STE WILLIAMS

Updated Apple and RIM have denied providing the Indian government with backdoor access to customers’ data, after the release of a memo that appears to suggest that they and Nokia did a deal in exchange for access to the Indian smartphone market.

The document purportedly comes from the Indian Directorate General of Military Intelligence, and was released by the hacking group the Lords of Dharmaraja, who posted up outdated Norton security source code last week. Dated October 2011, it states that a “decision was made earlier this year to sign an agreement with mobile manufacturers (MM) in exchange for the Indian market presence.”

It claims that an agreement was signed with all major vendors, including domestic supplier Micromax, and that a CYCADA data intercept team are in operation on the networks using backdoors supplied by RIM, Nokia, and Apple (RINOA). Symantec is mentioned as the system used to transfer data to mobile platforms.

Western firms fingered in purported memo

Also contained are details of recent intercepts from the CYCADA team, including conversations between members of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) on currency issues and discussions on the actions of Western firms helping the Chinese aircraft industry improve its avionics and engine manufacturing.

An Apple spokesman told The Register that the company denied giving any access to the Indian government to its systems, although he couldn’t comment on the veracity of the memos themselves. RIM told us that it “does not typically comment on rumors or speculation,” and pointed out that it has no ability to provide its customers’ encryption keys and doesn’t do deals with specific countries.

Rumors of governments getting backdoor access to software are as old as the hills – the NSA getting access to Windows 95 in exchange for monopoly control of PCs story lasted until the DOJ case started – and on the face of it there’s nothing to suggest that this isn’t merely a ruse. There would be considerable technical problems with using Symantec as a distribution system, for example.

The subject matter also seems just a little too juicy for this El Reg hack. As Professor Marcello Truzzi used to say, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.” ®

Update

A Symantec spokesman has told The Register that the company is investigating the documents, but issued an unequivocal statement on the matter:

“We would never develop or help distribute a backdoor program regarding anyone’s programs, mobile or otherwise. Ever.”

He also pointed out that the hacking group claimed to have got the Norton source code that was leaked from Indian government servers. There are no records of the Indian government ever being given access to Symantec’s source code. The code is however genuine.

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/09/apple_rim_indian_government_backdoor/

An infiltration of a German federal security system last year has been traced back to a botched attempt by an unnamed security official to use a Trojan to monitor his daughter’s internet usage, Der Spiegel reports.

According to the report, a hacker friend of the young woman found the spyware on her machine before hacking into her father’s machine, supposedly as payback for the privacy intrusion.

The girl’s friend discovered a cache of security-related emails on the father’s machine; according to the report, the policeman had diverted official emails to his private computer. This allowed his daughter’s pal to infiltrate a German police system – called PATRAS – used to log the location of suspected criminals through cell phone and car GPS systems.

The intrusion (launched from systems in Russia) was detected, prompting a decision by German police to take systems and servers supporting the PATRAS program offline.

A 23-year-old from North Rhine Westphalia was arrested last summer for hacking into German customs authority computer systems.

The “No Name Crew” hacking group, which is blamed for another hack into the PATRAS system, has uploaded sensitive information from customs investigations. A police spokesman declined to say whether the two cases were linked.

More on the story can be found in the original report by Der Spiegel here (in German) and local English language reports here. ®

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/10/german_police_hack_domestic_row_theory/

Sprint’s two newly announced 4G handsets both support Google Wallet, bringing an important boost to Google’s aspirations, but they also hammer the death nail into WiMAX in the USA.

Sprint’s last 4G handset, the “Sprint Nexus S 4G”, was a WiMAX device, but Sprint has admitted backing the wrong 4G horse and is now transitioning to LTE across its network. So the operator will now be selling Google’s Galaxy Nexus and LG’s Viper handsets, both with support for Google Wallet for those wanting pay-by-bonk functionality.

Supporting the ability to make payments by tapping the phone against a reader isn’t just a matter of supporting Near Field Communications (NFC), you also need a secure element in which to store the cryptographic keys, which will be under the control of a mutually-trusted party, and then an application with which to make the payments.

