in that slide, I assure you.

Details on VALIDATOR:

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/nsa-dokumente-so-knackt-der-geheimdienst-internetkonten-fotostrecke-105326-13.html

Welcome to 2014!

The truth is coming and it can't be stopped,
Jacob