How the CIA used Crypto AG encryption devices to spy on countries for decades - Washington Post

grarpamp grarpamp at gmail.com
Tue Feb 11 16:38:39 PST 2020


On 2/11/20, jim bell <jdb10987 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/national-security/cia-crypto-encryption-machines-espionage/

CryptoAG known corrupt for ages...

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1995-12-10-1995344001-story.html
https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-9088423.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20130902003901/https://ciphermachines.com/hagelin
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33676028
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/11/crypto-ag-cia-bnd-germany-intelligence-report
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22297963


#OpenFabs , #OpenHW , #OpenSW , #OpenAudit
Very simple concept, shame nobody's brain adopted it yet.


Remember attempts: Lavabit, TrueCrypt, Clipper, ...


In related news from the completely untrustable HW and SW dept...

https://source.android.com/security/keystore
 https://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=15755300&cid=59716026

https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/facebook-whatsapp-puts-allen-and-co-back-in-top-10-20140220

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sprint-corp-m-a-t-mobile/t-mobile-sprint-merger-wins-approval-from-us-judge-idUSKBN2042MG
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-officials-say-huawei-can-covertly-access-telecom-networks-11581452256
https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/11/21133272/microsoft-windows-10x-windows-updates-fast-speed-details
https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/20/02/11/1548223/samsung-unveils-galaxy-s20-galaxy-s20-and-galaxy-s20-ultra
https://comsecuris.com/blog/posts/path_of_least_resistance/


"
Now one can see where they got the idea to push the clipper chip and
trusted platform computing. The Intel Management Engine is just a
giant crypto breaking internet backdoor built into every Intel CPU
running alterable encrypted proprietary code that only intel knows
about.
It also makes you wonder about those unsubstantiated reports of
microchips with backdoors in the SuperMicro boards. Allegedy a chinese
operation but maybe CIA? or Maybe China doing the same.
You can see why the CIA might have wanted to keep that quiet even if
china were doing it just to keep people from peering elsewhere.
And, admittedly a stretch, all the sidechannel timing attacks on Intel
chips might be another ploy to put in a deliberate but hard to find
backdoor. The fact that AMD's are just as fast without these
operations is indicative that there were other ways to solve the same
look-ahead speculative execution challenge.
And finally the fact that the secure compartment operations on intel
have turned out to be hackable too. If your going to call someting
"secure" I think you want to start with something provably secure
unless of course that was the point.
"


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