Both the Galaxy Nexus and the Viper have a module built into the phone, under the control of Google – which is trusted by Mastercard and Visa. So far only Google itself and Citibank have created applications with which a user can make payments, and despite offering to pay for users’ groceries, Google Wallet is proving something of a slow burner at best.

It has not been helped by Verizon asking to have the functionality disabled in its spin of the Galaxy Nexus. The operator claims the decision was down to integration issues, but it is widely believed to have made the call in order to hold back a competitor until the US-operator-consortium wallet, ISIS, comes online.

ISIS uses a secure element held in the SIM – and thus under the operators’ control – and should work with any handset supporting the SWP (Single Wire Protocol) standard for NFC/SIM communications.

So once ISIS is available then the operators will start pushing it out to everyone with an SWP-supporting handset, including the Google Galaxy Nexus and LG Viper. Google needs to move fast and grab some market share before the operators shut it out, which is why these new handsets are so important to the Chocolate Factory as well as to Sprint. ®

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/10/google_wallet_sprint/

Pro-Israel hackers have reportedly breached Saudi shopping sites in retaliation for the publication of Israeli credit-card details by a pro-Palestinian “Saudi” hacker last weekend.

A hacker called OxOmar, who claimed to be a member of Saudi hacking group Group-XP, leaked a series of lists supposedly containing the details of 400,000 shoppers who had purchased goods from Israeli sports website, One.co.il, and elsewhere. Local banks claimed much of the information was either out of date or duplicate, and that only 14,000 credit card records were actually exposed.

OxOmar claimed he had released the list partly out of a desire to weaken global businesses’ trust in the security of Israeli-issued credit cards.

This inflamed one Israeli official, who compared the data leak to an act of terrorism. In a speech, Israeli deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon stated the attack was “a breach of sovereignty comparable to a terrorist operation, and must be treated as such”, adding that “Israel has active capabilities for striking at those who are trying to harm it, and no agency or hacker will be immune from retaliatory action”.

Such sabre-rattling was more than a little misplaced, especially in the absence of a clear target. OxOmar, rather than being from Saudi Arabia, may actually be a 19-year-old UAE national living in Mexico, at least according to one theory in Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz.

Ayalon’s personal website was hacked on Monday, briefly directing surfers to an Islamic website that stated: “We declare war in cyberspace, do not be afraid of these monkeys.”

In a series of Twitter and Facebook updates, Ayalon acknowledged the hack, which he described as racist.

“This morning some Muslim extremists hacked into my website to try and prevent me from continuing to do my work on behalf of the State of Israel, especially my online public diplomacy,” he said. “We will not be weakened nor silenced by such attempts.”

He added, via Twitter, that the hack was racist because it “contained quotes invoking Allah and referred to Jews as ‘pigs and monkeys'”.

In an opposing move, pro-Israeli hackers are threatening to release thousands of credit cards stolen from Saudi shopping sites. “If the leaks continue, we will cause severe damage to the privacy of Saudi citizens,” one of the hackers told Israeli news site Ynetnews.com.

Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli hackers have been defacing each others’ sites and flinging malware at each other for years, but this has seldom if ever involved leaking credit card details or the intervention of senior political figures. ®

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/10/pro_israeli_hackers_threaten_reprisal_leak/

HP has quietly patched a serious security vulnerability that had left its LaserJet printers open to attack by net villains.

The security bug, first discovered by researchers at Columbia University, created a means for miscreants to install malware on vulnerable devices simply by uploading new firmware to them over a network or tricking users into printing a specially constructed document that installs a malicious firmware update.

The flaw, which stemmed from a failure to ensure firmware updates are digitally signed, could allow hackers to extract files previously printed or scanned by compromised devices, or launch attacks from hacked gear against more sensitive machines from within a corporate network.

Some reports at the time speculated that the same vulnerability could even be used to turn compromised printers into firebombs, although built-in thermal controls are not affected by firmware updates (malicious of otherwise) and ought to prevent this.

