back to article Learn client-server C programming – with this free tutorial from the CIA

WikiLeaks has shoved online more internal classified stuff nicked from the CIA – this time what's said to be the source code for spyware used by Uncle Sam to infect and snoop on targets' computers and devices. Today's code dump is part of a larger collection called Vault 8, and spills onto the internet what is claimed to be …

  1. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

    Well, thanks Wikileaks!

  2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

    No Node.js?

    Wunderbar!

  3. frank ly

    Humour?

    "The HTTPS connections are established using security certificates that appear to belong to antivirus maker Kaspersky Lab, allegedly."

    Is this an example of the famous CIA humour?

  4. mhenriday
    Pint

    Bravo !

    As Mr Nichols put it in what is obviously his favourite language, well done, Julian (and others) ! Keep up the good work ; we very much need to know what criminal organisations like the CIA, NSA, and the rest of the US alphabet soup are doing to intercept and monitor our communications....

    Henri

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bravo !

      Well nowadays one wonders whether wikileaks isn't just the public face of the Russian intelligence services.

      1. itzman

        Re: Bravo !

        Everything is the public face of the Russian intelligence services. Guardian. BBC. Greenpeace. Jeremy Corbyn. Mumsnet. Hillary Clinton.

        :)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Mumsnet

          Is a hotbed of bot-trolls. You really need to go to non-tech sites (like Mumsnet) to appreciate how heavy the targeting is.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Bravo !

        If Russians had this information/code first, would they not prefer to keep it secret? Why give it to Wikileaks to publish it, so that CIA knows that those things are stolen?

        1. phuzz Silver badge

          Re: Bravo !

          "Why give it to Wikileaks to publish it"

          Presumably they calculated that the embarrassment for the CIA was more useful than any possible rewards of keeping it hidden.

  5. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    A Lack of Intelligence is Proven in Programs Targeted for Infiltration rather than Initiation

    we very much need to know what criminal organisations like the CIA, NSA, and the rest of the US alphabet soup are doing to intercept and monitor our communications.... ...Henri

    Failing spectacularly to lead smartly is surely the default they exercise, Henri. And thus is mayhem and madness the confection they gorge upon and have to deal with/waste time and space delivery on.

    Such failures are the responsibility of the heads of those agencies?! Aint that right, Alex Younger [MI6]/Andrew Parker [MI5]/Jeremy Fleming [GCHQ]/Ciaran Martin [NCSC]?

    Protecting the status quo is a Subprime Fools' Errand and a most unnatural course of action for nothing lively ever remains the same. It evolves and changes, and at times both radically and fundamentally.

    1. dv

      Re: A Lack of Intelligence is Proven in Programs Targeted for Infiltration rather than Initiation

      I seem to have missed the usual "HyperRadioProActive NEUKlearer CyberIntelAgent" something. Is this the real amanfromMars?

      1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

        Re: Is this the real amanfromMars?

        This https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2017/11/11/security_roundup/#c_3344247 had me thinking of you, dv

        I think IT Covers All Bases. ....... and can be of Great AI Help to Any and Many.

  6. Potemkine! Silver badge

    The HTTPS connections are established using security certificates that appear to belong to antivirus maker Kaspersky Lab, allegedly.

    But but but.... I thought that according to US intelligence Kaspersky was working for the FSB? Would they have dare to lie and try to dirty Kaspersky, a non-US company? I can't believe it! :rolleyes:

    Complementary questions: how many tools from the FSB were uncovered by Wikileaks? Is there any stats about how many leaks are related to the US vs related to Russia?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Complementary questions: how many tools from the FSB were uncovered by Wikileaks? Is there any stats about how many leaks are related to the US vs related to Russia?"

      I don't think I would want to be a Russian leaker. I wouldn't want to be Snowden either, but his Russian equivalent might have a short life expectancy.

      Besides, I suspect most of the Russian writers of hacking tools are working for oligarchs, extremely well paid and closely monitored.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      redirecting blame

      > I thought that according to US intelligence Kaspersky was working for the FSB? Would they have dare to lie and try to dirty Kaspersky, a non-US company?

      It's explained in the Wikileaks Dump:

      Digital certificates for the authentication of implants are generated by the CIA impersonating existing entities. The three examples included in the source code build a fake certificate for the anti-virus company Kaspersky Laboratory, Moscow pretending to be signed by Thawte Premium Server CA, Cape Town. In this way, if the target organization looks at the network traffic coming out of its network, it is likely to misattribute the CIA exfiltration of data to uninvolved entities whose identities have been impersonated..

  7. JJKing
    Black Helicopters

    Step 1, adjust tinfoil protection wear.

    TLAs, the gifts that keep on giving.

  8. SotarrTheWizard
    Facepalm

    MIPS ? PowerPC ?

    . . .I realize those architectures have survived into the 2000s. . . But I simply cannot recall and servers produced using either processor since the late 1990s.

    So, isn't it likely this is nearly 20-year-old code ?

    1. Baldrickk

      Re: MIPS ? PowerPC ?

      A recent job had me producing builds of new software to target both of those architectures, along with about five others.

      Many companies will still be running old hardware because it hasn't become redundant for its role yet, so it doesn't make sense to spend the time and money replacing it.

      From what I understand, there are some major systems running at large companies (not sharing any names) that are still running on those systems.

    2. DropBear

      Re: MIPS ? PowerPC ?

      I seem to recall that an awful lot of router CPUs are very much still MIPS. I would think they would merit significant interest indeed.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Flying Pig: GCHQ's TLS/SSL knowledge base ..

    FLYING PIG: GCHQ's TLS/SSL knowledge base

  10. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Lunatics in Parliamentary Charge of the Public Servant Asylum

    Thanks for that info, Walter Bishop.

    Conclusion: That's not to say the GCHQ doesn't perform MITM attacks, but there's no evidence to be found in this document. Though, FLYING PIG may be used to prepare MITM attacks, e.g. by providing information about a target. ..... FLYING PIG: GCHQ's TLS/SSL knowledge base ..... Walter Bishop

    Hmmmm?

    There is, is there not, an over-abundance of evidence of ineffective MITM attacks, for such are a valuable invisible weapon in any spooky virtual arsenal, with globalised media news, both mainstream and alternative and underground, presenting bad and austere views for mass realities?

    Whatever happened to fantastic leaderships that presented brave new worlds with brighter futures?

    Why do you accept and reward the frauds that currently squat in high office, professing to do all in your name with a democratic election their justification? Is such an arrangement pimped as the best that is on offer and therefore made available to you [hoorah, how kind] or the only one offered to you?

  11. PaidTroll

    So back in like 2015 before the shadow brokers there was this book called Pharmers that was out. The ebook is def out on Piratebay, anyhow there is a story of a guy that used to get doods to take pics of their testes and send them to his enemy. Anyhow, I think he did it.

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