HP quietly snuck out a fix for affected printers on 23 December, two days before Christmas, as part of a low-key update. A list of affected devices can be found on HP’s website here.

Researchers at Columbia University demonstrated the flaw at the Chaos Computing Congress (28c3) hacker conference in Berlin late last month – a YouTube video is here. ®

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/09/hp_fixes_lasetjet_uberbug/

Apple has filed a patent on a power adapter that helps users to get back forgotten passwords.

The system works by storing login information in a memory chip in the power supply and a key on the computer or server to unlock the secret.

The documentation describes one scenario in which a computer user’s login password is encrypted using a unique ID number as the key. The encrypted password is stored as a secret in the connected power adapter’s memory chip and the ID number is stored in the computer. If the user forgets his or her password then they can plug in the adapter so the computer can read off the encrypted secret, decrypt it using the ID number and present this to the login system on the computer – hey presto, you’ve got your password back.

The approach is positioned as an alternative to traditional password recovery techniques, which encourage users to pick weak passwords because remembering or reseting them can be a pain in the arse. With Apple’s system, passwords can be as complex as allowed because recovering them is a case of plugging in a power adapter.

However, as Apple concedes, the approach is limited to cases where a device is not normally carried around with a charger. And just about every Cupertino product needs to be ferried about with a charger.

Apple’s patent explains how the adapter password recovery approach might be combined with technology at its server to make using a device more difficult for a thief, even if he steals both a device and its power adapter. The patent – US patent 2012/0005747 [PDF] – goes on to outline a broader approach for password recovery and peripherals, involving the storage of password recovery data on printers or Wi-Fi routers, for example.

More commentary on the patent can be found in a story on the technology by The New Scientist here. ®

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/09/apple_power_adapter_password_recovery/

White-hat hackers have exposed the privacy shortcomings of smart meter technology.

The researchers said German firm Discovergy apparently allowed information gathered by its smart meters to travel over an insecure link to its servers. The information – which could be intercepted – apparently could be interpreted to reveal not only whether or not users happened to be at home and consuming electricity at the time but even what film they were watching, based on the fingerprint of power usage. The many surprising secrets revealed by some smart meter set-ups were revealed during a presentation by researchers Dario Carluccio and Stephan Brinkhaus at the 28th Chaos Computing Congress (28c3) hacker conference in Berlin late last month.

During the talk, entitled, Smart Hacking for Privacy (YouTube video here), the researchers explained that they came across numerous security and privacy-related issues after signing up with the smart electricity meter service supplied by Discovergy.

Because Discovergy’s website’s SSL certificate was misconfigured, the meters failed to send data over a secure, encrypted link – contrary to claims Discovergy made at the time before the presentation. This meant that confidential electricity consumption data was sent in clear text. Because meter readings were sent in clear text, the researchers were able to intercept and send back forged (incorrect) meter readings back to Discovergy.

In addition, the researchers discovered that a complete historical record of users’ meter usage was easily obtained from Discovergy’s servers via an interface designed to provide access to usage for only the last three months. The meters supplied by the firm log power usage in two-second intervals. This fine-grained data was enough not only to determine what appliances a user was using over a period of time – thanks to the power signature of particular devices – but even which film they were watching.

They explained that the fluctuating brightness levels of a film or TV show when displayed on a plasma-screen or LCD TV created fluctuating power-consumption levels. This creates a power/consumption signature for a film that might be determined from the readings obtained by Discovergy’s technology. The researchers concluded that the two-second frequency of power readings was unnecessary for Discovergy’s stated goal of providing a warning for consumers should they, for example, have left an iron on after leaving the house.

Nikolaus Starzacher, chief exec of Discovergy, was among those who attended the presentation. He thanked the researchers for their work and promised to adapt Discovergy’s technology so as to minimise potential security and privacy concerns.

More commentary on the presentation can be found in a blog post by Sophos here.

Smart meters: an ongoing security threat?

Smart meters bring two-way communication between a meter and the central control system of a gas or electricity utility. Suppliers want to introduce the technology not only because it simplifies the process of collecting meter reading, but also because it makes it easier to control supply at times of peak demand. The technology also makes it easier to switch late or unreliable payers onto higher tariffs.

Some security experts, most notably Ross Anderson, professor in security engineering at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, have warned that smart metering introduces a “strategic vulnerability” that might be exploited to remotely switch off elements on the gas or electricity supply grid. Government ministers in the UK have downplayed such fears but the work of the German researchers raise new concerns, related to privacy. ®

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/09/smart_meter_privacy_oops/

Symantec has confirmed earlier versions of its anti-virus source code have leaked, following a security breach of what the company said was the network of a “third party entity” rather than their own.

The admission follow claims by an Indian hacking group that it had accessed source code used in the company’s flagship Norton anti-virus program. The Lords of Dharmaraja threatened to publicly disclose the secret sauce source code of the industry’s largest infosec firm.

In the meantime the group published documents related to API interfaces on Pastebin. In addition, the group shared source code related to what appears to have been the 2006 version of Symantec’s Norton Anti-Virus software with local journalists.

A hacker calling themselves “Yama Tough”, acting as a spokesperson for the group, claims the source code had been pulled from insecure Indian government servers, implying that Symantec – and perhaps other software firms – may have been required to supply their source code to Indian authorities.

In response, Symantec said the leaked code related to enterprise (not consumer) products of 2006-07 vintage. It downplayed the significance of the hack and sought to assure the industry that everything was under control.

Symantec can confirm that a segment of its source code used in two of our older enterprise products has been accessed, one of which has been discontinued. The code involved is four and five years old. This does not affect Symantec’s Norton products for our consumer customers.

Symantec’s own network was not breached, but rather that of a third party entity. We are still gathering information on the details and are not in a position to provide specifics on the third party involved. Presently, we have no indication that the code disclosure impacts the functionality or security of Symantec’s solutions. Furthermore, there are no indications that customer information has been impacted or exposed at this time.

However, Symantec is working to develop remediation process to ensure long-term protection for our customers’ information. We will communicate that process once the steps have been finalized.  Given the early stages of the investigation, we have no further details to disclose at this time but will provide updates as we confirm additional facts.

Even if the leak related to up-to-date source code, it would be of only limited use to hackers, except as a “trophy scalp”. Nonetheless the hack raises questions about the security of Symantec’s ecosystem and the circumstances when it is prepared to share source code.

Sources have told us in the past that anti-virus firms were obliged to share both source-code and virus samples prior to been allowing to trade in China. We’ve never been able to prove this and only mention it as an anecdote that’s worth considering when thinking about the recent run of malware-powered cyber-espionage attacks, routinely blamed on China. ®

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/06/symantec_source_code_theft/

Canadian police have apparently used BlackBerry communications to arrest murder suspect Raynald Desjardins in a move seen as an unprecedented use of intercepted data.

However, it is unclear whether or not the data was really intercepted or whether it was provided to cops via wiretap warrants.

The cuffed bloke has been charged with the murder of Salvatore Montagna, who was killed in November last year and was heavily involved in the New York criminal fraternity according to the Global Montreal. The raid involved searching 14 locations and the arrest of three other suspects, but it’s the interception of BlackBerry data that has attracted most attention:

RIM is making the usual noises about respecting users’ privacy and working with law enforcement, but anyone familiar with how RIM’s network operates shouldn’t be surprised by the abilities of prying detectives.

The Canadian police seized at least one BlackBerry during the raid, and once one has possession of the handset then extracting the onboard data is relatively easy, especially if the plod remember not to turn it off, and secure it in a radio-proof bag, as they’re supposed to.

But the Canadians probably had access to the communications before they got the handset. RIM’s architecture only secures email communications when routed through a privately-owned BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). We don’t know if this lot were routing things though their own server, but if not then everything would be routed though RIM’s own servers which are open to lawful intercept like any telecommunications hub.

But it is BlackBerry’s instant messaging service (BBM) that most people seem to (inappropriately) trust, and which is alluded to in the report.

BBM is indeed encrypted end-to-end, so should be resistant to intercept, if it weren’t for the fact that it relies on a single, shared, secret which is embedded in every BlackBerry device. That secret is also know to RIM, which can (be obliged to) decrypt traffic just like everyone else.

These days everyone from London rioters to New York Mafiosi should know that electronic communications is rarely secure from court-backed eavesdropping, but perhaps it’s better they don’t.

Canadian coppers told the AFP they would not confirm whether they had cracked BlackBerry’s encryption or whether RIM had given them access to its secure servers. The prosecutor in the case was reported by La Presse as saying (French) that he would “advocate for preventing the disclosure of wiretap warrants” and refuse questions from defence attorneys on the subject. ®

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/06/blackberry_mafia_rim/

Privacy advocates have raised concerns about beta versions of AOL’s latest IM client, urging privacy-sensitive surfers to stay on older versions of the software.

Preview versions of AOL Instant Messenger centrally log communications by default as well as scanning private IMs for URLs that are then pre-fetched, the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns. Representatives of the EFF met AOL to share their concerns, receiving assurances that changes will be made to the software especially when it comes to the pre-fetching of web addresses.

At least pending these changes the EFF advises punters to avoid using the latest version of the software, which grants easier access to personal data from various (potentially unfriendly) parties.

“We still recommend that AIM users do not switch to the new version as it introduces important privacy-unfriendly features,” a statement by the EFF explains.

“Unfortunately AOL’s moves are in keeping with a general trend toward more pervasive cloud-based services in which your personal chat data is centrally stored in plain text and an easy target for law enforcement and criminals. This shift toward central logging is troubling in many situations, including in chat.”

In a statement, AOL said its privacy policies followed or exceeded industry best practice:

AOL has a long standing commitment to protecting the integrity of our users’ security and privacy.  In addition to following industry best practices for protecting our users’ information, we continue to invest in state-of-the-art security solutions across our network.

We greatly appreciate the work the EFF is doing throughout industry to promote privacy concerns. We also appreciated the opportunity to connect with EFF directly to address some of the concerns they have raised. However as they note in their post, the new features in our AIM preview follow industry standards and, we believe, provide users with an improved overall experience.

The EFF is only partially satisfied by this line. Netizens who are serious about privacy ought to use end-to-end message encryption, such as off-the-record messaging, something the latest version of AOL IM might not support, according to the EFF. OTR messaging is available as a plugin to clients such as Pidgin and Adium.

“Because signing onto the new version of AIM permanently changes your account settings to log all conversations to AOL’s servers by default, we recommend that existing AIM users do not upgrade,” the EFF concludes. “As always, we recommend users stay safer online by using chat clients that are compatible with OTR.”

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

As things stand the new versions of AOL IM, by default, store chats centrally for two months. The feature can be disabled on a per-contact basis by going “off the record”. But this feature is not available where group chats are concerned or one of the parties uses an alternative IM client or even earlier versions of AOL IM.

The EFF would like to see logging applied only as an opt-in. In addition, “off-the-record” mode ought to be robust and prominent in the user interface.

Another feature of the new AIM is the ability to embed an image or a video in a conversation, simply by pasting a link. AOL attempts to speed up this process by scanning conversations and pre-fetching URLs. Even though AOL avoids caching or storing any of the data slurped, the process is still problematic, according to the EFF.

The scanning as-is could take in private server links, URLs that might contain authentication data, or even one-time-use pages such as those seen when following unsubscribe links. After meeting the EFF, AOL agreed to limit the types of sites and URLs crawled by this technology.

AOL also agreed to disable this “scan and pre-fetch” functionality for conversations that have been marked “off the record”.

In addition, EFF criticises AOL for not doing a good enough job on explaining the privacy changes, citing Facebook as an example of even worse practice in this area. AOL’s conduct is nowhere as bad but it could still do better, according to the privacy advocates.

“AOL should also give users who upgrade initial notice with an opt-in check box, as well as an explanation in the terms of service that is clear and specific,” the EFF said. ®

Article source: http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/06/aol_im_privacy/